Nowadays, remote work is trending. It provides many benefits to employees to work from anywhere. But that is not how it has always been. Let’s see how it started.
When the industrial revolution happened back then, employees didn’t have many choices in choosing the workplace or the right boss. They only have one option: to work, no matter how abusive the boss is or how toxic the work environment is. To survive, one has to do a job.
However, this arrangement changed with the information revolution, and people started to work not just for survival purposes. They worked to gain high-level life standards.
Time went rapidly, and came the digital revolution, an era where information was available for free or almost free. This revolution changed how industries work and provided numerous benefits to employees and employers. People started looking for quality work and a workplace. Now the aim was not just the salary they get.
Technology has provided flexibility to humans to work from anywhere. That’s how remote work has become trending. Specifically, after the Covid-19 pandemic, people adapted to remote work.
Although remote work has provided fruitful benefits, there are also some downsides attached to this. Let’s look at some challenges the human resource department faces while working remotely.
HRs’ Challenges in Remote Work
- Tracking the attendance and productivity of the employees.
- Conveying the company’s culture.
- The communication gap increased due to remote working, and as a result, transparency and trust decreased.
- Data protection issues have been raised because of online hacking & external breaches. Therefore, it led to cyber security issues.
- Monitoring the application and web usage.
- Manage workforce staff in different time zones and flexible work schedules.
- Less employee recognition and not being able to provide feedback to improve.
- Attract and retain talent in this competition.
- Virtual recruiting challenges.
- Smooth employee onboarding and training.
Employees’ problems in Remote Work
- Struggle to get exposure to training and mentorship.
- Many distractions at home.
- Burnout increased because of remote work.
- Finding a reliable internet connection while they are working.
- Feeling lonely led to mental health issues.
However, technology is a boon for the human race to overcome these problems. Many remote work tools are available in the market to tackle the above mentioned problems.
Top 11 Best Remote Working Tools for HRs
1. WebWork
Webwork provides solutions to manage remote teams efficiently and effortlessly. The software offers an excellent user experience with its easy-to-use features. It is a time-tracking and employee management platform that offers attendance tracking, productivity reporting, web usage monitoring, task management, and employee communication capabilities.
Key Features
- Monitor employee activity in four screenshot modes
- Tasks management tool as per priority
- Time reports
- Productivity reports
- Web and applications usage tracking
- Mobile and desktop use tracking
- Invoice and billable contracts generating system
- Manual time adding (for offline activities)
- Roles and permission as per member type (hierarchy vice authority)
Pricing
Webwork gives a 14-day free trial. Their basic plan includes access to all the features for just $4.09 per user/month. The enterprise plan contains exclusive consultation and support, and the price will be custom as per the need of the company
2. iSmartRecruit
iSmartRecruit is a recruitment software that provides a world-class applicant tracking system (ATS) and recruitment CRM software for HR corporations and mass recruiters.
You can conduct a virtual hiring process for remote employees. In addition, the software automates manual recruiting tasks and helps recruiters to save time and costs.
It provides a complete service from job posting to onboarding and training the candidates. Also, the features help attract and retain the best talent after hiring.
Key Features
- Applicant tracking system
- Online assessment tools
- Candidate/self-service portal
- Email automation
- AI-based profile matching
- Candidate/client relationship management
- Career page integration
- Resume tracking and parsing tools
- Recruitment Chatbot
- Employee referral
- Custom hiring pipeline stages
- Reporting & Compliance
Pricing
Start-Up plan: $29 per user per month
Professional Plan: $59 per user per month (best recommended)
Enterprise plan: for big teams (15+ users) looking to grow their business. Contact the sales team.
Note: They accept Quarterly or Yearly payments only.
3. Slack
Slack enables companies to create channels for projects, teams, offices, and departments. Companies can create a space for employees to engage in conversation. It provides flexibility for private chat and offers outstanding written, voice, and video conversation features.
Key Features
- Workflow builder
- Channels (different departments & purposes)
- Saved items
- Private and personal chat options
- Slack connect – to collaborate with other teams
- Hurdles & clips to connect (Voice or video calls)
- Apps and integrations
Pricing
Pro plan: $2.67 per user/month: Unlimited message history, apps, and integrations, lightweight, voice-first huddles, and secure work channels.
Business plan: $4.59 per user/month: All the features of the pro plan, 99.99% guaranteed uptime, user provisioning and de-provisioning, SAML-based single sign-on, and data exports for all messages.
Enterprise plan: Custom prices as per the requirements.
4. Go To
Go To is a web conferencing and team meeting software to host virtual events, webinars, conferences, and live online training sessions. It provides access and support to remote employees to engage in online video calling forms.
Key Features
- Business messaging
- Secure content sharing
- Encrypted audio & video
- Passcode-protected meetings
- Screen sharing
- Custom backgrounds
- Presenter control
- Your online meeting room
- Join from your phone
- Webcam preview
- Meeting transcriptions
- Cloud recording
- Meeting diagnostic reports
Pricing
Professional plan: $12 organizer/month (150 participants)
Business plan: $16 organizer/month (250 participants)
Enterprise plan: Customization as per needs (up to 250 participants)
5. Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage and files hosting online tool which enables remote employees to save and sync files. Remote working teams can store and share the files via using Dropbox. Also, other team members can access the files from anywhere.
Dropbox ensures data safety and security by providing the latest encryption tech. It protects essential files and automatically saves them in the cloud. Its easy-to-use features deliver files in every format effortlessly.
Features
- Free storage & extend storage
- Data backup
- Cloud storage
- Encryption security
- File sharing
- Add & edit comments to file
- Admin for team management
- Real-time content collaboration
Pricing
For individuals: $9.99 user/month: 2 TB
Family package: $16.99/family/month: 2 TB – Up to 6 users
Professional package: $16.58 user/month: 3 TB
Standard package: $15/user/month: 5 TB: 3+ users
Advanced package: $24/user/month: As much space as needed: 3+ users
Enterprise package: as per the custom modifications and requirements
6. Zavvy
Zavvy‘s mission is to help organizations and employees acquire, grow, and fully use their capabilities. Zavvy helps create better employee experiences, so HR can create the workplace that people today are expecting. Plus, HR will save hours of repetitive busy work, so they have more time to focus on strategy and people, rather than drowning in manual processes.
Key Features
- Onboarding, preboarding, and event scheduling
- Learning management
- Manager training
- 360 feedback, career frameworks, and growth planning
- Ready-to-use templates
Pricing
Prices adjust to clients’ needs – without making them pay for modules you don’t want. Starting at 6€ per user/month.
7. Trello
Trello is the best project and task management tool used by work-from-home workers. Employees can manage projects and their workflow and track the tasks and activities of the project. The managers can create and assign tasks to the employees and track the progress report.
You can extend Trello’s capabilities with integrations aka power-ups to add features like time tracking, analytics, reporting, dashboarding, automation, communication, and collaboration.
Features
- Multiple boards per workspace
- Insights with dashboard
- Spreadsheet as a table view
- Visual organizing tasks
- App integration
- Automate workflows with Butler
Pricing
Standard package: $5 – Per user/month if billed annually ($6 billed monthly)
Premium package: $10 – Per user/month if billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly)
For enterprises: $17.5 – Per user/month – billed annually ($210.00 annual price per user)
8. ProofHub
ProofHub is project management, product management, and team collaboration software used by remote workers to manage everything in one place. Remote employees use ProofHub to plan, organize, collaborate, and deliver projects on time.
Features
- Table view to plan & organize projects
- Priority vise task assigning
- Gantt chart to visualize and schedule tasks
- Files and documents
- Chat, discussion, and email options for communication
- Multilingual
- Project overview & resource report
- Project progress and workload report
- IP restriction for security purposes
- Announcement to recognize achievement
Pricing
Basic plan: $45/month for 40 projects, core features, unlimited users, and 15GB of data storage.
Premium plan: $89/month for unlimited projects, 100GB of data storage, basic plan features access.
9. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is the productivity tracking and employee monitoring software built for remote working employees. It provides feedback analysis to reduce distractions and focus more on high-priority tasks.
Companies utilize this software to monitor and track attendance, create automatic reports, productivity reports, payroll management, and web and mobile usage tracking.
Features
- Time tracking & employee monitoring
- Online timesheets & payroll
- Distraction alerts
- Website, app & chat monitoring
- Client login access
- Project management & budgeting
- Productivity measuring & summary reports
- Integrations & API
- Screenshots, screen recording, & activity levels
- Email notifications
- Customization options
- Offline time tracking
Pricing
Basic plan: $70 user/year
Standard plan: $100 user/year
Premium plan: $200 user/year
10. Everhour
Everhour is a web-based tool for time tracking and visual planning used by HR and employee teams. It tracks the working hour of the employee or the online working team; based on that, it creates timesheets and reports.
Features
- Time tracking & project budgeting
- Time card calculator
- Weekly timesheet template
- Reporting
- Time tracking audits
- Browser extension
- Chrome time tracking extension
- Time tracking with screenshots
- Visual planning
- Invoice generator
Pricing
Lite version: 6$/ user/month, for up to 10 users
For teams: 10$/ user/month, starting, for unlimited users
11. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is an essential tool for data safety and security purposes. This VPN provides access to the tools used by employees while securing the private information of the worker and the company.
ExpressVPN enables remote employees to access, browse and stream online privately and securely.
Features
- IP address masking
- Speed test
- 24/7 live chat support
- Trusted server technology
- Threat manager
- Light way protocol
- Private DNS
- Public wi-fi safety
- VPN split tunneling
Pricing
For monthly subscription: $12.95 per month
For six months: $9.99 per month
For a yearly subscription: $8.32 per month
12. SpringRecruit
Looking for a free applicant tracking system for employers? Look no further than SpringRecruit! The platform streamlines the hiring process, making it quick and easy to attract interested candidates, evaluate their performance, and select the right talent for your organization. Whether you’re a start-up or an established business, SpringRecruit is the ultimate solution for modern hiring needs.
Features
- Customizable board-view
- Seamless Interview Scheduling & Automated Reminders
- Step Up Your Employer Branding
- Automated Assessments & Resume Parser
- Effective Collaboration
Pricing
Free-forever. Happy hiring!
13. Brosix
Brosix is a leading team communication and collaboration platform designed to enhance productivity and streamline communication within organizations. With its robust features and emphasis on security, Brosix empowers teams to work efficiently and effectively, no matter where they are located.
Key Features:
- Secure Instant Messaging: Brosix is a powerful and secure instant messaging platform designed for team communication. It prioritizes security and offers end-to-end encryption for private and closed networks.
- User and Group Management: The Team Manager can easily manage user accounts, control contact lists, and organize users into groups, enabling efficient internal communication.
- Chat Rooms for Collaboration: Brosix offers chat rooms for groups, facilitating collaboration and communication within departments, teams, or specific groups. Users can be automatically added or removed from chat rooms.
- Multiple Administrators: Brosix allows the assignment of administrative permissions to multiple users, ensuring efficient network management and distributed control.
- P2P File Transfer: Brosix enables secure peer-to-peer file transfers, allowing fast and efficient sharing of files of any size. It ensures data is sent directly without intermediaries, enhancing security and speed.
- Real-time Communication: Brosix supports various communication features, including text chat, voice chat, video chat, and broadcast messaging. It helps keep teams connected and improves productivity.
- Integration and Customization: Brosix offers integrations with external services through the Notifications API. It also provides customization options, such as branding the network with a company logo.
- Administration and Control: Brosix provides a web control panel with settings for managing user accounts, user groups, and user permissions. It allows customization of the team network and offers full control over data storage.
- Mobile and Web Applications: Brosix provides mobile applications for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to communicate securely on the go. The web application can be accessed from any web browser without installation.
- Data Security: Brosix prioritizes data security and allows customization of security settings for user data on the network. It supports end-to-end encryption and facilitates integration with preferred antivirus software.
- Live Chat and Notifications: Brosix offers a customizable live chat for websites, enabling smooth communication between a company and its customers. The Notifications API allows integration with external services to receive notifications conveniently within the Brosix network.
Pricing:
Brosix offers flexible pricing plans to cater to businesses of all sizes:
– Startup Plan: Free for up to 3 users, control over user accounts, private team network, text chat and whiteboard – ideal for small teams starting with essential features.
– Business Plan: Starting at $4 per user per month, unlimited user accounts, everything in the Startup plan + video and audio chat, chat rooms, P2P file transfer, screen sharing and screenshot – advanced features for improved collaboration and productivity.
– Premium Plan: Starting at $6 per user per month, full control over user accounts, everything in the Business plan + multiple administrators, security levels for user data access, chat rooms control, chat rooms for groups.
It’s a Wrap!
In conclusion, modern tech changed the way of work and provided us with a chance to work from anywhere. Although there are consequences to working from anywhere, HR and employees face various obstacles in remote work settings.
But tech has a solution for almost everything. Many web-based software and tools are available in the market to help tackle work-from-home issues.
The remote work tools we have seen are the best tools for HR to manage and communicate with remote employees. If you want to know which is the best suitable tool for you, then list down your needs and, according to your requirements, choose the best from this list.
Author Bio:
Nirmal Rokad is a dedicated and creative content writer at iSmartRecruit – ATS and CRM software. He passionately discovers and writes about technology, innovations, and software development solutions. His primary focus is to thoroughly research the pain points of recruiters and staffing agencies and provide tech solutions to overcome those obstacles easily.