Blog

Over the past year, many Americans have left their offices to work from home. Data from a survey shows that 1 in 4 Americans are working remotely this year. 

If you’re in charge of a team of remote employees, you have to manage them to ensure they are completing their work. There can be a lot of distractions in remote locations that can affect productivity. 

Remote employees need direction and support. There are different tools and ways to manage your remote workers. Read this guide to learn more about the best tools available. 

1. Hubstaff

There are various tools for work management on the market. If you’re looking for a work management tool that’s great for managing freelance workers, Hubstaff is the right one. 

Hubstaff offers great options to help managers keep track of remote workers’ hours. This tool functions as an app that works with Mac, Windows, Linux, and smartphones. 

It contains a team scheduler. This feature will record hours and track daily activity rates.

On your end, you can track the URLs each of your employees go to. You can also take screenshots to help you track their progress. 

2. Slack 

If you’re looking to communicate with your remote staff in real-time, use Slack. Slack is one of the most popular communication tools on the market. This is a great tool that allows you to communicate with any size team. 

Do you manage remote workers from different departments? Slack will allow you to create separate channels for this purpose. You will also be able to create threads to help you keep your chats organized. 

Don’t feel like chatting with your employees? No problem, Slack allows you to make audio and video calls.

With Slack, you can share files with whoever needs them. Uploading files to the platform is easy. One advantage of this feature is that it allows many users to work on a document in real-time as you check-in. 

3. Harvest

Harvest is a time tracking software that helps maintain a high level of productivity. Data shows remote workers have higher levels of productivity when working at home.  

As a manager, you want to help your remote staff maintain this level of productivity. This is where this tool comes in. It allows employees to reorder tasks based on priority. 

Employees can start and stop timers as they work and take breaks. With this feature, employees can remain mindful of the clock. 

4. Toggl

Toggl is a tool that works like the Harvest software. Toggl gives your remote workers a chance to know how much their time is worth. When they know how much it’s worth, they learn how to value it. 

Its time tracking feature can break down the time an employee spends with a client. It can also track the time the employee spends on a project or task. If an employee is idling, Toggl will alert them. 

Toggl has your back as it lets you keep track of the time each remote worker puts in. On the dashboard, you can see how much time each employee has spent on a project. 

With this information, you can assign proper billing rates for each project. You can also make sure your remote workers get fair pay for their work. This tool will help your organization make a profit as productivity increases.

5. Zoom

There’s a chance you may be familiar with Zoom. This service has been around for years. It makes a great communication and collaboration tool. 

With Zoom, you can get different options to communicate with employees. If you want to communicate with one remote worker, you can use the chat feature. 

Want to communicate with remote teams? The meeting room is a great option for this. 

Do you want to communicate with your remote team and include other teams or departments? Use the conferencing option. With this option, you can communicate with a large group of people with no issues at all. 

Zoom gives you the option to record sessions so that others can view them later. Anyone who receives an invitation to view a presentation can do this. Remote workers can also download sessions to their computers. 

6. TeamViewer

TeamViewer is a software that allows users to gain remote access to a desktop computer or tablet. It also offers users the capability to connect to smartphones. 

With this software, users can take control of a computer and provide it with maintenance. Users can see the remote screen on their end after establishing a connection. This is great for facilitating team collaboration. 

7. iinsight

Iinsight is an employee assistance program software that managers can use to address issues that affect productivity. 

It supports and optimizes processes to streamline operations. With this software, you will spend less time managing your remote workers. This allows you to focus on other tasks that need your attention. 

Iinsight can help get rid of methods that aren’t effective in keeping files organized. It can secure the files, as well as secure employees’ sensitive information. 

Managing Remote Employees With the Right Tools

Working from home does offer a lot of benefits. Remote employees can work from home and remain productive without losing a step. 

If you’re in charge of a group of remote workers, use one or more of the tools in this guide. These are the best tools that managers can use to oversee employees working from home.  

Want to read more articles that focus on business and technology? Explore the rest of our blog for more great reads!