Since the 2019 pandemic, remote work or a hybrid environment has become the new normal. That’s how people want to work now; as per a recent Gallup survey, over 60% of US employees want a long term hybrid work arrangement while 34% of remote capable employees wish to work permanently from home.
One of the main reasons for this change is rapidly advancing technology and the work life balance that comes from a hybrid or remote work environment. Newer and smarter tools now allow us to do the same job from wherever we are – at home, office, travelling, etc. With these remote work tools, we can essentially stay connected with our clients, colleagues and prospects, manage our projects and collaborate easily across multiple time zones.
If you believe that classic tools like Skype and your email will help you work efficiently from home, then you need to read on. Yes, some of these tools already function as the cornerstone of remote work – but only having these in your arsenal might not make you as productive and efficient.
Remember, the right combination of remote working tools can bring two distinct benefits for your business – they help your team stay motivated and they help you increase productivity.
In this post, we’ll list and explain 11 tools for various purposes including file sharing, project management, collaboration, remote hiring, etc.
Let’s start.
1 – Slack
You really can’t talk about communication tools and not mention Slack.
Although this tool is already at the top of everyone’s list, it’s still worth a mention as it does a great job of allowing remote work teams to connect and communicate in an efficient manner. In fact, this tool almost makes the use of emails redundant for teamwork and even project management.
With this, you can create channels for different projects and tasks, add members and even look up previous conversations with a searchable history feature. Even better, you can easily share files with people in a channel.
Website: https://slack.com
Pricing: Freemium, Paid plans start at $6.67 USD
2 – Trello
While we’re on the subject of remote work tools that can help us communicate in a more efficient way, there is no way we cannot mention Trello.
As a project management tool, it is pretty easy to use. Teams can create lists within different boards and keep everything organized with the help of cards. In other words, it can be used to organize all your projects, tasks, shared files, notes, etc. so as to help your team work together – and not just remotely.
Taking inter-connectivity a step further, Trello also offers over 100 app integrations and is available in Android and iOS versions to truly cater to people working out of office.
Website: https://trello.com
Pricing: Freemium, Paid plans start at $9.99 USD
3 – G-Suite
Like the first two remote work tools on this list, G-Suite doesn’t really require a detailed introduction or explanation.
For teams – whether in office or working from home – this is an invaluable tool that helps you store presentations, documents and spreadsheets, share them online, leave comments and edit in real time, etc. Even better, you can even share large files (like hi-res video files) easily.
G-Suite’s tools include:
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- Google Drive – cloud storage
- Google Docs – cloud based alternative for Word
- Google Sheets – cloud based alternative for Excel
- Google Slides – cloud based alternative for Powerpoint
- Google Calendar – cloud based calendar
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Website: https://gsuite.google.com
Pricing: Standard and Enterprise plans
4 – Zapier
When you add more tools to your workflow, you also add a bit more stress since they might not all integrate together. And having to switch between different software for every little thing is not only inefficient but also great impacts your productivity.
The best solution to this problem is Zapier.
This is a tool that helps you connect hundreds of tools together. Think of it as the glue that joins all your apps together so they can work together seamlessly. In short, you can use this for whatever tools don’t offer automatic, native integration.
Website: https://zapier.com
Pricing: Freemium, Paid plans start at $19.99 USD
Read: 10 Tips On How To Improve Sales Productivity
5 – Zoom
Working remotely but have lots of internal meetings? Need a convenient way to send over meeting invites and take calls with clients?
Well, Zoom has you covered. There’s a reason why the user base for this digital communication and video calling app jumped from 10 million to over 200 million from January 2020 to March 2020.
Whether it’s your weekly meetings with team members from around the world, one on one calls with prospects, product demos, etc. you can easily use Zoom.
Website: https://zoom.us
Pricing: Freemium, Paid plans start at $14.99 USD
6 – ContactOut
ContactOut is a fantastic tool for remotely hiring the best candidates. This cloud-based platform helps recruiters and hiring managers by providing detailed employee information such as contact info, experience, education, and more. Through ContactOut’s comprehensive database of over 150 million professionals worldwide, recruiters can quickly find and reach out to potential hires with ease.
The platform employs sophisticated search algorithms to identify strong candidates that match the qualifications desired by companies. It also provides powerful filtering options to narrow down the search results according to specific parameters, including location, job title, past employers and more. This makes it much easier for recruiters to find and engage the top talent in any area they are targeting.
In addition, ContactOut gives users actionable insights into each candidate’s background and professional experience. This includes verified contact info such as email addresses and social media profiles so that recruiters can easily connect with their top choices. By leveraging this info, companies can ensure they are reaching out to the most qualified individuals and build relationships that could turn into successful hires in the future.
Website: https://contactout.com/email-finder
Pricing: Paid plans start at $29/month
7 – CloudApp
This remote work tool is more of screen recorder platform that allows you to record webcam, videos, GIFs, your screen and share it to the cloud securely.
In essence, this tool saves you time when explaining certain concepts or giving product demos. Instead of text based instructions, you can easily record yourself or your screen to showcase processes for team members and prospects.
Even better, the app offers annotation features such as text boxes that you can add to your recordings to draw attention to something specific. Additionally, you can easily share recordings through drag and drop into apps like Slack, Trello, etc. from the CloudApp library – convenient right?
Website: www.getcloudapp.com
Pricing: Freemium, Paid plans start at $9 USD
8 – Timezone
For a simple app, Timezone can be a really powerful addition to your tool kit.
Simply put, it allows you to keep track of where each member of your team is and what timezone they are on.
With the current situation, we all know how difficult it can be to communicate with colleagues who are in the same city, let alone those who are in completely different timezones.
This cloud based tool effectively solves this problem as you can easily see the local time for your global or remote members. Same goes for international clients – instead of memorizing different time zones or having to Google every time, you can track local time in different cities with Timezone.
Website: https://timezone.io/
Pricing: Free
9 – 1Password
Working remotely or from anywhere else other than your office, security becomes a primary concern.
This is where 1Password helps – essentially a password management tool, it remembers all your passwords and functions as a digital vault, form filler and digital wallet.
In short, it helps keep all your account information safe including your credit cards in an encrypted database that is accessible by only one master password.
Website: https://1password.com/
Pricing: Paid plans start at $3.99 USD
10 – Milanote
Milanote is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards.
By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio – visual, tactile and sometimes a bit messy. This is exactly what makes Milanote a great fit for designers who work in teams remotely.
Key features of this tool include easy to create notes and to-do lists, hundreds of built-in templates, boards and workplace for easy collaboration, etc.
Website: https://milanote.com/
Pricing: Free version with no time limit, Paid plans start at $9.99 USD
11 – VEED
VEED is an easy-to-use online video editor. It has tools that are intuitive and make video editing tasks simple. You can cut, crop, rotate, add music, text, generate subtitles automatically and even screen recording.
In short, the days of downloading clunky video software are over. VEED brings you one-click editing online. Its used by thousands of content creators – marketers, teachers, creatives – with a focus on producing material that engages and grows audiences. They are adding new features all the time and have great customer service (with a Live Chat) if you ever need help.
Website: https://www.veed.io
Pricing: Freemium, Paid plans start at $12 USD
Bottom Line
These are some of best remote work tools that our team at Cloudlead uses.
While there are many more apps that support remote work, these are some of the most essential ones you should think about integrating into your workflow.
Of course, as mentioned before, we have not included classic tools like CRMs (Reply.io is a great option), prospecting tools (give Cloudlead a try – we assign personal lead researchers), etc.
