Top Remote Team Management Tools — March 2021

Everything you need to know to effectively manage remote workers, foster a welcoming company culture, and achieve business success in the process

The best remote team management tools allow companies to engage employees, collaborate, and grow their business. Remote work has been growing in popularity — even before social distancing/the COVID-19 crisis forced many companies to operate remotely. According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com, remote work in the U.S. has grown 173% since 2005, a trend that will only continue to increase. As such, software programs and remote team management tools have become increasingly necessary. After all, they help companies maximize productivity, collaboration, and culture — all of which are critical for organizational success.

But as you probably already know, there are seemingly endless options. Some help companies better manage their remote teams, while others help remote workers be more productive. In this guide, we’re going to help you figure out which solutions are right for your organization with a list of top tools, what they cover, and why you might need them; common mistakes and how to fix them; implementation guidelines; and more.

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Top Remote Team Management Tools

Here are the best remote work tools for companies looking to engage employees, collaborate, and grow. We'll be adding to this list frequently as we discover more awesome tools to include.

Slack

Slack

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Why we love it

:

Slack's messaging platform has spread virally throughout the corporate world and is now a mainstay of corporate communications. Asynchronous standups, 1:1 messaging, or employee resource groups and so much more can be hosted on this platform. In addition, they have a large and growing ecosystem of apps that are native to Slack from employee recognition to notifications related to marketing, sales, engineering, or recruiting.

Slack

Customers

Uber, Target, Fox, Ameritrade, Intuit, Time, One Medical, Oracle

Slack

Stats

  • Over 750,000 companies use Slack to get work done
  • Slack integrates with over 2,200 apps using prebuilt modules

Slack

Pricing

Slack has a free plan with limitations on message history access. Free plan customers can only view the last 10,000 of their team’s messages and the rest is archived unless an upgrade is made to any of the following paid plans:

  • Standard: Suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. This plan costs $6.67 per person per month when billed annually. 
  • Plus: Suitable for larger businesses or those seeking advanced administration tools. This plan costs $12.50 per person per month when billed annually. 
  • Enterprise Grid: Suitable for very large businesses or those in highly regulated industries. The pricing of this plan varies according to the size and scope of your operation. Contact Slack’s sales team to learn more. 
Get a quote

Best For

Companies of all sizes looking for a robust team communication tool.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Slack
 to learn more

Trainual

Trainual

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Why we love it

:

Trainual helps companies keep track of all the how-to's in their company which means faster onboarding of new employees and less time searching for the best way to do XYZ once they are on the job. This is a great way to document your company's playbooks for everything from customer facings roles to engineering. And, this sort of knowledge documentation becomes all that more important for remote companies.

Trainual

Customers

IronMan, UPS, Stanford University, Design Pickle, Harmon Brothers.

Trainual

Stats

Trainual

Pricing

Trainual has two plans with fixed pricing:

  • Pro: This plan allows up to 25 users to create unlimited documentation and gives them access to templates for training, tests, etc. This plan costs $99 a month when billed annually
  • Premium: Users on this plan (up to 25) get everything from the Pro plan plus phone support/coaching, stock image library access, and more. This plan costs $149 a month when billed annually

A custom plan can also be created for larger companies upon request.

Get a quote

Best For

Medium to large-sized companies looking to streamline the way they train their new hires.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Trainual
 to learn more

PapayaGlobal

PapayaGlobal

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Why we love it

:

Remote work means employees all over the world. It probably also means contractors who work for you part time. Whether you are paying construction workers in South Africa or part time software engineers in Australia, PapayaGlobal is a payroll provider who can handle your needs. They'll also serve as the employer of record for your employees so that you can take advantage of group buying power on benefits.

PapayaGlobal

Customers

Toyota, GDIT, Microsoft, Wix, Teradata, Ncino

PapayaGlobal

Stats

Papaya works in 140+ countries.

PapayaGlobal

Pricing

Papaya has 3 plans:

  • Payroll: In this plan, Papaya runs and manages your entire payroll process for one, all-inclusive fee ranging from $20 - $100 per employee per month. 
  • Global EOR: In this plan, Papaya’s in-country partners will serve as employers of record and assume responsibility for payroll, workforce management, benefits, compliance, and more. The pricing of this plan ranges from $770- $1000 per employee per month.‍
  • Contractor Management & IC Compliance: With this plan, you can outsource particular services to a domestic or foreign contractor. The pricing of this plan starts from $25 per employee per month.
Get a quote

Best For

Medium to large-sized companies looking for a method to pay employees and independent contractors in different countries.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
PapayaGlobal
 to learn more

Lessonly

Lessonly

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Why we love it

:

From small companies to the Fortune 500, employee learning and development is incredibly important. Remote work means new challenges for onboarding and upskilling workforces. Lessonly's simple to use learning management system allows you to quickly build and deploy training materials. They also have a host of content around remote work specifically.

Lessonly

Customers

HelloFresh, Trunk Club, McAfee, Salesloft, Jostens, Lending Home

Lessonly

Stats

Lessonly has helped over 3 million learners from Fortune 100 enterprises to local businesses.

Lessonly

Pricing

Lessonly has two plans:

  • Pro: This plan includes Lessonly’s training software, intuitive lesson builder, interactive quizzes & surveys, automation & triggers, training event tracking, and integrations. Pro plan customers also get assigned a personal Customer Experience Manager
  • Pro+Coaching: This plan includes everything from Lessonly’s Pro package, plus Lessonly Practice, Coaching, Conversations, and Certifications.

The pricing of the above plans isn’t disclosed on Lessonly’s website. Contact their sales team for a price quote accordingly to the size and scope of your operation.

Get a quote

Best For

Companies of all sizes wanting to streamline the way to provide training to their employees.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Lessonly
 to learn more

Mistro

Mistro

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Why we love it

:

Mistro easily provides benefits and perks in over 200 countries, from gym memberships to healthcare to equipment.

Mistro was created specifically for the newly hybrid workplace. Therefore, rolling out benefits and perks to your remote workforce is easier. Mistro allows for detailed customization based on region, team members, and tenure, so you don't have to worry about forcing a rigid structure on your global team.

Mistro

Customers

Mistro

Stats

  • Featured on Buffer's and AngelList's 2020 State of Remote Work
  • Featured on Remote-How's Rising Stars
  • Can be used in 200+ countries

Mistro

Pricing

Get a quote

Best For

Mistro is best for large remote teams that wants to offer a wide range of perks and benefits.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Mistro
 to learn more

Peakon

Peakon

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Why we love it

:

In a remote environment, employee engagement software is an essential tool to measure your culture, and ensure your employee population stays connected to their work. Peakon allows companies to get feedback and act to built a better work environment. This is especially powerful for fast changing companies who need to stay on top of how their employees are feeling with new work norms.

Peakon

Customers

EasyJet, Verizon, Nando's, Pret, Capgemini

Peakon

Stats

  • Peakon is trusted by 1000+ of the world's best workplaces
  • 157,209,657 employee survey responses
  • 28,933,431 employee comments
  • 160 countries represented

Peakon

Pricing

Peakon has a three-tiered pricing structure: 

  • Essential: This plan offers baseline engagement features, a mobile app, and 24-hour online support. ‍
  • Business: This plan provides everything from the Essential plan, but adds personalized benchmarking, custom insights, action plans, and HRIS integrations. You'd also have a dedicated Customer Success consultant.
  • Premier: With this plan, you'll receive everything previously mentioned, plus micro-learning sessions, attrition prediction, hierarchy mapping, business impact metrics, and unlimited custom dashboards. You all have extended Customer Success support and change management training.

The pricing of the above plans isn’t disclosed on Peakon’s website. Contact their sales team for a price quote according to the size and scope of your operation.

Get a quote

Best For

Large and enterprise-sized organizations who can put all of Peakon's features to good use.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Peakon
 to learn more

Zoom

Zoom

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Why we love it

:

Zoom has become the go-to video conferencing solution. It started with sales, and now is ubiquitous for 1:1 meetings, small groups, and even large scale webinars. While not perfect, their video conferencing is still the best on the market and a key for remote teams that want to organize happy hours, coffee chats, or meetings from disparate locations.

Zoom

Customers

Uber, Zendesk, Logitech, Veeva, Rakuten, Atlassian, Nasdaq, Western Union

Zoom

Stats

  • Zoom has sold more than 1 million Zoom Phone seats around the world.
  • Zoom was named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions and a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, Worldwide.

Zoom

Pricing

Zoom has 5 plans:

  • Basic: This plan is suited for personal meetings. Anyone can get this plan for free. 
  • Pro: This plan is suited for small teams and is priced at $149.90 per year per license.
  • Business: This plan suits small & mid-sized businesses and is priced at $199.90 per year per license.
  • Zoom United Business: This plan is for large businesses and is priced at $350 per year per license.‍
  • Enterprise: As the name entails, this plan is designed for enterprises. The price of this plan varies according to the size and needs of the business.
Get a quote

Best For

Companies of all sizes looking to conduct online meetings - be it individual 1:1s or group sessions - as well as online events more efficiently.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Zoom
 to learn more

Caroo

Caroo

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Why we love it

:

Caroo is a software-enabled employee gifting service. Companies of all sizes can use it to recognize certain employees for their performance or to simply cheer all employees with company-wide gifting. Caroo has different gift boxes to choose from; depending on the box chosen, these boxes can include anything from healthy snacks, premium gifts, and team-building activity items, delivered directly to your employees’ homes.

Caroo

Customers

Google, Apple, GoodPx, Nike, Hulu, Peloton.

Caroo

Stats

  • Over 500,000 employees are happy with the service they’ve received from Caroo.

Caroo

Pricing

Caroo has 3 packages that are priced as follows: 

  • Nourish: The pricing of the Nourish box starts at $26.95 and is shipped for free. This box can pack up to 30 delicious snacks from innovative brands. 
  • Inspire + Connect: This box packs premium-themed gifts and team-building activities. The pricing of this box starts at $53.95 plus free shipping.
  • Concierge: Eligible for teams of 50 or more, the Concierge box is fully customizable and can include anything from premium snacks, wine, electronics, productivity supplies and more. The pricing of this box varies according to its contents.

Caroo also has seasonal boxes that pack season-appropriate snacks. The pricing of seasonal boxes starts at $33.95 plus free shipping.

Get a quote

Best For

Companies of all sizes looking to reward or simply delight their employees regardless of the occasion.

Worth Checking Out:

Caroo donates meals to families in need for every box delivered. 17,643,237 meals have been donated so far.

Visit 
Caroo
 to learn more

Asana

Asana

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Why we love it

:

Asana allows remote teams to stay organized across many different and complex team-based projects. Whether you are running a content calendar or building a new piece of software, their project management suite will allow you to manage, assign, and track work.

Asana

Customers

Vodafone, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Slack, Deloitte, Google, Uber, Spotify, Sky, Avon, PayPal, The New Yorker

Asana

Stats

  • Asana is used by more than a million teams in 190 countries.
  • Asana integrates with over 100 different 3rd party tools.

Asana

Pricing

Asana has 4 plans:

  • Basic: Suitable for individuals or teams just getting started with project management. This plan is completely free of charge.‍
  • Premium: Suitable for teams that need to create project plans with confidence. This plan costs $10.99 per user per month when billed annually.‍
  • Business: Suitable for teams and companies that need to manage work across initiatives. This plan costs $24.99 per user per month when billed annually.‍
  • Enterprise: Suitable for organizations that need additional security, control, and support. The pricing of this plan varies according to the size and scope of your operation. Contact Asana’s sales team to learn more.
Get a quote

Best For

Companies of all sizes looking to manage projects and collaborate more efficiently.

Worth Checking Out:

Visit 
Asana
 to learn more

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Use-Cases: Why Use Remote Team Management Software

For the uninitiated, remote work means employees are working from outside of the office, typically from their homes. This term is almost exclusively applied to white collar knowledge workers who are doing most of their work via computers or communication that can be accomplished across disparate locations.

From an HR perspective, remote work allows for many benefits including  access new talent pools as now you are not limited to your current geography — but it comes with its own set of challenges (more on that below). Simply put, there is something to be said for the collaboration and teamwork among employees that work in the same office, which is difficult to replicate with a remote team. Fortunately, remote team management software helps make it easier to replicate so your employees still feel like they are a valuable part of your organization. 

With that, here are common use-cases for top remote work tools: 

  • Video Conferencing: Companies like Zoom help bring remote employees “face to face,” which in turn can improve communication and lead to more effective collaboration. Use video conferencing for one-on-one meetings or large group meetings.
  • Team Communication/Messaging: Email isn’t the only way for employees and team members to communicate. Platforms like Slack provide instant messaging services on a one-to-one basis or in group chats.
  • Employee Engagement: Get feedback from remote employees using tools like Peakon, which let you plan, track and measure the impact of your initiatives on your people and business as a whole. 
  • Company Culture: To bolster a sense of community and company culture, platforms like Slack and Zoom allow teams to interact more socially. For example, teams can create Slack channels dedicated to more personal topics like parenting or specific hobbies. And Zoom can be used for coffee breaks, lunch hours, or happy hours. 
  • International Payroll and Benefits: Whether you have distributed teams or an entirely remote workforce, how you offer benefits and perks requires different resources than a company with a single office. Fortunately, platforms like Mistro exist to help you provide benefits packages across 200 countries while solutions like Papaya Global help you automate payroll, reduce global payroll costs and ensure compliance with local laws.
  • Time and Attendance Tracking: Don’t worry about remote workers not getting their work done. You can use remote work tools to easily track their time, gauge app and website usage, and more.
  • Remote Worker Job Boards: Looking to hire remote workers? Post your openings on job boards specific to that talent-type.
  • Screening Remote Workers: Conduct an interview and screening process for remote workers that lets you really get to know them virtually and understand how they work, how they structure their day, etc.
  • Productivity & Project Management: Take your to-do lists up a notch with project management tools that track deadlines, collaborators, progress updates, and more. These tools help ensure everyone is on the same page regarding who is doing what, when.‍
  • Onboarding and Training: Automate onboarding processes with web-based policies, playbooks, and trainings — and hold them accountable with tests and mini quizzes. Use fun, engaging content, rich media, and more, you’ll get new employees up to speed in no time.

Considerations & Common Mistakes

As great as remote work can be, there are some common challenges that can arise if you’re not properly set up to manage it. Here, we outline a few considerations, mistakes, and recommendations so your remote work efforts are a seamless extension of your workforce.

  • Miscommunication: When you don’t see or talk to someone face-to-face, things can more easily get lost in translation. To ensure that everyone is on the same page, you’ll want to strike a balance between synchronous communication (i.e. real-time communication through video calls, group chats, etc.) and asynchronous (i.e. recorded video messages, task-tracking software, emails, and collaborative docs). Create a balance/plan that works for your team, and make sure everyone is on board with it.
  • Coordination: When work is coordinated, teams are more productive. But when workers are not actually together, it can be difficult to get and stay coordinated. So try to build “tempo” management and predictability into the workday. That way, everyone will know when a certain project begins, when milestones need to be met, etc. Not only that, remote workers can better focus on a given task and NOT get overwhelmed by other distractions, like what’s happening at their home. 
  • Time Zone Mis-Management: If your company is global and you have employees working in different time zones, you might experience “work silos” where information and knowledge isn’t properly shared/communicated across offices. To prevent this, create a working “time zone” for your team, where there is some overlap between employees in different geographical areas. That way, an employee ending their work day can properly update another who is just starting theirs. This will help keep communication continuous — and morale high.‍
  • Burnout: According to Chanell, “most workers, remote or onsite, experience some form of burnout. However, work exhaustion becomes even more of an issue for remote workers. The workstation is no longer at the office; it is at the coffee table in the living room or the desk in the spare room. It is hard to turn work off when it is so easy to jump back in. Remote managers have to help employees understand why it is vital to pace themselves and set times to recharge.”

Benefits of Remote Work

There are a lot of benefits to having a remote workforce — and typically, you hear about the benefits from the perspective of a remote worker. To really get a sense of the benefits a company reaps from having a remote workforce, we caught up with Chanell Alexander, editor of  RemoteHabits. Here’s what she had to say about key remote work benefits:

  • Having access to a larger talent pool - These individuals want to hire the best, and remote work allows them to find professionals who are the right fit, regardless of where they are. 
  • It makes the barrier of entry to business much lower - The traditional components of starting a business that includes renting a building or hiring onsite staff can be costly. Developing a 100 percent remote company bypasses these requirements. 
  • Increases flexibility - Entrepreneurs can live in any part of the country they want, while still running their business. This situation allows them to live closer to family, or live in places where the cost of living may be lower. ‍
  • Lowers costs - No building, commute, or office supplies means lower expenses. Not to mention, you can hire people who live in less-expensive areas.

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Demo Questions: What To Ask During Demos

Before investing in any remote work management solution, you should schedule a demo with your platform(s) of choice. They’ll give you the opportunity to see how everything works and ask questions to make sure it’s the right fit for your organization. 

Here are some questions we recommend asking: 

  • What are the best practices for remote worker adoption on this platform?
  • How have you seen remote workers mis-use this product?
  • How will this solution fit into the rest of my tech stack and therefore what integrations do I need?
  • How will others in the organization use this solution?
  • What are the key features I want to ask about?
  • What are the things that would make me nervous about buying this sort of solution?

Implementation

How you implement a remote work strategy is so important for the success of your employees — and your company as a whole. Here are a few ways to make remote work a high-functioning component of your business that keeps employees engaged and happy, fosters company culture, and brings in the most productivity for the business. You can also learn from an interview done with a PeopleOps pro who's run a remote team for years now.

  • Mimic your office culture: Whether you’re going fully remote or just hiring remote workers, you want to make sure the online culture matches the in-person/office culture. So think about what your culture is and what makes it work. What makes it fun for your employees? From there, you can think about ways to bring that fun and unique energy to the remote space. Whether it’s through digital coffee breaks, “water cooler” chats, happy hours, etc. And, as budget allows, plan for at least one in-person retreat each year for each team or the whole company so remote employees can interact with their colleagues in person. 
  • Create “socializing” channels: Using Slack or another messaging platform, create unique channels specific to different hobbies or life stages. That way, employees can interact on a personal level and get to know each other “outside” of work.‍
  • Commit to transparency: To help teams stay on the same page and consistently feel like their work matters, make a commitment to transparency and open communication. The last thing you want to deal with is an employee who feels in the dark on a project or sidelined just because they aren’t in the office every day.‍
  • Have regular weekly or daily “stand-ups”: To keep everyone on the same page and help achieve the transparency and communication that is key to remote work success, have each team hold a standing video call once a week or every day where each team member shares what they’re working on, where they might need help, what they’ve learned from the previous week/day that might help their colleagues, etc.‍
  • Use a shared language: This is really geared towards global companies with employees who don’t have the same native language. Since remote work is done online and things like shared knowledge-bases should be centralized to maintain consistency and understanding across the entire company, you should opt for everything to be written in one shared language that everyone understands.‍
  • Be nimble: Remote work is on the rise, but it has not been the norm in business — i.e. everyone works differently in a remote environment or with remote employees. As such, you should expect some “testing and learning” as you get a remote strategy off the ground and be prepared to make changes as needed.

Remote Team Management Software FAQs

What is remote work?

Remote work is an arrangement where employees for a company may telecommute and complete their work from anywhere without having to physically be in an office building or on location.

What are remote work management tools?

Remote work management tools are software solutions designed to allow companies to engage employees, collaborate, and grow their business without having a physical office presence.

What are some examples of remote work management tools?

Remote work management tools include employee engagement software, video conferencing software, learning management systems, communication tools, payroll/benefits software, and more.

What are the benefits of remote work?

With remote work, companies have access to larger talent pools, the barrier of entry to business is lower, employees have increased flexibility, and companies can operate at a lower cost.

What are some common mistakes that come up when managing remote employees?

Be wary of common mistakes when managing remote employees, including miscommunication, poor coordination, time zone mis-management, and burnout.

Top Remote Team Management Tools — March 2021
No items found.
PapayaGlobal
Trainual
Caroo
Zoom
Slack
Mistro
Lessonly
Peakon
Asana
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Next Steps

As we said earlier, remote work is on the rise. Currently, 43% of U.S. employees work remotely to some degree. And it’s becoming a key value proposition for employees and candidates. In fact, some employees will only take a job if it is remote. The global coronavirus pandemic is likely testing your company’s ability to operate remotely, so you’re already learning a lot about what’s working and what isn’t. Listen to the feedback you’re getting and use it to create a more formal strategy to foster and better manage remote workers.

And remember, at the end of the day, remote work success really comes down to two core functions: communicating and sharing. How you do these effectively depends on the tools you choose to invest in. So think about the struggles you’ve been facing now, identify a few tools that could help, and schedule your demos.

Best Remote Work Software

  • Mistro
    :
    Benefits and perks for remote teams

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