Remote work is now as common as office-based once was. Even though the latter is still dominating and is still considered the traditional way, people are gradually starting to transition to Work From Home or the Hybrid method. Surprisingly, experience shows that employees keep the same level of performance even when working remotely.
The recent pandemic showed how unexpectedly things can change in a matter of days. Despite the technological advances, people didn’t think it was possible to stay at home and work together while being in different parts of the world. However, the pandemic proved us wrong. We can stay at home and do our work as we do it in the office.
Here are the best tools that make remote work no different from office-based.
WebWork Time Tracker
WebWork is a time tracking and employee monitoring tool that is widely used by remote teams. It makes monitoring remote work much easier by providing detailed information on how employees are performing. The tracker has a wide range of features that make it not only a complete time tracker but also a project management platform. Teams can work, communicate and track time all on WebWork.
Let’s take a look at each feature in detail.
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Activity Level
The tracker measures the activity level of each user based on the number of mouse clicks and keystrokes. Accordingly, it marks each team member’s activity level as high, medium, and low with corresponding colors.
- Attendance Monitoring
WebWork automatically records the attendance of each team member and creates a detailed report.
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App and Website Monitoring
On WebWork you can see the apps and websites your employees visit and spend time on during work hours. By marking certain apps and websites as productive, neutral, and nonproductive, you get corresponding data on productivity.
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Screenshots
To make time tracking complete, WebWork has 4 types of screenshots. For projects that require transparency, the Screenshot On mode can be used. While projects that require privacy can opt for the Blurred mode.
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Billable Hours
Freelancers that work on an hourly basis can use the feature of billable hours. This way WebWork will automatically convert their worked hours to the amount earned.
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Invoice
When working with billable hours, users can create invoices right on WebWork. They simply need to fill in the right information, and the invoice will be ready.
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Task Management
WebWork works not only as a time tracker but also as a task management tool. Teams can organize their tasks and projects on WebWork.
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Messenger
In order to keep communication inside the tracker, team members can chat on WebWork’s messenger. This way the whole work process will be centralized into one tool.
WebWork is a great solution for remote work, as it makes the work process transparent. Its features make monitoring work possible and simple from anywhere in the world, so no team member has to worry about not being in the office or their work being unnoticed.
TeamViewer
TeamViewer is remote access, remote support, and remote control tool that enables users to view and use somebody else’s computer without being in front of it physically.
TeamViewer is mainly used by IT administrators as a tool for remote customer support. The tool has a wide selection of features that make it a great choice for this purpose and not only. It is also of great help to anyone who needs to access their other device while being away from it. For example, people who move around a lot, or have to sometimes work remotely, can benefit from the features of TeamViewer.
The main functionalities of TeamViewer are as follows:
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Remote terminal access
As system diagnostics is much faster when done through the terminal, TeamViewer enables IT, technicians, to do so whenever they need to check a customer’s device. They can not only find the issues but also solve them by running scripts right from the terminal.
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Remote update, install, restart and wake
With TeamViewer, it is also possible to wake a sleeping device, restart it, and install updates or other apps.
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Remote printing
If the user is away from their computer but needs to access files and print them, they can do that with TeamViewer with no effort.
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Cross-platform access
TeamViewer enables accessing not only computers, but most devices, such as mobile, laptops, and tablets as well, both from and to.
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VPN alternative
Instead of acquiring a private VPN, businesses can use TeamViewer to access their devices remotely, exchange files, or anything else they need.
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Access to an unattended device
TeamViewer has the feature of accessing even an unattended device from anywhere else, provided that the former device has the necessary settings on in advance. To do this, the user needs to install TeamViewer Host and they can access unattended computers, servers, and Android devices.
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Share files
On TeamViewer, users can share files fast at 200 MB/s through end-to-end encryption. They can also do so by copying files on one device and pasting them on another device.
Remote teams can use TeamViewer to access their office devices or vice versa.
EmailAnalytics
EmailAnalytics is a tool that provides valuable information, metrics, and statistics on email activity.
It provides information on the following:
- How many emails your team sends
- The average response time of your employees
- Click-through rates
- The busiest and slowest times of the day
- Your top performers
- How to effectively re-balance your team’s email workload
It is as simple as not requiring software. Users simply need to sign in on the website.
To start using the tool you need to:
- Sign in with your email or Google Workspace account
- Add team members
- Give team members roles and permissions
- Continue using your email
- EmailAnalytics will provide you with daily or weekly reports on email activity
It works great for all types of businesses, office-based, remote, and hybrid. It especially benefits remote teams, as employers get detailed information on how their remote team is dealing with emails.
Slack
Slack is a communication tool that is widely used by all types of teams. It is one of the most used communication apps and has everything needed to keep team members connected.
Teams working remotely use Slack for staying connected and keeping remote communication organized and simple.
Other than personal messages, teams can create channels for keeping communication organized and simple. The channels can have names and different purposes, both for work and informal communication.
You can even communicate with people who don’t use Slack by sending them an invitation with Slack Connect. Once they accept it, you can chat with them through direct messages.
On Slack, you can automate workflows to work faster. If you do not want to automate tasks yourself, you can always choose from those offered by Slack.
Slack can be integrated with more than 2400 apps. Or if the app you want is not on the list, you can create your own integrations with Slack APIs.
Canva
Canva is a design tool that makes designing easy and accessible to everyone. When using Canva you don’t need any design skills, because Canva directs you and is extremely easy to use.
It can be used for editing and enhancing photos, creating and designing presentations, editing videos, adding textures, and many more.
As Canva allows multiple people to work on the same project, remote teams can use it when they are in different places but need to work together.
Let’s have a detailed look at what you can do with Canva.
Photo Editing
On Canva you can edit photos with several features. They are
- Enhancing
- Filters and effects
- Crop, resize, add frames, make collages
Video Editing
Canva works not only for photos but also for video editing. Here’s what you can do with it:
- Merge photos and videos to create slideshows, and short videos, or else
- Add different transitions to your videos
- Crop video frames to remove the parts you do not want
- Resize and trim
- Record videos
- Choose videos from the video stock
Canva has a Live Presentation feature, where you can go live, invite an audience and interact with them. Other than your presentation, on Canva Live you get to see your notes, next slides, live questions, and comments from your audience.
It is a great feature for remote teams when they need to organize a quick live presentation with everybody on board. Team members can watch and participate by asking questions and writing comments.
Krisp
Krisp is a noise cancellation app that removes background sounds during calls, video calls, and audio recordings. The app uses an AI, powered by a Deep Neural Network that has learned to differentiate between a human voice and other sounds. It works by creating a layer between the app’s mic and your mic and speakers. That way the app deals with the background noise before transferring your voice to the video conference app for example.
Krisp does not store your voice or any of the recorded audio anywhere, as noise cancellation is done right on your device.
Other than removing background noise, Krisp also deals with echoing. It removes both acoustic echo, which happens when the voice of other call participants coming from the speakers are captured by your microphone, and room echo when the sounds bounce off walls creating an echo.
Krisp removes noise such as:
- Street, traffic sounds
- Animal and nature sounds
- Sound of keyboard and mouse clicks
- Construction sounds
- And more
Video conferences are inevitable during remote work. Teams need to hold meetings, discussions, or just stay in touch. However, the most awkward situations happen during video calls. Sometimes it’s one’s child throwing a tantrum in the background, sometimes it’s one’s parents arguing, sometimes one’s dog is barking, and so on. Krisp solves this issue, making video calls go smoothly, even if you are in a noisy place.
Zoom
Zoom is a video conference tool that is widely used across the world. Zoom became especially common during the pandemic, as most companies and universities needed an urgent way to keep communication in place. That’s where Zoom came in handy.
Its free option is more than enough for a quick video or audio call, as it allows 100 people into a 40-minute video call. If that is not enough, most people will simply finish the meeting and start another one.
Users can share their screens, go into breakout rooms, send reactions, raise their hand, record the meeting, and more. Zoom also has a driving mode for making Zoom convenient to use while driving.
When working remotely, teams can’t meet up in person to have meetings as often. That’s where Zoom helps. Team members can organize a meeting where they will see and hear each other while being in different parts of the world.
Conclusion
Remote work is no longer a dream or fear of some as it was not so long ago. Luckily, the abundance of tools that we have nowadays, makes remote work as easy or even easier than office-based. Those who were dreaming of working from home and those who were afraid of not keeping up when working remotely, now have nothing to worry about. The tools discussed in this post make remote work easy and convenient for everyone.
Try the tools to see for yourself and you will never want to go back to the office.