8 Essential Remote Work Tools To Boost Productivity & Company Culture
If you’ve worked in an office environment before, you’ve probably realized that a lot of time can be wasted. Endless numbers of meetings with large groups of people take up a huge amount of time in most traditional companies, and when you add in water-cooler chats about fantasy sports or the latest celebrity gossip, your whole work day can easily disappear before you actually get anything done.
While office life can be a great fit for some people, our team has found that we are able to reap the benefits of a virtual work environment while still enjoying the best parts of any company — culture, community, and rewarding work. And in times like this where the majority of employees are working remotely, there’s never been a better time to embrace the WFH culture.
Even though SureSwift has always been a 100% remote team, we’re always looking to learn and improve our processes, but we’ve found a ton of success with a handful of remote work tools, including:
- Slack — Communication
Slack is the hub of communication at SureSwift. We use it to message each other about work projects, but our general channel is where everyone can head when they need a quick break or just want to share what’s been going on in their lives. We also encourage our team to set “Do Not Disturb” hours on their Slack so coworkers know when someone is in the zone.
2. Trello — Project Management
Whether you’re part of a remote team, or work in an office, project management and task tracking is one area that can always be improved. Trello is completely customizable, so your team can choose how to display your current workflow, as well as assign work to others, set due dates, and comment directly on project cards to improve visibility and communication.
3. Jell — Dev Team
Jell is another tool we use (and full disclosure: we liked it so much we bought the company last year!) that helps us run daily standups for our fully-remote dev team. It improves visibility, productivity, and collaboration and works with the other tools we already use, like Slack and Trello.
4. Google Docs/Sheets/Hangouts — Project Collaboration
Another key to effective communication for our team is the G Suite. We utilize Google Docs, Sheets, and Hangouts on a day-to-day basis for project collaboration, meetings, and organization. Being able to comment on documents and have a team member across the country (or world!) see edits/changes in real time is a game changer. Pro-tip: We use “suggesting” or “commenting” mode when we have multiple editors, so there’s a single writer/owner who’s accountable for each document, accepting changes, and making sure edits make sense and don’t conflict with each other.
5. Databox — Tracking Trends
We use Databox for tracking trends. Data is essential for decision making, and it allows us to integrate some of our favorite analytics tools into one place.
6. Zenefits — Payroll
Zenefits is our human resources hub and is by far the most user-friendly HR tool we’ve used so far. Employees can log on to request time off and see vacation time, view pay stubs, find coworker contact information, and more.
7. HelpScout — Customer Service
If customer support is a part of your business model, HelpScout is the way to go. It helps keep our team on track, answering tickets, and resolving issues quickly.
8. 1Password — Password Management
When you’ve got a team of 75 people across 14 timezones, organization is a must. 1Password helps us keep all of our account information safe and in one place.
Ultimately all of this technology is just a tool that makes our work processes easier, but without the right people to do the work, we wouldn’t get far. To learn more about the SureSwift team, take a closer look at Why We’re All In On Remote Work.
