Tag: tools for distributed teams

5 Necessary tools for managing remote teams

Posted on by satya

Much like the weapon of choice for any warrior, the right tools enable your workforce to perform to the best of their abilities. Having access to the right tool becomes all the more important in a distributed work setting, as team members now need to collaborate across multiple platforms and on numerous projects. 

With over a hundred offerings for every single aspect of remote work choosing a tool that works best for your team can be quite a challenge.

We’ve curated the best tools for 5 essential aspects of remote work:

Communication

All successful remote teams leverage a combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication, which requires an entire arsenal of tools. We recommend finding tools that enable you to sync multiple time zones, and can easily be integrated with other applications. Our list of top communication tools includes 

Slack

Did you know that ‘Slack’ is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”? One of the most widely used communication tools throughout the world, Slack is said to reduce the number of emails by 32% and meetings by 23%. We love slack for its easy to use interface and seamless integration with numerous applications that we use daily.

Zoom

Thanks to the pandemic, Zoom’s popularity has skyrocketed due to the sheer number of video calls that every organisation now requires. Zoom’s USP lies in its versatility. From automated recording of meetings, to integrated breakout rooms, Zoom is a complete video conferencing solution.

MS Teams

A stiff competitor to Slack, Microsoft’s MS Teams is used by over 500,000+ organisations worldwide. Its inbuilt integration with all Office 365 tools like Word and Excel make it the world’s most widely used office collaboration tools.

Project Management

There are over a hundred project management tools in the market today. However, how a software development team functions differs greatly from how an advertising team functions. The trick is to find a project management tool that addresses the specific requirements of your team.  Here’s our list

Jira

Jira is considered one of the best tools for agile project management used by software development teams. It is preferred by technical teams as it makes managing workflows, tracking bugs, and getting the next release together effortless.

Trello

An integrated solution for all your project management needs, Trello helps teams break complex deliverables into individual tasks. It offers a wide range of boards, from the simplest “to do/doing/done” workflow to a much more complex board offering options like “backlog/in progress/ blocked/paused/ready for launch/ live”.

Asana

While almost all project management tools offer functionalities like Gantt charts and Kanban boards, we love Asana because of its process management automation.

Knowledge sharing and storage

From GitLab to Airbnb, one thing all successful remote companies have in common is their policy of documentation and knowledge sharing. Having a single source of data which is universally accessible reduces the time spent on location and duplication, and also helps new participants understand the chronological chain of events. Our recommendations include: 

DropBox

One of the oldest file sharing tools, DropBox is still used widely by individuals and organisations alike due to its interoperability. It’s easy integration with an exhaustive list of softwares, cloud security, and storage and search capabilities make it a favourite with teams globally.

Confluence

Atlassian’s knowledge management tool makes it to our list due to its structured storage and smart search functions. It allows automatic versioning, instant previews, full-text search, and pinned comments, making knowledge sharing a breeze.

Box

Much like DropBox, Box is another data and file storage solution aimed majorly at enterprise usage. If data security is high up on your priority list, we recommend using Box due to its advanced security controls, intelligent threat detection, and complete information governance.

Collaboration to stay in line with the flow

In the absence of a physical whiteboard and conference room, distributed teams need the right tools for effective collaboration. Today, there exist different tools to help with the various aspects of brainstorming and ideation, from digital whiteboards to video and screen recording applications. Our list includes: 

Miro

An online collaborative whiteboard, Miro offers a wide set of functionalities including Agile workflows, ideation & brainstorming and mapping & diagramming. The one thing we love about Miro is its infinite canvas, enabling easy asynchronous collaboration.

Invision

Invision is a digital whiteboard that allows you to wireframe, plan, design presentations, and give and receive feedback smoothly. With over a hundred pre-set templates, planning and collaboration becomes smoother and faster. 

Worldtimebuddy

Designed keeping in mind the needs of a distributed team, worldtimebuddy is a world clock, time zone converter, and online meeting scheduler. Simply add the locations of your teammates and then drag and drop the slider to find a good time to meet.

Rewards and recognition

Rewards and recognition form an integral part of any company’s culture. Still sending that old email to show your appreciation? It’s time to get a little more creative. Thankfully, there exist multiple tools that integrate with reward points or coupons to give your workforce tangible rewards. 

Bonusly

Designed to help remote teams connect and increase employee engagement, Bonusly enables team members to recognise each other’s contributions and award points. The best part? The points can be redeemed in exchange for gift cards from numerous brands like Amazon, Uber, Starbucks and many more.

HeyTaco

A simple application that can be integrated with both Slack and MS Teams, HeyTaco uses “Tacos” as reward points. Team members can only give out 5 Tacos per day, ensuring that the rewards are used judiciously. 

Kazoo

Created to help companies keep their employees motivated and engaged, Kazoo is used by over 600 companies throughout the world. Instead of simply offering a reward-framework, Kazoo also integrates functionalities to track progress, like goals and OKRs.

In the words of Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management, “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” Choosing the right tool for your distributed team is a function of two factors – knowing your areas of operation, and understanding your team’s requirements. 

Take the first step towards building your distributed workforce with Talent500. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here. 

Working from home vs. Working from anywhere: what employers must know

Posted on by satya

What’s in a name? 

Location-independent, remote worker, digital nomad – in the last couple of years, we have heard multiple variations of the same concept. Before we begin, let’s get our basics right. 

Working from home is not the same as working remotely; while the former means exactly what it sounds like, the latter pertains to the idea of your workplace not being fixed. This could include digital nomads spending each month in a new continent, or a tech consultant travelling to multiple office locations every quarter. “Working from home” could refer to freelancers or full time employees; as well as remote workers.

A third category is that of hybrid workforces – where employees alternate between working from home and working from the office. Post pandemic, a large percentage of the working population chose to work remotely for some parts of the week. Tech companies like Twitter, Apple and Microsoft are great examples of companies that adapted smartly to the situation. 

But why are we discussing this? In a nutshell, because being open to a location independent workforce is one of the best steps a company can take in order to increase its growth and productivity. The multiple benefits of being a remote first company include: 

  • Access to an unrestricted pool of talent, unfettered by geographical barriers;
  • Cost efficient hiring, thanks to the comparative cost of hiring talent globally;
  • Increased levels of productivity as employees work according to their own schedules;
  • Increased flexibility for employees resulting in higher levels of autonomy, engagement and happiness;
  • Reduced operational costs in the form of office rent, electricity and other such fixed costs. 

So how does a workplace make the transition? As the first step, here are some essential considerations that employers must take into account to nurture a remote workplace:

Asynchronous communication

In a geographically dispersed team, asynchronous communication enables each contributor to work according to their own time zone, but still play an integral part in the project deliverables. As an employer, encourage the use of asynchronous communication in the form of pre-recorded videos and voice notes, emails and slack messages wherever possible. Read more about how open source leader Github is using asynchronous communication to extract the complete productivity of its fully remote team.

Knowledge sharing

Colleagues located at different corners of the world can’t tap one another on the shoulder to ask questions or to get help. Siloed data is one of the biggest problems faced by remote teams, leading to a direct loss in productivity. Often, a large chunk of time is wasted in locating the most recent version of a document. 

Having a central, universally accessible source of all work related information is a highly beneficial practice. More importantly, it ensures that attrition in the company does not result in loss of knowledge and data. From Auttomattic to Slack, a central source of knowledge forms the backbone of all successful remote workforces. Tools like Notion enable teams to document standard operating procedures along with related data. Box and Canto are great for the management of shared digital assets.

Boost social interaction

How do you build trust and relationships between coworkers in the absence of coffee breaks and water cooler conversations? In this podcast, Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Auttomatic talks about how fully remote workplaces need to intentionally create avenues for social interaction. 

Managers and leaders must intentionally include time for non-work conversations and regular team building sessions. This enables team members to form bonds of trust and empathy. From Gatheraround to Donut, there exist hundreds of tools to help strengthen the connection between members of distributed teams. We also love the idea of virtual water coolers – online spaces where remote colleagues can gather for casual conversations and non work banter.

Performance evaluation

Quality over quantity is a principle that applies squarely to most things, and evaluating your remote team is no exception. Begin by setting objective standards for the evaluation of your employees that are not based on the number of working hours. We recommend de-prioritizing the transactional nature of work and taking into account multiple metrics like customer feedback, collaborative effort and initiative. 

A holistic evaluation of any employee’s performance includes self evaluation, one-on-one conversations and actionable, constructive feedback. In a remote setting, how you give instructions and feedback plays a major role in the way your workforce experiences your company culture. It is not enough to simply include the words “flexibility” and “empathy” in your core values; they must reflect equally in your performance evaluations. 

Data security

Solar Winds, Colonial Pipelines and Sony – we’ve all heard of high profile cybersecurity breaches that have held sensitive data and millions of dollars ransome. Here’s a scary number – cybercrime could cost the world economy a total of $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.  

As we work to establish completely remote workplaces, we must accept the fact that all-remote companies have to work harder to protect employee, corporate, and customer data. Subtract the secure network and firewall protections that all of us take for granted, and add the perils of working on public wifi or non-work computers – and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. Thankfully, there are a large number of steps that employers and employees can take to protect the security of their data. Some of these include the usage of VPNs (virtual private networks), sliding web-cams, password protected documents and a cloud based, centralised storage system. 

Working remotely was always a highly viable option; however, it took a pandemic for us to realize how beneficial it could be for businesses universally. With technology and location strategy enabling us to eradicate the barriers of geography and time zones, there has never been a better time to build your global team.

Take the first step towards building your distributed workforce with Talent500. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here. 

Talent500 helps the world’s fastest growing businesses build their global workforce.

We help companies hire, build and manage global teams. We are trusted by industry leaders across the globe – from Fortune 500s and larger enterprises, to some of the world’s fastest-growing startups. We are backed by Accel Partners & ANSR, a global leader and enterprise transformation platform.

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