Common Challenges Faced By Companies When Working Remotely: And Apps To Overcome them

Years ago, remote working was considered only for customer service positions at less than minimum wage, and it wasn?t until recently that companies were forced due to the coronavirus pandemic, to extend work beyond their office walls. Many companies that were not accustomed to managing work online were thus caught by surprise. The truth is that managing a remote team can prove to be quite challenging, especially when you try to conduct work in the same manner as you would for offline teams. Running a remote team means managers have to be more purposeful and deliberate about their management practices. Keep reading for some of the most common challenges managers of remote teams usually face as well as tools and apps you can use to overcome them.

1. Tracking Productivity and Tasks

The most common problem with remote teams is not knowing how much their remote team accomplishes and at what rate. It is hard to know if someone is being underutilized when working remotely. Using a remote productivity tool is crucial to managing workers. To achieve big targets, you have to make sure that all the smaller ones are getting completed in a timely manner. The following tools will show you when team members have started tasks and when they finished them.

• Todoist: Todoist is a great tool to use when you are looking for organizing tasks for your remote teams. It has various core features like tasks and subtasks and helps you in creating projects, adding notes, and uploading files. It also helps in setting reminders, flags and has a productivity chart.
• Blink: Blink is an app that empowers communication and enhances productivity. It offers features like calendar management, discussion boards, an employee directory, a news feed, and so on to help create a work-friendly digital environment that prioritizes productivity and team cohesion.

2. Difficulty in Communication

Communication is key when working with remote teams. It is vital to gain daily inputs from all members and know what project each person is working on. When you are in the office, you can do this by having a daily brief meeting. So while working remotely, you need a tool to discuss work visually with the teams. Apps with audio and video calling options along with file sharing are greatly used to conduct daily or weekly team meetings and also for connecting with clients.

• Zoom: Zoom is a group calling app with great video quality. It is also easy to use and affordable. You can record calls of any length and also share screens with teams for combined discussions. Other zoom solutions include video webinars, meetings, voice sharing, business IM, and Zoom room.
• Google Meet: Google Meet is a widely used secure and reliable video conferencing tool that is used by schools, universities, and enterprises around the world. You can add up to 100 participants in a video call. It also has integrated polls, Q&A, digital whiteboard, hand raising, and breakout rooms.
• Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is a hub for teamwork. It brings together everything your team needs from chats to threaded conversations, meetings, video conferencing options, calling, content collaboration with Microsoft 365 applications, and the option to integrate apps and workflows that your business can rely on.
• Slack: Slack is a remote work messaging tool that helps in team collaboration. It helps communication among teammates, allows them to share ideas and comments in real-time, and thus ensures that everything moves along swiftly. Slack channels for instant messaging and collaboration will help remote teams collaborate.

3. Project management

Managing projects is one of the biggest challenges with remote working. Without a physical presence, communication is difficult and so is keeping track of individual tasks. Project management systems help to solve the problems of virtual teams by making it easier to organize documents and tasks. These are especially useful for complex projects and large teams.

• Zoho sprints: Zoho Sprints is used for agile planning and tracking. It helps in scheduling meetings, uses timesheets, and tracking work hours. It helps in managing and tracking projects, getting insights from reports, and letting teams work together from any place.
• Basecamp: Basecamp is a popular choice among managers, freelancers, and agencies because of its simple functionality, clean design, and easy use. It is a project management and team collaboration platform that helps in managing projects and facilitates communication with clients in a meaningful way.

4. Workload and performance management

Remote work is ambiguous which makes it easier for overachievers to burn out and slackers to slack off. Remote working can thus ruin the work-life balance. Having the right tools to keep teams accountable will help remote workers feel part of the team.

• iDoneThis: iDoneThis is a platform where managers can keep a track of what is being done daily. The team members have to just check in daily through their browser or email. Then they can add their reports and updates on the project. This tool compensates for the need for daily update meetings.
• Hub staff: Hub staff will make you more productive and help you in time management. You can keep track of what tasks employees are working on at a given time. Its features include online timesheets, employee scheduling, screen recording, employee monitoring GPS tracking, project budgeting, and more.

5. Celebrate success

When in office, it is easy to celebrate an employee?s or a team?s achievements. This can become quite tricky when your team is working remotely. Some important achievements call for a celebration and must include your whole team wherever they are. Such mini celebrations to recognize employee accomplishments will encourage your employees to perform better and will also increase the teams? morale. The celebrations that happen in an office have to be carried to the remote world as well.

• WooBoard: WooBoard is an online platform that recognizes an employee for their exemplary work. You can create a reward program for sending and receiving recognition. Employees can celebrate their successes and also engage with each other through the app?s social engagement features.
• Nectar: Nectar helps organizations celebrate great work. It is a 360 recognition and rewards platform that enables every team member to send meaningful recognition to their teammates. It is great for companies that want high peer-to-peer engagement.

6. Working across different time zones

Your remote team may not be necessarily be located in the same country. When scheduling meetings, try to find a time that works for everyone. Managing remote employees requires more effort when coordinating communication. You need to find an easy way to connect and collaborate while working across difficult time zones.

• World Time Buddy: World time Buddy is a remote work software with a time converter that makes it easier to manage offshore teams. It lets users compare multiple time zones, plan conference calls and web meetings for clients and employees alike.
• 10 to 8: 10to8 is a scheduling software for remote teams that want to make appointments. It enables teams to arrange virtual staff meetings and online appointments with clients too. The native Zoom integration on the app will also allow you to join video calls from your calendar. It helps in handling multiple time zones and sync calendars to ensure that double appointments don?t happen.

So there we have our selection of the best apps and tools for remote work. With all these remote work tools in your pocket, it is likely that remote workers can be easily managed and your projects can progress smoothly. Let us know which apps have revolutionized remote work for your company in the comments below.