Quarantine, working from home, virtual meetings – have you rolled your eyes yet?  

 

As an HR executive or leader in the era of coronavirus, these terms are likely all too common to your vocabulary lately. And there’s no sign of stopping. Even as some organizations bring employees back into the workplace, executives only expect to see about 80% of the workforce back in the office by the end of the year – which means that the remote working culture is here to stay. 

 

Fortunately, there are a number of remote management tools available that can help organizations manage remote workers. Using any one of these tools to help facilitate collaboration and communication will offer an advantage, but using these tools together in one system is the best way to help to build employee connections, boost morale, and increase productivity.

 

As you create your return to work strategy, here are the top five tools that can help you equip your employees to flourish as a distributed or remote team:

 

#1. Enterprise Chat

Instant messaging (IM) has been around for decades as a consumer communication tool, but only recently have organizations begun to embrace enterprise chat systems as one of the remote management tools they can use to connect employees. Enterprise Chat tools differ from consumer IM apps by offering customizable administrative controls, enhanced security features, and integration capabilities.

 

Tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Workplace are an excellent way for remote workers to stay connected, whether it’s through one-on-one conversations, group chats that are by invitation only, or public conversations anyone in the organization can join. Features such as customizable status alerts, threaded messages, team calendars, and task management make an enterprise chat solution a powerful and effective way to facilitate remote work. 

 

#2. Real-time Performance Management Tools

You can’t measure and improve employee performance goals if you aren’t tracking and communicating about them. That’s where real-time performance management tools play a powerful role in streamlining the performance management process and ensuring employees, management, and administrators are all on the same page.

 

These tools allow for easy check-ins, one-on-one conversations to keep employees engaged and productive.

 

SyncHR's Performance Management Solution, powered by Bridge,  offers organizations access to built-in customizable position profiles, performance factors, and performance-level definitions. It also provides the ability to align individual employee goals with specific initiatives, allowing organizations to motivate and empower employees to do their best. And features such as reminders, alerts, and easily accessible reporting will help employees stay informed.

 

#3. Video Conferencing

Video conferencing allows users in different locations to hold face-to-face meetings without having to be physically present in a single location. And while web conferencing tools have been widely utilized to conduct virtual group meetings and marketing events, they are also an extremely effective way to facilitate more informal communication. Video conferencing remote management tools make it easy for remote teams to brainstorm, socialize, interact, and collaborate when in-person conversations aren’t possible.

 

Robust video conferencing solutions such as Zoom, RingCentral, and Google Meet enable workers to start a video meeting, send a message, and make a phone call, all from one app. Other helpful features include screen sharing capabilities, real-time annotation, transcription, and instant polling. 

 

#4. Employee Recognition Tools

Employee recognition software is a technology that helps manage and communicate company-wide recognition across all levels of an organization and all locations. Recognition in all forms, including manager to direct reports and peer-to-peer, can helps boost morale and enhance company culture.

 

Tools such as Bonusly, Fond, and Kudos include features such as rewards programs, social sharing, analytics reporting. Plus, the ability to integrate your recognition tool with your enterprise chat system means that workers can broadcast recognition activity to their team without breaking their workflow. For organizations, connecting these tools to your HRIS system integration means data can sync between the two, eliminating administrative redundancies. 

 

#5. Intuitive and Customizable Training and Development Tools

Remote work presents a challenge when it comes to onboarding new hires, as well as providing ongoing training to existing employees. Having a learning management system (LMS) makes both initial and ongoing learning easier, more accessible, and more effective. A robust LMS allows you to provide workers with training courses, process, and procedural documentation, and certification requirements they can easily access and complete from any location.

 

SyncHR's Talent Management Solution is an intuitive, easy-to-use, and customizable tool that enables you to seamlessly extend the onboarding process with auto-enrollment into required training and compliance courses. And thanks to its many reporting features, you can effortlessly track employees’ progress with centralized access to course completion reports, survey results, and more.

 

High Tech Tools for High Performance Organizations

Using high tech remote management tools brings many benefits to both remote employees and management. Having these systems in place means your remote workers can easily stay connected, and management can stay informed – which is increasingly important in our remote-first work environment. From initial onboarding, training, and daily communications to recognition and performance management, these digital tools help facilitate communication, encourage collaboration, and keep remote workers engaged.

 

Contact us to learn more about using HCM tools to improve your remote employee management!

 

 

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