5 Brilliant Remote Work Tools You Can Use for Free

There are two facts we continue to return to:

1. Many workers who transitioned to remote work due to Covid will likely never go back to being entirely in-office, their employers will incorporate a degree of flexibility toward remote, and
2. The majority of temporary-remote workers are “making do”, and getting by using pretty much the exact same tools, platforms, technologies and approaches they used in-office.  And they’re struggling.

But I come bearing good news – it doesn’t have to be this way.

Many companies are cautious about changing the tools they use with so much uncertainty around the future of work.  But there’s actually a number of really useful tools that can be quickly and painlessly implemented at no cost, so there’s zero financial risk and plenty of potential gain in terms of remote work efficiency!

Here’s our pick of the best remote work tools which can really help you work remotely more effectively AND have a free pricing level, so you can play around without board-level approval!

1.       Slack

An app like slack is probably the biggest game-changer for remote workers and if you plan to make one change at a time, get this first.  This will have the biggest impact on improving how you work.  Slack essentially replaces your email with a repository of information that can be organised by channels and easily searched.  If you have workers on different time zones or just working different hours it gives you a powerful way to bring everything into one place – meaning you can easily capture brainstormed ideas, check progress on projects, ask questions, provide training, find files – and find the answers far more easily than scrolling through your inbox. It creates transparency and visibility on work progress, speeds up efficiency because everything’s in one place and even enables workers to set their status so your teams can see who’s available.  You can also create a linkedin-style community for networking.  The free version has less features but will still wow you enough to give it a try:

2.       Voodle

I discovered this neat little tool last month. Voodle is a browser plugin which easily and seamlessly lets you record a 60 second to-camera message to share with your team.  It enables you to convey the energy, enthusiasm and emotion that would have been missing in text, saves you time by not having to type out a message and it keeps you connected to the team you’re no longer with day to day.  Businesses are finding it really invaluable in maintaining company culture, onboarding new starters and helping everyone get to know each other or keep in touch.  It’s powerful for top-leaders to share good news, celebrate success and announce client-wins. It’s also great for short brain-storming/sharing. AND It integrates effortlessly with hubspot and slack

3.       Hubspot

A CRM or customer relationship management tool is, for many businesses, a core part of their operation.  But there are plenty of businesses, particularly small or start-up, or family-founders that haven’t ever used a CRM and rely on an assortment of spreadsheets.  Now we’re remote, it’s harder to keep on track of who’s where with each lead, or to get an instant update, or to check if a customer is already in the pipeline – so a CRM is essential for remote businesses.  Investing in enterprise level software can be expensive – but hubspot has a free version which lets you do pretty much everything you ever needed to!

4.       Wurkr

Is remote working a real struggle for your business?  Do you need more visibility of your teams, more day by day interaction, innovation, ideation?  Do you wish there was a way to be able to just “be” with each other, virtually, without having to open up endless zoom calls?

This is your game changer.  Wurkr – a virtual office platform replicates your office virtually.  You can set up different “rooms” and drop in and out of them, on video, depending on whether you need some quiet-time, or are looking for office banter.  You can invite clients in and share your screen, you can instant message other users, break-out to private meetings, create a “virtual water cooler” for serendipitous chat and innovation. Or you could just work, with your virtual buddies in the “background”, enjoying the opportunity for off-the-cuff banter. If you want visibility and connect-ability of your team, this could be the perfect remote solution for you.

5.       Miro

Remote work gets a hard time on the creativity and innovation front.  Sometimes, you can’t beat being together in a room with a whiteboard, knocking ideas around, getting visual – well, now you can do that remotely too, with Miro, an online whiteboard platform.  Best bit – they have a free version to try out.

And a bonus 6th tool….

6.       SoapboxHQ

There are some tools that you didn’t know you needed, and now you don’t know what you’d do without.  Soapbox helps remote teams plan and manage their meetings better – and with zoom fatigue setting in for one and all, who doesn’t want that!  It can help you take care of everything from employee engagement to task productivity and integrates with slack, amongst many other apps, to help keep everything together in one place.

What did we miss – drop me a line at heidi@remotework360.com with your favorite tools