Best 11 Remote Work Tools to Enhance Productivity in 2023

With the emergence of public clouds and infrastructure as a service, the normalization of remote working was only a matter of time. The Covid-19 pandemic has just accelerated the process by forcing the hands of businesses. Currently, 26% of the US workforce is working remotely. Following the lockdown, 40% of employees reported increased productivity. The prediction is that by 2025 40% of the world’s workforce will move to remote employment and the US will have 36.2 million remote workers. Remote work is predicted to become the most popular job by 2025,

While there can be no doubt about the fact that tech companies can be just as effective with a remote workforce considering 16% of US companies are currently fully remote, there are tools and practices you need to imbibe in order to maintain or enhance productivity for remote teams.

1. Process Street

Teams that work remotely need a way to collaborate seamlessly where the communications, interactions, and workflows stay at a central location with easy yet secure access. Process Street is a process management tool that gives teams a platform to increase functionality and collaborative potential. It integrates with tools like Slack, Zapier, Zoom, etc.

The pro plan of Process Street comes at $25 per user per month.

2. Google Drive

The use of Google Drive is so common that it is often not even mentioned. We almost take a fantastic tool for granted. Think about it. It is one platform that allows you to share large amounts of data in different formats, be it text, images, PDFs, videos, or music. You can work on documents and sheets alongside team members in real-time. It integrates with all Google products and a range of other tools. This super convenient tool has a free version and the pro versions come for $1.99 per person.

3. Scalefusion kiosk browser lockdown

Lock down your websites to a flexible and interactive kiosk. Scalefusion kiosk browser lockdown ensures safe browsing, blocks access to unwanted websites, controls data costs, and effectively manages the end-user experience. Companies can launch the browser in full-screen mode and hide the toolbar to prevent users from accessing the browser settings. Organizations that roll out unattended kiosks for business purposes can leverage Scalefusion for remote management and troubleshooting. Kiosk browser lockdown can also be used on dedicated devices used by frontline workers. For example, delivery workers may need access to web-based applications to show proof of delivery or other last-mile operations.

4. Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that is completely cloud-based. It practically saved companies during the lockdown. It is easy to install and does not need too much configuration to work. 

Zoom brings a lot of cool features. It allows you to conduct webinars that can accommodate 500 participants. You get virtual backgrounds, screen sharing, whiteboards, and HD-quality video.

The professional plan for Zoom comes at $14.99 per month and the business plan comes at $19.99 per month.

5. Visme

Visme is a cloud-based graphic creator tool. It’s the best tool for creating your marketing materials from infographics, presentations, pitch decks and social media designs. Visme also has an online  whiteboard for remote teams to share your ideas with everyone.

6. Timely

Timely is an AI-powered automatic time-tracking tool. It helps companies operating with remote teams cope with the challenge of connecting everybody and reporting accurately. It assists companies with team management, project management, payroll management, and capacity planning. And It also facilitates payment management by enabling payroll software to bill accurately

It allows you to prioritize important tasks and allocate resources with efficiency. The tool comes with a 14-day free trial.

7. RecurPost

If you’re searching for a solution to help you manage your remote workforce and maintain a presence on several social media platforms, RecurPost is the ideal social media management tool for you. More than 90,000 companies of various sizes, from startups to large multinational enterprises, rely on RecurPost as an user-friendly and effective tool. It provides a vast array of capabilities, such as bulk scheduling, analytics, team collaboration, evergreen scheduling, and content publication.

RecurPost allows you to publish content on many sites at the same time, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google My Business, and Pinterest, and it is a top LinkedIn post scheduler. Unlike other schedulers, RecurPost allows you to organize your content into multiple libraries, such as My Blogs, Videos, and so on. Once all of the posts in the library have been shared, RecurPost repeats the library from the top so you may reach a new audience with your evergreen content.

8. CloudTalk

CloudTalk is a cloud-based phone system built for small and mid size businesses. Over 2,500 businesses – including Mercedes, Yves Rocher and DHL – rely on CloudTalk for its superior call quality and unparalleled range of features. Boost your sales and customer support teams with 70+ advanced calling features such as IVR and ACD. Also Including 160 + international phone numbers and 40 + integrations with your existing Helpdesk, CRM and eCommerce systems. Try a 14-day trial, absolutely FREE.

9. Refrens

Refrens is an end-to-end lead management system that adapts to your sales process and automates it. Its comprehensive features help you with everything from automatically capturing leads from any platform to managing multiple sales pipelines, creating & sending quotations, and also keeping track of all your communication in a single place.

Pros

1. Automatically capture leads from your website, social media, and other platforms.
2. Create multiple sales pipelines, segment leads in different stages.
3. Communicate with leads over WhatsApp and Email, Keep track in one place.
4. Create quotations, invoices, etc. and send them over Email/WhatsApp, and track them.

Cons

1. Doesn’t have a mobile app.
2. Can’t run mass email campaigns.
3. Doesn’t have a Slack integration. 

10. Slack

Slack is a go-to tool for secure internal communication for both remote and on-premise workforces. In a remote work situation, the applications of Slack are even more varied and convenient. For instance, you can start a meeting with someone with one click with the huddle feature which also allows screen sharing. The tool comes with loads of integrations. Suppose, you make some suggestions on a Google doc, and the owner of the document will get an instant notification on a specific slack channel. 

Slack has a very powerful search feature. It also allows you to set up workflows. For instance, you can create a detailed workflow for bug fixes where you raise a ticket, explain the issue with images and screenshots, and the person working on the issue can report the issue is fixed and you can close the ticket. So, it’s much more than just a messaging tool, and the emojis are awesome. Slack comes for $8 per person per month. 

11. HackerEarth

HackerEarth is a global company that helps large enterprises recruit, evaluate, and upskill developers based on specific skills. The company’s platform enables recruiters to make the most accurate and informed decisions about candidates, improve hiring efficiencies, facilitate continuous learning and development, and ensure the right developers are matched with the right positions. HackerEarth is also a leading facilitator of online hackathons and coding challenges, where its community of over 7 million developers can upskill and practice for employment interviews. The company was founded in 2012 with offices in San Francisco and India.

Pros:

– Extensive library of 16000+ exclusive questions across 18+ roles and 900+ skills

– Services 40+ roles and 10+ frameworks

– Automated evaluation and benchmarking of candidates

– AI-driven platform designed and tested for bias-free assessments

– Integrates with major ACTS like Lever, ZOHO, JobVite, JazzHR, TalentHub

– Trusted by over 4000+ global tech companies

Conclusion

Having the right remote work tools is not optional if you want to unlock the potential of remote teams. Streamlining the collaborative processes is the key challenge when it comes to ensuring productivity and these tools help you gear up for that.