Tools To Help You Get The Most Out Of Your Virtual Employees

Outsourcing makes it so much easier to hire talented people, but you still need to provide your virtual employees with the right tools if you want to get the most out of them.  That’s why we have compiled a list of tools that can help you boost your virtual employees’ productivity and efficiency.  Read on.

Tools That Can Help Your Virtual Employees

Team Communication Tools

Slack is a great tool for communicating with your virtual employees

Slack is one of the most popular workplace communication tools today as it is specifically designed to streamline communication and organize conversations.  For online teams that are collaborating on projects, Slack is a godsend.  Slack is very convenient because it allows you to access it across different devices, and it is always backed up since your data is synced to the cloud.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free (basic features only)

Standard (small and medium-sized businesses)

Plus (larger businesses or those seeking advanced administration tools)

Enterprise Grid (Large businesses or those in highly regulated industries)

Everybody uses Zoom these days. Perhaps you should use it as well to keep in touch with your virtual employees

 

Zoom is a cloud-based video communications app that is everywhere these days.  Everyone and their grandma are literally using it right now because it’s so easy to use, and its free plan is fairly generous.  Aside from video and audio conferencing, Zoom also has a chat feature so you can converse with other participants of a meeting via text messages.  It allows you to record meetings as well so you can play them back later on.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

$14.99/month/license (for small teams)

$19.99/month/license (small & medium-sized businesses)

*Starting at 10 licenses for $1,999/year

$19.99/month/license (large enterprises)

*Starting at 100 licenses for $19,990/year

Microsoft Teams

With a free Microsoft Teams account, you get unlimited chats, audio and video calls, 10GB of team file, and 2GB of personal storage per user.  It also supports full integration with Microsoft 365 applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.  If your business is already using Office 365, you’ll find that Microsoft Teams is already included in your plan.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Microsoft Teams is also available as part of Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions

You should try Krisp if you want to remove all that background noise while speaking with your virtual employees

Krisp is a noise-canceling software available for Windows Mac and iOS platforms.  It shuts out all background noises for incoming and outgoing calls, so it is a very handy tool if you’re looking for enhanced clarity in your conversations.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Pro ($5 per month)

Teams ($5 per user/month)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

Loom is a user-friendly screencasting tool that allows you to record your screen in video form so you can share it with your virtual employees.

Loom is a user-friendly screencasting tool that allows you to record your screen in video form so you can share it with your virtual employees.  It is available for Windows, Mac, and iOS platforms.  It also has a Chrome extension that will allow you to use it on Android devices.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Basic (free)

Pro ($8 per month)

Business ($12 per month)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

Time Tracking/Performance Monitoring Tools

Monitor your virtual employees with Hubstaff

Hubstaff is designed to help businesses maximize the productivity of their virtual employees.  Aside from time tracking, Hubstaff also allows you to monitor your virtual employees’ activities during work hours, and it has a payroll feature that gives employers the option to make manual or automatic payments.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Basic ($7/user/month)

Premium ($10/user/month)

Enterprise ($20/user/month)

toggl track

As part of a comprehensive rebrand, Toggl is now known as Toggl Track.  But underneath the new name is the same easy-to-use time-tracking app with well over a million users worldwide.  They also have a generous free plan to get you started.  The one feature missing here is the ability to take automated screenshots to help track activity.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free (up to 5 users)

Starter ($10/user/month)

Premium ($20/user/month)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

HARVEST

Harvest is a time-tracking app with invoicing, expense tracking, reporting, and team management features to keep your projects running smoothly.  It has no screenshot monitoring feature, though.  Harvest is used by over 50,000 companies worldwide.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Pro ($12/person/month)

Time Doctor

Time Doctor is one of the best performance monitoring apps on the market.  Aside from time tracking, it also provides website and app monitoring, screenshot monitoring, and a handful of other features that can help increase your virtual employees’ productivity.  It offers the option to automatically calculate your payroll based on the hours tracked as well.  Time Doctor doesn’t have a free version.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Basic ($7/month per user)

Standard ($10/month per user)

Premium ($20/month per user)

Project Management Tools

Trello is a great project management tool that you and your virtual employees can use

Trello is a web-based collaboration app that enables you to organize your business workflow in a board-view style.  Each project is represented by a board containing a list of tasks (cards).  Trello is one of the most used project management apps, thanks to its simple format and ease of use.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Business Class ($12.50/month per user)

Enterprise (pricing depends on the number of users – starts at $17.50/month per user)

asana

Asana stands out because of its ease of use and robust features.  Designed to help users create a virtual workspace where they can collaborate and manage their daily tasks, Asana enables users to create tasks, assign them to specific members, set deadlines, and communicate with other users on tasks or projects.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Basic (free)

Premium ($10.99/user/month if billed annually, $13.49 if billed monthly)

Business ($24.99/user/month if billed annually, $30.49 if billed monthly)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

teamwork.

Teamwork is a highly-customizable project management tool with an interface that offers a variety of views – from Gantt charts to Kanban-style boards.  It allows users to add milestones and sub-tasks and use the notebook feature to share project notes.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Pro ($10/month per user, starting from 5 users)

Premium ($18/month per user, starting from 5 users)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

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wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform that is suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises.  The app allows you to visualize every project step, and it makes creating workflows easier as you switch between Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and calendars.

Key features:

Pricing:

Free

Professional ($9.80/user/month)

Business ($24.80/user/month)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

File Sharing/Storage

Cloud storage has become an essential tool in the modern business world as it is used to store, share, back up, and protect files.  And for business owners who work with virtual employees, an online file storage service is absolutely necessary because you don’t want to waste time passing files back and forth via email.  That’s why we’re going to take a look at the top three file sharing solutions and see what sets them apart from each other.

Use Dropbox to keep all your files in one place so your virtual employees can easily access them

Dropbox allows you to access all your files and folders directly from your Windows PC, Linux, Mac, as well as your iOS and Android devices.  You can also sign in to dropbox.com and access everything you’ve stored on Dropbox from any browser.

Key Features:

*Basic, Plus, and Family accounts can recover any file edits or deletions made within the last 30 days.  Professional and Business accounts can recover any file edits or deletions made within the previous 180 days.

Pricing:

Individual Plans

Business Plans

Google Drive

Same as Dropbox, you can access any file you have on Google Drive from any device with an internet connection.  By default, you get 15 GB of storage space for free shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos when you sign up for a Google account.  And if you need even more space, you can sign up for Google One.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

$1.99/month ($19.99/year)

$2.99/month ($29.99/year)

$9.99/month ($99.99/year)

OneDrive

OneDrive is a file-sharing system developed by Microsoft, so it’s supposed to integrate well with Windows 10 and Office 365.  It keeps deleted items in its recycle bin for a maximum of 30 days and a minimum of 3 days

Key Features:

Pricing:

For home

*You also get 1TB of storage if you purchase the Microsoft 365 Personal plan at the Microsoft store for $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month.  For Microsoft 365 Family subscribers ($99.99/year or $9.99 per month), 6 TB is available for up to six users at 1000GB per person.

For business

*Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($5.00/user/month when billed yearly) and Microsoft 365 Business Standard ($12.50/user/month when billed yearly) subscribers will also get 1TB of storage per user

Password Manager (To Securely Share Your Password With Your Virtual Employees)

Securely share your password with your virtual employees with LastPass

LastPass has the best free tier of any password manager.  It’s a good option for those on a tight budget, and it’s the perfect tool for someone who’s going to be working with virtual employees.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Premium ($3/month when billed annually)

Families ($4/month when billed annually)

Business plans

MFA ($3/month when billed annually)

Teams ($4/month when billed annually)

Enterprise ($6/month when billed annually)

Identity ($8/month when billed annually)

DASHLANE

Dashlane is one of the biggest names in password management.  The free version of Dashlane is not as good as the free version of LastPass since it only supports one device, but it’s still capable of storing up to 50 passwords, and it has a two-factor authentication system.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Premium ($3.33 per month or $39.99 annually)

Premium Family ($4.99 per month or $59.99 annually)

Team ($5 per month per user, billed annually)

Business ($8 per month per user, billed annually)

Social Media Management Tools (For Virtual Employees Who Manage Your Social Profiles)

Need a tool to help your virtual employees manage your social media accounts? Use SocialBee

SocialBee is a social media management software that lets you schedule posts, import links directly, or via RSS or Pocket.  It can save you countless hours by letting you recycle evergreen content.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Bootstrap ($19/month)

Accelerate ($39/month)

Pro ($79/month)

buffer

Buffer is another social media management tool that can make life easier for you and your virtual employees.  The app is divided into two groups of features:

* Buffer Reply, their social media monitoring and engagement tool, is no longer available as of June 1st, 2020.

Key Features:

Publish

Analyze

Pricing:

Publish

Analyze

Hootsuite

Hootsuite can help you and your virtual employees save a lot of time by letting you keep track of all your social network channels in one place.  Their clients include McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Virgin, FOX, and Sony Music.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Professional ($19/month on annual billing)

Team ($99/month on annual billing)

Business ($599/month on annual billing)

Enterprise (custom pricing)

Remote Desktop Software

A handy way for virtual employees to access computers that are in your office, especially those working in it-related fields.

TeamViewer

TeamViewer is a remote access software that allows you to connect to your devices anytime, anywhere.  Need to fix something on your office computer while you’re away?  The app will enable you to do just that.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Business ($49/monthly)

Premium ($99/monthly)

Corporate ($199/monthly)

Visual Marketing Tools (For Virtual Employees Who Specializes In Graphic Design)

Canva

While designing is a skill that not everyone is adept at, Canva allows anyone to create graphics, posters, slideshows, and of course, social media content.  All you have to do is to drag and drop your images into the layout, and you’re ready to go.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Pro ($9.95/user/month, billed yearly)

Enterprise ($30.00/user/month, billed yearly)

 

snappa

 

Snappa is an easy-to-use online graphic design platform that can help anyone create online graphics in a snap.

Key Features:

Pricing:

Free

Pro ($10/month, billed yearly)

Team ($20/month, billed yearly)

So that’s our list of tools that can help you increase the productivity of your virtual employees.  Feel free to message us if you think we missed anything, or know of an app that is better than the ones we mentioned.

 

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