If you’re already using Google Workspace, you already have access to Google Drive. While Dropbox is more expensive than Google Drive and many other cloud storage services, we love it because it just works.

One of the highest-leverage things you can do to promote more efficient remote collaboration and to increase productivity is to invest in cloud-based collaboration tools that promote asynchronous work. Without clear goalposts, it’s almost impossible for remote teams to focus. This creates all sorts of problems — when team members aren’t on the same page, remote collaboration and subsequent communication can quickly descend into confusing chaos.

Top 10 Remote Work And Work From Home Books In 2022

You also give yourself the chance to learn where your team members are focused, and how they’re feeling about it, thus informing your leadership tactics and decisions moving forward. When a team member feels as if they are a valued, crucial part of the whole — and that their work is crucial to the success of the team — they are more likely to give their all. Sometimes, the reason your team is struggling to work together comes down to a lack of face-to-face connection between team leaders and team members. With solid leadership training, one can be sure that the issues which arise from managing a remote or hybrid team are not coming from the top, down. It seemed like he was aloof to their concerns and continued to use the same tactics that had landed him the management position so many years ago.

According to Owl Labs and Buffer, remote workers spend at least an extra 26 hours working every month. Constant notifications mean that remote workers spend more time checking messages and instant messaging. While technology problems are not solely a remote work problem — traditional offices rely on many of the same tools — they’re certainly more of an issue for distributed teams. If your remote team uses Slack, all channels should be public by default and accessible by anyone. Direct messages should be reserved only for personal or private information. KPIs help keep remote workers focused and motivated by communicating as clearly as possible what the task at hand is and what remote employees should be working towards and prioritizing. Basically, everything that remote employees need to know to do their best work and communicate as effectively as possible with co-workers.

Now let’s take this discussion one step ahead and talk about some best practices that you must follow for remote collaboration. Remote collaboration is the perfect work culture that provides the opportunity to foster new and distinctive ideas.

All The Remote Collaboration Tools You Need To Drive Productivity And Efficiency

During the 2020 COVID pandemic and subsequent shutdown, many teams were forced to go virtual, prompting fears that productivity rates would plummet. Shockingly, however, that’s not what happened for many organizations.

Conquering challenges together is part of what makes teamwork rewarding, but remote collaboration doesn’t have to be one of them. Successful teams use tools that remove obstacles and streamline redundant and time-consuming tasks so you can focus on solving creative problems.

New hires, who have never met their colleagues in person, often remain a face on a screen. It’s hard for coworkers to get to know them and what makes them tick.

• If you’re tired of having badly timed meetings interrupt your flow, you need to sign up to Dewo.
• Clarify the apps you will use and the hours in which it’s acceptable to contact your colleagues.
• The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences.
• It even has a feature that creates a history trail of all edits & screenshots to help with reworking annotations later.

Meetings are not only for being in constant communication with your remote team but also, they can help to raise the team spirit and boost productivity. Meetings and calls are necessary to take everyone involved in the tasks that are being done, and of course, this will generate more sync within your team. Remote work guides to help you collaborate more effectively with a distributed team. Keep track of time, https://remotemode.net/ particularly important when your teams work across different time zones. Follow, you can create collaborative agendas, delegate and follow up on assigned tasks, and send meeting notes out afterward as a recap. Since the shift to remote work, employees say they are less creative. Many express that they are most creative when talking with colleagues, which is more difficult when our offices are separated.

Best Remote Collaboration Tools For Project Management

For example, technological companies use specific tools for the different departments they have. Everyone likes to be motivated and feel that your work really matters. You may find a way to let your team knows their work is being noticed.

• Working remotely comes with enough challenges of its own, you don’t need your intranet to be another one.
• It is one of the best tools for remote collaboration as it can be used on all types of devices working on various platforms including Windows, Android, iOS and Mac etc.
• It offers all the project tools like team chat, time tracking, calendar, etc.
• Contracts and documents can be assigned to users in different hierarchies to help maintain control and assign responsibility to relevant team members or clients.
• Intranets drive employee engagement and productivity by being a hub for collaboration, information exchange, and communication.
• A manager would be better off re-evaluating their current measure of productivity, and working to support remote employees with what they need to do the job.

These few hours may not be long enough for real-time collaboration, but it’s the perfect window for virtual meetings and for team members to “catch up” and plan before continuing to work asynchronously. This world famous remote collaboration tool keeps the member of your remote teams connected with each other through its free video call service. You can link up with up to 10 persons at a time Best Remote Team Collaboration Practices with its video conferencing option. Skype also allows crystal clear voice calls and directly calling the phones along with sending files and documents to your team. It can be used on all types of computing devices including desktops, tablets and mobile phones. New technologies and revolutions in AI have made it possible to collaborate seamlessly, and in real-time across global teams.

Video Center

A remote project doesn’t necessarily require constant remote interaction. This clarifies the task and quantifies the amount of planning and interaction required. When it comes down to it, remote collaborations possess the capacity to foster new and unique ideas. This doesn’t necessarily only have to occur in collaborative brainstorming sessions, but also when it comes to problem-solving or other creative workarounds. When all is said and done, it is entirely possible that remote collaboration could lead to the idea that catapults the final product to greatness.

Distance is the operating parameter around which remote collaboration operates. To that end, bear in mind that remote collaboration’s distance is not just physical, but also operational and affinitive. Operational distance refers to that of communication between teams of various sizes, as well as the gap between the skill levels of different team members.

Access To A Larger Talent Pool

Days are gone when it was hard for managers to track the productivity of the employees sitting in a remote location or collaborate with them on a task. With better visibility of work through technical tools, employers have become more confident in offering remote work, now. When a remote workforce is spread around the globe, businesses are likely to experience challenges and ineffective collaboration.

• But the FreshBooks platform also offers an online collaboration feature that makes it easy for remote teams to manage and partner on projects—making it a great project management tool for remote teams.
• When working remotely, one of the most crucial factors to success is keeping on track with the working progress, and using Trello is a handy way to do it.
• It even has some useful training videos & tutorials to help newcomers get to grips with the platform quickly.

OpenXcell has a highly creative user experience research and design team. Separate your live chat discussion topics to streamline communication and organise information. You should create different channels on the basis of the team, topic, or individual projects. It’s also a good idea to create a channel solely for social communication and team bonding. Collaboration is one of the main hurdles to remote work, but it’s one that can be easily overcome with the right approach and the right tools. The work-from-home lifestyle is the new norm, and it’s not going anywhere soon.

Increased productivity is one of the main benefits reported by teams who have switched to remote collocation. Remote employees ditch their commute, saving an average of 54 minutes per day while benefiting from fewer interruptions, noise, and more efficient asynchronous communication. These benefits of remote collaboration compound and are estimated to lift the productivity of the entire U.S. economy by 5%. Remote collaboration is not only increasingly more possible, it is increasingly more the norm in our modern age. Being able to do it with your wider team is key for the overall productivity and success of your company. With the introduction of more and more online collaboration tools, getting results, despite being in separate locations, is achievable. These tools are bridging the gap between being in the same office with team members and being online with the same team members.

This proofing software was created specifically to improve creative proofing. This is achieved by providing more context to client feedback & shortening the review cycle. This helps to eliminate many of the inefficiencies that creatives typically encounter & gets client approvals back in half the time. Users can collaborate on documents & track project updates & inventory. Plus, with its range of templates, teams can easily schedule meetings that best fits their agenda. It keeps the team connected through transparent communication design & ensures that everyone is in the know. Google Hangouts is a popular communication platform that includes both direct messaging & video calls.

They are the team members who have a seemingly endless list of ideas, but who may not be the most practical of problem solvers. Now that we’ve framed the right challenge to solve, it’s time to roll up our proverbial sleeves and begin to think creatively about ways to solve the challenge at hand. It’s time to expand our thinking beyond what is and ponder on what could be. Each member on your team has a unique way of seeing the world, of processing information, of approaching problems, and of coming up with solutions. Neither of them understood the value of the other’s thinking preferences—or how important each of them was to the running of the team.

Encourage Virtual Social Spaces To Connect And Unwind

One of the superpowers of a remote team is embracing the ability to work asynchronously. Unfortunately, this can also make large group collaboration more challenging. There are some problems you might want a relatively large group to work together — for example, planning an annual onsite.

Remote Collaboration: How To Work Effectively With A Distributed Team

Hence it is very important to define the responsibilities of each team member. Dedicating some time to non-work-related activities to clear the mind is immensely helpful for balancing the work stress. Therefore it is very essential to hold some fun activities which will also help the team members to know each other better. For instance, You can establish free discussions on random topics, held online trivia games, or introduce some team-building activities to teach cooperation.