Best tech tools for the virtual workplace
So, you're ready to embark on a full digital transformation for your business. But there are always going to be challenges – primarily, employee buy-in. You can pre-empt that by picking the right tools that'll help your employees transition smoothly.
There are tools for every business purpose out there and we’ve pulled together the best tech tools for the virtual workplace so you can avoid any breakdown in business processes as you move forward with your digital transformation.
NOTE: Those tools marked with an asterisk (*) are seamlessly integrated with our recruitment solution.
CONTENTS:
Tools for the recruitment process
Your recruitment process can be a huge beneficiary of your digital transformation. Learn more about how and why.
1. Virtual recruiting/screening/hiring
Hiring remotely can be a challenge at times, but with the right software in place, it’s a very easy process even if the final hire is someone you have never met in person. Workable’s own ATS – with its new one-way video interview feature – is equipped with all the tools you need to build teams virtually.
2. Assessment tools
Assessments are an integral ingredient in the hiring process, to help you identify the best candidates for the position. Workable has numerous integrated tools that will help you along the way – the full list is here, and some top tools are below.
- HackerRank* (technical skills assessments)
- Hireselect – Criteria Corp* (aptitude, personality, skills)
- Bryq* (cognitive skills, personality traits, job match, etc.)
3. Onboarding
Just as hiring can be done entirely remotely, the onboarding process can be done via an online platform as well to bring your new hires to full production mode. These tools will help you get there quickly.
4. Background Checks
The background check is an integral part of the recruitment process.
Tools for HR
5. HRIS
Benefits, payroll, compliance, all these things that are part and parcel of human resources management can be done entirely via digital tools such as the following.
6. Training/Knowledge Base
Upskilling and retraining your workforce is a crucial part of company success. Also, all company-wide documents, policies, know-hows, etc. need to be accessible by everyone at any given time whether it’s for training, best practices, or other purposes. These tools will help you get it done.
7. Employee feedback
When you’re not regularly mingling with your colleagues, it’s hard to gauge employee engagement or happiness. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all.
Tools for overall communication
8. Email communication
Obviously this goes without saying. But if you’re in a company that operates largely in face-to-face communication and paper-based processes – and not email – it will be a good idea to quickly get your team signed up with email accounts so you can share crucial documents in a pinch.
9. Online chat functions
Sometimes it’s cumbersome to write out an entire email. Quickly pinging a colleague with a pertinent question can save a lot of time. Think of it as texting via your computer.
10. Virtual Meetings and presentations
When everyone is working remotely across locations or checking into meetings from home, a virtual meeting platform will work wonders for having everyone together in one place. Many platforms have options for you to share your screen to assist you in your presentation to the team.
- Google Hangouts* (available when sending interview requests within Workable)
- Zoom
- Zoho Remotely
Tools for projects involving multiple people
Note: You can see a full list of collaboration tools here.
11. Documents
Many of us need to collaborate within a single document, which is easy enough when you’re sitting together in front of the same computer or a single paper document together. You can still work together in the same document online from different locations.
12. Cloud Storage
It can be a nuisance when colleagues update a document and then email it around as a new file, making it hard to track which one is the most updated. Why not save it in an online drive – in other words, cloud storage – so everyone has access to the same document at any time?
13. Project management
Seeing a big project reach completion requires clean collaboration and careful planning between individuals and teams. This is especially challenging when teams are distributed across locations, but these services can help you keep watch from the big picture down to the granular level to ensure things keep running smoothly.
14. Timezone management
Many companies work across different time zones, which does make collaborating on projects somewhat of a challenge. Face it, it’d be incredibly useful to be able to see what time it is for each colleague in each location so you can better align efforts.
15. Screen sharing
Sometimes you don’t need full video integration to make presentations – you just need to be able to share your screen so you can walk colleagues through something. These will do the trick.
16. Dev & design
Your dev and design teams are unique such that simple document collaboration won’t cut it. They’ll need more specialized software to continue working together at peak performance – these softwares should do the job.
Tools for Organization
17. Calendar Management
A work calendar is crucial not only for your own organization, but also for aligning your efforts with others via mutual touchbases, meetings, 1-1s and other purposes. Also, with the right integration, you can see how busy your colleagues are at any given time during the work day without needing to walk by their work station.
18. Time management tools
When a portion – or all – of your staff is contracted or paid by the hour, tracking their time when they’re on the clock is a must so you can ensure they’re paid appropriately.
19. Notetaking apps
Having a notebook handy is always useful for keeping track of what you’re doing. You can also do this digitally as well – and even invite others to collaborate in team notetaking sessions.
20. Social Media Management
Social media isn’t just about tweeting photos of your dinner. It’s integral to external business communications. It’s easy enough to go directly to Twitter, Facebook or LInkedIn to push out your latest news, but it’s much easier to do it all via a single portal.
21. Business Intelligence
Tracking and reporting is essential to business success. Fortunately there are great tools to help you take a deep dive into your business processes to fine-tune your processes to maximize your results.
- Tableau* (can be used with your Workable data)
Tools for compliance/security/legal purposes
22. E-Signature
There really is a digital tool for everything – even signatures for contracts if you can’t be in the same room at the same time to sign those urgent papers to keep things moving along.
- HelloSign (native integration with Workable’s offer letter feature – no separate HelloSign account needed)
- DocuSign
23. Password Management Solutions
Password management is an absolute must when it comes to IT security and compliance. Data breaches can happen via hacking, but sometimes all it takes is for the wrong person to have the right password for things to go haywire. Keep it all contained using a centralized password management system.
Tools for finance
24. Receipt & Expense Management
Collecting and processing receipts from your team can be a nuisance. It’s also a pain for your colleagues when they need to pull it all together into a report for you. Not to mention – finance has to process this stuff. You can manage all this in one place via these tools.
25. Accounting Software
Accounting is a real part of business. Manage and keep track of it all in one place, so you can keep those books balanced.
26. Billing Tools
Billing and invoicing goes without saying. In a remote environment, those paper invoices don’t go very far even if your postal delivery system is great. These tools will help you manage invoicing virtually – for tracking who’s paid what, and collecting on those outstanding.
27. Financial Dashboards
Optimize your business plan so you can get off on the right foot during your growth and expansion initiatives, and line up your expectations with industry benchmarks while consulting with experts.
28. Budget Management
Manage your budget in every area, from cash flow expectations to real-time financial performance – so you can make quick decisions to capitalize on current trends and mitigate what might come ahead.
