Working remotely has become very common these days. Gone are the days of gathering for meetings and daily updates in a conference room. Now, people connect through Zoom meetings while sitting comfortably at home. Back then, people used to present their projects with the whole team and wait for everyone to reach the conference room on time. Now, it is easier for employees to give the project details in a Zoom meeting. Remote working has changed our ways of working and helped us a lot.
Remote work is becoming more popular and adopted by every company, but some companies are dealing with the issue of managing distributed teams effectively. This issue is causing many problems for the companies and even affecting their work efficiency. Therefore, companies must use authentic softwares and tools to develop a thriving workforce. In this detailed blog, we will review some of the best tools for remote working.
What is remote working?
Likely, you’ve already acquired some soft skills if you’ve been employed for a while. For instance, you would have worked in a team setting if you had ever worked in retail. You have applied conflict resolution and problem-solving abilities if you have assisted disgruntled clients in finding a solution.
Remote working is transforming our business world. In this type of work, you don’t need to rush to the workplace; you do your job by sitting peacefully at home. This working model gives employees flexibility, whether from home or anywhere they like, such as a library, coffee shop, or park.
Employees must maintain a work-life balance to work efficiently and give proper time to their social lives. Remote working can be temporary, part-time, or full-time, depending on the company hiring you.
Types of Tools for Remote Working
There are different types of tools available for remote working, some of them are for communication and teamwork. While other tools can be used for task management, some softwares can help you maintain the security of your business network. The following are the categories of tools:
Project management
Efficient project management tools help employees track progress, launch new products, introduce new features and accomplish broader business goals. You must look for a tool that can be easy to use and assist in assigning tasks, managing meetings, scheduling tasks, setting due dates, tracking progress, and maintaining visibility across your team’s initiatives. This will allow you to manage your disturbed team to stay aligned, ensure nothing collapses, and keep your projects moving forward.
Cloud storage and file sharing
Remote employees need to access files for work purposes from different locations and different types of devices. A cloud-based centralized file-sharing tool is necessary for the remote working team. You can look for other options to provide ample storage, folder organization, and communicated permission controls. This will help the distributed team to collaborate on content, access essential files of the company, and secure sensitive information and data.
Communication and collaboration
If you are an employer looking for tools, you must select tools with all the features a remote team must have. For a distributed team, smooth and clear communication is essential. You need to choose tools with features like video conferencing, screen sharing, breakout rooms, and virtual whiteboards, these features can help your remote co-workers connect. An instant messaging and call application is also necessary for a remote team. For instance, they can use this for daily check-ins and outs, availability and meaningful discussions.
Time tracking and task management
Remote employees need intrinsic ways to track their time. Authentic-time tracking and task management tools will have features like logging working hours, monitoring work status, and managing to-do lists. These tools will also help your virtual team stay ahead and gain visibility into overall productivity levels. They also support progress reporting, efficient workflow management, and accountability.
Essential tools for remote working
1. Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive communication and collaboration platform perfect for remote work. It’s used for video conferences, instant messaging, file sharing, and, to some extent, even document collaboration. Being part of the Microsoft 365 package, you work seamlessly with OneDrive and SharePoint to keep everything in one place.
Key features
- Meetings and conference tools: Many calling features, such as video calling, sharing screens, and blurred backgrounds, make virtual conferences very convenient for users.
- Teams phone: Voice, video, and PBX communications, as well as the possibility of choosing telephony schemes that will accommodate the needs of non-synchronous work.
- Chat and collaboration: Chat, document sharing, or other applications can help individuals communicate or collaborate quickly with minimal formalities, which usually increases productivity.
- Devices and experiences: Ensures the use of Teams devices such as Teams Rooms for hardware optimization of the devices and artificial intelligence on audio and video.
- Frontline workforce: Features for the frontline employee include workforce management or staffing/scheduling.
- Apps and workflows: Integration with other apps like Dropbox, workday and Salesforce for efficiency and to meet many organizational needs.
2. Zoom
Zoom stands unmatched in video conferencing—an effortless way to connect people. Features such as virtual backgrounds, screen sharing, and breakout rooms enable meetings, calls, and brainstorming sessions to occur seamlessly, regardless of where remote workers are located.
Key features
- Screen sharing allows users to share the whole screen of their computer or only the Mac application windows in the meeting.
- Breakout rooms: Zoom has an in-meeting feature that allows the host to divide a meeting into segments appropriate for workshops, classes, or team-building exercises.
- Meeting recording: The host can also record the meeting and save it in local or cloud storage for review or circulation to others who could not attend due to differences in time zones.
- Virtual backgrounds: A virtual background is a feature that shows a picture or video while participating in a Zoom meeting. It makes the conversation more professional or entertaining.
- Chat function: It also offers an in-meeting chat box where team members can communicate.
- Scheduling with calendar integration: The calendar app allows you to propose, schedule, and join meetings, making it easier to schedule and attend.
- Virtual hand raising: In large assemblies, participants can raise their hands to tell the speaker they also wish to speak, which keeps the proceedings orderly and ensures everyone has a chance to speak.
- Polls and surveys: These engaging tools can gather feedback during meetings when ideas are to be voted on or to evaluate participants’ understanding.
- Webinar capabilities: It has functionalities for multi-stakeholder virtual events, including Q&A, attendee registration, and analytics, thus ideal for webinars, workshops, and training.
- Security features: Meetings are encrypted and require passcodes to allow only the participants who are supposed to be in them to access them. Other participants must wait in the waiting rooms until they are allowed in.
3. Slack
Slack is a communication application designed for workplace interactions. It allows users to send instant messages and create various channels for work discussions or casual chats, helping to organize topics. Additionally, Slack integrates seamlessly with other applications like Mireo and Notion, improving overall efficiency.
Key features
- Channels: Channels where discussions can be divided by topics, projects or teams, which ensure profound and practical correspondence.
- Direct messages Permit immediate, personal conversation among individuals in the working team, either between one or two human parties or a few.
- File sharing: This feature enables users to integrate the application by sharing documents, photos, and other types of files.
- Integrations: It integrates with various third-party applications and services, including Google Drive, Trello, and Asana, to bring tools together in one place.
- Search functionality: Allows for easy access to past messages and files and easy-to-locate information in a conversation thread.
- Notifications: Bachelor’s degree flexible notices update individuals to specific events without continuity.
- Record video and audio clips: This feature enables quick, rich video (with an option for screen sharing) or voice messages, thus giving people a face and a voice and an effective way of communicating without needing a scheduled live meeting in channels and DMs.
- Huddle: Video or voice calls to hold short, informal, and impromptu conferences or dialogues, so there is a simple method to call for face-to-face or voice communication through the platform.
- Status updates: Team members can set their current status, Hiatus, Activity, or even physical location, which assists in managing expectations and coordination.
- Pinned items enable users to display key messages, documents, or discussions that have occurred in a channel. They are pinned to a particular place and can never be misplaced.
- Workflow builder: Interactive elements allow users to create workflows and predefined actions, such as onboarding a new team member or creating a reminder within Slack.
4. Asana
Therefore, Asana is a tool for managing project tasks, deadlines, and general progress. You can assign tasks and deadlines, monitor KPIs, and see what everyone is working on. The application offers an interactive touch screen, which makes it easy to work on projects regardless of location.
Key features
- Projects: Break tasks into specific sub-projects or objectives to shape and define the tasks the team is to handle.
- Boards: Users can also set and monitor tasks through every phase, making the work process more understandable and easily controllable.
- Gantt chart: Review the tasks and time expected for project implementation and their relations to identify problems and construct a strategy.
- Resource management: Enables the understanding of strengths or weaknesses of members within the team so as to enable a proper task allocation.
- Custom fields: Organise tasks so that all the specific information that needs to be dealt with as part of the project is adequately addressed within the context of a specific task.
- Integrations: It integrates with other apps, such as Slack, G-Suite, and Microsoft Teams, which link all the work since they assist it.
- Milestones: Used to capture important milestones in your project and help teams determine how close they are to achieving and accomplishing major milestones & milestones.
- Forms: This person gathers and enters data into the database in a specific format and creates tasks for individual team members or external collaborators.
- Reports and dashboards: Informs and empowers project and team managers with real-time performance data and gives project stakeholders the necessary information to make as many decisions as possible.
5. Google Drive
Google Drive is quite helpful for sharing files and documents among people in different locations. From document spreadsheets to presentations, you can store your essential files in the cloud and share them with everyone to edit or suggest changes and collaborate in real-time. You can also use Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Slides to make it a more seamless experience.
Key features
- Real-time collaboration: Many copies of the file can be opened at once to be edited, which saves time compared to transferring the documents back and forth among workers.
- Integration with Google Workspace: It works seamlessly with all other Google apps, such as Docs, Sheets and Slides, making automation of various tasks in one place.
- Advanced search functionality: You can instantly search by keywords, file extension, or created or modified date so that you won’t waste your time; you’ll find the exact file you need.
- Version history: All document revisions are tracked, and users can view or restore prior versions if they lose information.
- Offline access: You can work on files offline and then sync them if you are connected to the internet.
- File organization: Has capabilities of tabs, folders, and colour, which creates e compact appearance and makes it easy to sort the documents.
- Security and encryption: Files should also be secured adequately, with encryption done while transferring and while their storage helps keep data secure.
- Mobile app: The app allows users to perform tasks that create, modify, retrieve, or update files from any location, which is ideal for working remotely or while on a business trip.
6. Gather
Gather allows team members to communicate during regular work time, mimicking the physical office setup and random meetings. It is a flexible office where remote teams can move in and meet their coworkers, leading to random knowledge exchange sessions. Round Gather, you can also build your workstation, have a virtual pet and prowl the virtual office.
Key features
- Spontaneous interactions: The team members can meet each other physically, as they would in a physical office, and start discussions.
- Personalized workstations: Team members could customize their cubicles virtually, making them look more comfortable in a home environment.
- Roaming capabilities: Individuals can navigate the various social spaces equally to employees, interact with others, and contribute to discussions as they would in the physical environment.
- Interactive meeting rooms: Whether in a hall or via a video conference, an organized virtual environment for group brainstorming and individual and group conversations leading to and following the team’s ordinary meetings enhances collaboration’s co-configuration.
- Real-time audio and video communication: Facilitates natural communication so that text communication feels more like actual interaction.
Conclusion
Thanks to the vast array of tools available, remote work in 2025 will be more dynamic and accessible than ever. From communication to cybersecurity, choosing the right tools ensures productivity, connection, and security. The tools highlighted in this article cater to remote work, from effective team collaboration and efficient project management to safeguarding sensitive data and enhancing creativity.
The key to thriving in a remote work environment is not just having the tools but knowing how to use them effectively. Mastering these platforms and seamlessly integrating them into daily workflows can significantly enhance productivity and job satisfaction. Moreover, pairing the right software tools with ergonomic hardware creates an optimized workspace that promotes comfort and efficiency.
