Management – the term in itself speaks of a tremendous burden of responsibilities that may not be suitable for a normal professional.

This phenomenon requires one to assemble a successful team and regulate their operations for higher productivity.

Management applies to all businesses, no matter if it is small or big. That is why, it is of high significance.

Read Also: Performance Appraisal – All You Need To Know

But, here’s the catch:

A business cannot flourish without the role of an effective manager to guide the team. If you are responsible for managing a team of your own at your company, then this post will help you with the right strategies for effective business management.

 

1. Be An Effective Delegate

 

Management is all about administering various responsibilities upon your team members, progressively. This is the first rule that you need to keep in mind while managing your team.

Delegation opens new ways of polishing the skills of your employees. If you keep on doing every member’s job yourself at your company, then it would not be productive. Eventually, you will exhaust yourself.

Track-Employees-in-Real-Time-1

Learn to manage the team by assigning the tasks properly based on their skills. Try to provide each team professional with a task that he or she can complete with confidence and passion.

If two or more members have the same skills for a project, then you can team them up to complete the task at a much faster rate. That is how you should strategize your management decisions.

 

2. Be A Team Leader

 

A leader acts as the fuel to ignite flames within the team members. With a leader-cum-manager’s inspiration, the subordinates will be motivated to complete assigned tasks with a new sense of responsibility.

Try to understand and know each of your subordinates individually. You do not have to be too personal while conversing with them, but do maintain a healthy relationship to show them that you are interested in speaking to them.

Your team members will understand how you are making effort to create a connection with them. They will feel motivated to follow your plans.

 

3. Show Productivity

 

As a manager at your firm, you are bound to show results, right? But, without an effort, you may never achieve the level of an effective business manager. So, to deal with the situation:

  • Focus on managing your tasks.
  • Get out of your comfort zone to understand how you can benefit your company in a better way.
  • Plan your moves for assigning projects skillfully so that you know how the output should turn out.
  • Be aware of the pros and cons related to the tasks as well. You may never know what issue hits you while a project is in progress, such as team members on sick leave, reduction in project deadlines, etc.

Your commitment to achieve excellence in your work will reward you as an effective business manager.

 

4. Don’t Be Reckless With Your Decisions

 

A manager also needs to be aware of making careful decisions. Time comes when there is a need to decide whether you are taking up a responsibility or not. If you can handle it, say YES. But, if you cannot do it, and are already packed with work, then just say NO.

Here’s why it is important:

Imagine a situation where you have 3-4 projects under you. Your senior asks a team of managers, including you, to volunteer taking another project. Just to stay in your senior’s good books, you volunteer to take another project.

You got the project but at the cost of loading another layer of pressure upon you and your team. And, later you may realize that you do not even have a relevant team to accomplish the new project.

This will make your team feel frustrated. So, be careful what you decide about various situations while answering as an effective manager.

 

5. Consider The Opinions Of Your Team Members

 

Asking for suggestions and opinions from your team members can help to show them that you care for their views too. Surely, there are multiple ways to complete a task.

Read Also: 13 Ways To Motivate Your Team Members for Better Performance

You may have your own way to do it. But, it is possible that some of your team members are also having their own suggestions to speed up the work efficiently. Thus:

  • Freely ask them what are their suggestions related to a specific task.
  • Involve them in the project at a similar level as you.
  • Act as a colleague working together, instead of just being a stubborn boss.
  • Generate their interest in the project by caring to know what they have to say about it.

This strategies for Effective Performance Management will help you raise awareness for the project and help your team perform better under your guidance and leadership.

 

6. Personalize Training Methods To Improve Your Team’s Performance

 

A good level of professional exercise can improve the skills of your team. For this, you need to first understand what level of skills each of your team members have in them.

Learn about their ideas, fears, weaknesses, and strengths. Based on your collected data, create various training methods that can improve their productivity at the office.

You may need to show some efforts here, as each of your team members may not be fit for the same training method. Learn to personalize the training programs so that they can feel motivated to perform in the training at their own pace.

 

7. Be Transparent With Your Team

 

You will undoubtedly look for honesty and a submissive nature from your employees. But, maintaining a prudent level of transparency will also ask of you to do the same for them first. Being transparent to your team will ensure a strong relationship of trust between you and your team.

Remember that you are at a higher position than them, so your management should be fair for all members. Plus, you should never lie to them about any professional situation. Your employees may fail to respect you if you are not indulging in an honest conversation with them.

With your efforts of transparency and corporate companionship, your team will learn to be true to you as well. So, learn to be transparent with them and win their hearts.

 

8. Reward The Ones Who Deserve Recognition

 

Every now and then, you will have to acknowledge the hard work done by your employees.

Rewarding them for their efforts will ensure that they have the motivation to work even harder for you. Their attitude towards you will also be appreciative.

You can choose from a multitude of options to acknowledge their performance, like offering a bonus or a promotion. Never do this while they are with you in your cabin privately.

Do it openly in front of other team members so that they can also witness the fruits of hard work. It can encourage them to work at a similar or better pace to complete their tasks and improve their performance.

 

9. Clarify The Goals Before Assigning A Project To Your Team

 

As a manager, your team relies on your judgment. Thus, it is your responsibility to make sure that all goals related to a project are clear to them. Note that each team member may have a different level of intellect.

You want your team members to know how you envision a goal for a project. But, it is possible that they are not on the same page as you. So, make them aware of it first. After that, assign them the project section that they need to accomplish to achieve high productivity.

 

10. Carry Regular Evaluations To Judge The Skills Of Your Employees

 

You need to evaluate their skills and see how team members are progressing with each day. Learn their strengths and weaknesses to see where they are lacking and where they are excelling.

Read Also: 13 Ways To Motivate Your Team Members for Better Performance

Prepare the trainings as mentioned in one of the previous strategies for Effective Performance Management. Learning how they will indulge in the tasks is important for effective business management.

Final Notes:

Being an effective business manager involves a number of key strategies. The ones mentioned above are some of the main ones that you ought to consider for becoming a good business manager. Follow them and be successful in your career.

Absence of a documented procedure for leave management can cause businesses more than just loss of capital. Lack of validation of acquired leaves is an important element of data that helps to understand the current scenario and affects imminent scheduling and other decision making in terms of human resource. 

Companies that do manage to keep tab of employee absenteeism but are at the mercy of paper trails get penalized for maintaining incomplete or distorted records.

Hence it is important that they resort to automated means of leave management to safeguard the credibility of the firm and dodge unnecessary trouble caused due to poor leave management.

Inadequate leave management can have serious impacts on your business. Have a look:

1. Manpower crunch during important deadlines

2. Legal problems due to Non-compliance to employee leave policy

3. Worker compensation penalties if employees are over worked and call sick

4. Financial liabilities of unused leaves

5. Impeding Employee productivity

6. Discouraged employee morale due to lack of leave management

6 ways how poor Leave management impacts business

Working as a team is important for any organization to reach the goals within minimal time frame. However, all members of a team may not be working from a single office but may be scattered in many parts of the globe.

This can be really challenging when it comes to collaboration including team communication, work flow and project management. There are many online collaboration tools available now which can be really handy during these times.

Whether it is file sharing, documentation, design or even organized remote communication, there are specific tools that can make the job easy and more organized.

Are you looking for amazing online collaboration tools to enhance your team productivity? Then have a look at this huge list of the top rated tools for the job.  

Read Also: Top 26 Apps For Internal Employee Communication in 2019

1.Yammer

Collaborating across locations, departments and business apps is no more a problem as this private social network can be handy. You can create groups and share posts. All what you need to access your venture’s Yammer network is an email id from the particular company’s domain.

2. Asana

All employees of your team can log on to this cloud platform, provided they have a WiFi connection. This project management tool lets you have an overview of all current projects and the three panel dashboard lets you access any data of a particular project.

3. Slack

Remote teams can make use of this power house messaging app to improve their communication. It comes with numerous bots and powerful integrations and operates in channels. Tracking and archiving conversations will be easy through channel options.

Anayse productivity with wifi attendance ad banner

Remote teams can make use of this power house messaging app to improve their communication. It comes with numerous bots and powerful integrations and operates in channels. Tracking and archiving conversations will be easy through channel options.

4. LiquidPlanner

This project management tool is particularly designed to help technology teams. Tool’s flexibility is the key and team can use it to collaborate seamlessly, organize projects in a better way and track time taken for completion of projects.

This project management tool is particularly designed to help technology teams. Tool’s flexibility is the key and team can use it to collaborate seamlessly, organize projects in a better way and track time taken for completion of projects.

5. Skype

This is one of the most common communication tools used by business professionals for its awesome features and free accessibility. Audio and video calls can be made despite the type of devices used on both sides. Group call feature can be a good help during group discussions on projects remotely.

6. Airtable

Creating and editing of databases can be done in a better way with this project management tool. You can easily sort out project elements by organizing information in tables. Collaboration is well supported as it allows creating and saving custom views.

7. Hipchat

Your team collaboration can be made more efficient with this private hosted chat service. Unlike group chat, this tool allows for collaborating tasks and docs by uploading it according to individual convenience. Video chat feature can be initiated from any device allowing you to communicate with the team on the go.

8. Basecamp

This project management tool is ideal for smaller business teams to manage their work decently. This very affordable software is powerful but comes with simple and easy to use features. The tool has a very minimal learning curve.

9. Google Hangouts

If your venture is on a budget, you can go for Google Hangouts to help you move on. Hangouts on Air allow you to record the Hangout so that you can view it later on your convenience. The privacy feature lets you to hide the public display of Hangouts.

10. Confluence

This wiki platform lets you to share and upload documents and create pages for your team. It features an internal documentation library and an easy-to-use interface. It also features good storage and search capabilities to effectively manage data on past, present and future projects.

11. GoToMeeting

Hosting a meeting with your customers or colleagues is a lot easier than you think if you choose to use GoToMeeting.You can simply launch a meeting from anywhere despite whether it is instant messaging or emails and features one click recording.         

12. Soapbox

It is a user friendly screen recording tool known for its ease of use. Its option to simultaneously do webcam recording and screen recording makes it a unique option. During editing, you can add transitions and share video via a thumbnail in any web page through a link.

It is a user friendly screen recording tool known for its ease of use. Its option to simultaneously do webcam recording and screen recording makes it a unique option. During editing, you can add transitions and share video via a thumbnail in any web page through a link.

13. Invision

The design collaboration with your team can be made easy with this enterprise grade prototyping tool. From uploading designs to gathering feedbacks, everything related to design can be made remotely. In fact, projects can be managed from a single dashboard.

14. GanttPRO

This is a user friendly web-based project planning tool which is designed to work on the basis of Gantt charts. Its intuitive UX/UI design makes anyone an advanced user of the software in merely few minutes. It comes with a resource management feature and you can create and assign task to individuals.

15. LastPass

This online password manager lets you track the many numbers of passwords and usernames needed for your project with ease.  There is no limit for number of passwords that can be stored and provide syncing option across devices

16. Concept Inbox

This is a comprehensive visual design collaboration tool that helps to manage project designs remotely. It keeps track of versions and enables everyone to keep up the speed. With email notifications and in-context annotations, the app allows real time feedback on prototypes.

17. Filestage

This user friendly collaboration application is a good option to streamline the review and approval processes and improves internal and external communication. The tool helps you to get feedback from clients on desired documents and enhance the quality of conversations based on feedbacks.

18. Google Docs

Collaborating, editing, sharing and publishing any kind of documents with remote teams is easy with Google Docs. Creating spreadsheets, presentations or blog posts are a lot easy with this tool. All these can be done free of cost.

19. Cage

This tool for smaller business and teams allows sharing of files with customers in an easy and more organized way.Assigning and managing tasks are made simpler and visual comments can be made on the design making the project more interactive.

20. Sketch

It is a comprehensive tool for UX design deliverables aiding web design professionals. Designers can simply create a design once and use it whenever needed in future. Flexible design elements can be made with nested symbols.

21. Prevue

Creating beautiful presentations with your clients or customers is no more a big deal if you use Prevue. In fact, presenting the project and getting the client feedback is almost possible in real time with this app.

Creating beautiful presentations with your clients or customers is no more a big deal if you use Prevue. In fact, presenting the project and getting the client feedback is almost possible in real time with this app.

22. WebEx

Managers who host the meeting with their remote employees can use this tool to share their desktop with them easily. It features face-to-face live video option and even the control of keyboard and mouse can be transferred to any presenters if desired.

23. Office Online

Startups looking for a quality tool for basic documentation and editing can go for this free version of Microsoft’s original Office suite. Even when there are some limitations when compared to paid version, you can get the best out of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Onenote for free.

24. Usersnap

This bug tracking software enables your team to report bugs in the browser. The time for communication can be reduced as it can be seamlessly integrated with existing workflows. Feedbacks for website prototypes and design drafts can be easily made.

Read Also: 15 Tools for Improving Employee Productivity

25. Etherpad

This is a comprehensive collaborative editing tool that works in real time which is available for free. This Open Source online editor is highly customisable and clients and customers can write and edit the documents in same time.

26. SugarSync

In addition to taking back up of your file, SugarSync allows you to maintain even the folder structure unlike many similar tools. This helps to know exactly where your desired files are and access it pretty easily.

27. Google Drive

Easy and quick organization of files is possible with this awesome tool and you can share the desired files with your team anytime. You can store up to 15 GB of files for free including any digital files and team can access it from any device.

28. Nimble

With this tool, your social media contacts and address book can be combined into a CRM solution for sales and marketing. It features group messaging options and provide insights into who has clicked or opened the messages.

With this tool, your social media contacts and address book can be combined into a CRM solution for sales and marketing. It features group messaging options and provide insights into who has clicked or opened the messages.

29. OneDrive

This is one of the top class file sharing tools from Microsoft which offers 5 GB for free and another 50GB if you pay. This comes pre-installed on Windows 10 which is compatible with all devices. Accessing and sharing files is allowed despite PC, Mac, Android, and iOS.

30. ProofHub

This comprehensive tool enables your team to stay more productive at work as it offers anything and everything required to plan and run the projects. You can even set dependencies on tasks in addition to adding people and assigning roles of team members.

31. Dropbox

Syncing your work is a lot easy with Dropbox despite the type of device used or where you are. The business version of the tool offers 1 terabyte space and comes with additional features like higher sharing limits and priority email support.

32. Red Pen

The visual teams can find RedPen as a really handy fast feedback tool. It allows you to receive feedback from your team and your thinking can be explained through clicks and points. Feedback from clients can be received through private links.

33. MediaFire

This is one of the simple storage and file sharing platforms with user friendly features. Even when it doesn’t offer any high end features which makes the tool complex, it serves the purpose of the actual file sharing needs to run a project decently.

34. Zoho

This is a mixture of project collaboration tools allowing clients or customers to come together and execute planning and related works all from a single place. The tool enables you to create project workspaces that help to work as a team despite their geographical location. 

35. Chanty

Seamless collaboration and communication is practical with this business messenger which is powered by AI. The handy file sharing and unlimited searchable history with instant messages can make small teams to go more productive. It features voice transcripts and audio and video calls.  

36. Podio

This powerful project management tool lets managers to run their businesses smoothly despite whether their team members belong to which all countries or time zones. They can easily have a look on their daily tasks or even see how productive their working days are.

37.Zoom

This awesome tool lets managers to perform online training and demos and collaborate virtually. It enables you to share your screen, web pages or photos and cloud content. It even comes with a white board feature and group messaging options.

38. Trello

This web-based project management tool lets managers to organize the projects using cards. The cards are organized on a board and each column signifies a part of the project. This lets you to have a glimpse on the board and check on project status.

39. join.me

This simple online meeting tool is a great option to work with remote teams with file sharing and screen sharing options. It is browser-based and so assures user friendliness and features audio and video conferencing options. All you want is a session ID on join.me to join a conference.

40. Wrike

With Wrike, you can take project management to a different level as it lets you to effectively break heavy tasks into simple goals and manageable units. Data reading is possible for analysing the time and money invested on each project and lets you easily track individual performance to the team.

41. Teamviewer

It is a comprehensive tool for telecommuting, collaboration and IT support. With just a password, admin program can even allow reverse sharing so that client can access admin computer. One can even run a portable version of TeamViewer without installation.

42. Stormboard

The digital workspace of this tool let you to minimize the number of meetings and track the progress of projects seamlessly. The tool enables you to do anything from planning a project, assigning tasks to employees, holding a meeting to setting goals, deadlines, and milestones.

43. Zipboard

Teams handling web related projects can use this visual platform for easy collaboration. Automatic updates are sent to team if a problem is reported or resolved. Screenshots of prototypes can be uploaded and feedback can be provided by team.

44. Bitbucket

This is one of the large and software repository platforms for effective project management. The tool was designed by Atlassian which justifies its popularity and it offers unlimited private repositories. With this tool, collaborating on projects is really easy for developers within enterprises.

45. GoVisually

This tool for designers is particularly meant for freelancers and small business teams to share their creative work. Receiving recommendations and feedbacks from clients is possible without the need of any logs. It lets you design files and work on multiple projects with your team from a single place. 

46. SimpleMDE

This free to use simple markdown editor is flexible to suit your specific needs. It comes with a subset of the HTML features with all the basic editing options needed during the project processing.

47. Codepen

This awesome software tool comes with the tag line “A playground for the front end web.” You can just start off the tool for free and may upgrade to higher versions for pro features. Finding inspiration or design pattern examples for your project and try building a test case for a bug is practical with this tool.  

48. Clickhelp

This browser-based documentation tool enables project managers to set up and publish FAQ tutorials or user manuals with ease. It comes with a range of pre-built templates with diverse themes. It allows integration with Google Analytics and offer support for Meta tags.

49. Mailbird

This email client for Windows makes your online communication more seamless. Other messenger platforms can be managed well as it allows third party integrations. It is known for its ease of use as the app can be learnt within 5 minutes.

50. Gitlab

This web based git repository service lets teams to secure projects on a more minute level and assures safety of projects while team is working on it. It is written in the Ruby language and comes with stand out branch protection, permissions and authentication features.

51. Moqups

This web-based wireframing solution is flexible in nature and allows managers to approach a project in a better way. The project workflow can be revolutionized using its powerful prototyping features. The interaction between assets and elements of a project can be done without switching apps.

Read Also: Top 20 Parental Control Routers to Use in 2019

Keep this awesome list of online collaboration tools as a check list which might help you whenever you are finding it challenging to collaborate with your team.

Even when a good collaboration tool can add a lot of value to your team success, choosing the right tool that serves your actual purpose is the key.

For that you will have to spend some quality time on discussing the pros and cons of the tools in question and analyze how it will help you in betterment. 

Even when a good collaboration tool can add a lot of value to your team success, choosing the right tool that serves your actual purpose is the key. For that you will have to spend some quality time on discussing the pros and cons of the tools in question and analyze how it will help you in betterment. 

Always consider tools that offer multiple features so that your team can use tool in various possible ways.  And a Cloud-based technology can be preferred as you need not worry about the version controls.

The organizations are looking beyond just phone calls and emails for effective communication within the team and clients.

The advancement in technology is offering a lot of options to take the communication to the next level and make the collaboration more efficient, dynamic, and engaging.

A lot of tools are available at the moment for enhancing the in house office communication and to tackle the communication with the remote teams connecting from across the globe.

Of course, new technology demands a lot of learning to use such tools which might be a headache for beginners.

However, there are some advanced learning tools that give importance to user convenience and have a minimal learning curve.

Here we have put up a list of some of the most advanced but user friendly employee communication apps that can take the productivity to a more impressive level.

1. WiFi Attendance

wifi-attendance

This tool was basically designed an attendance tool for helping employees to clock-in and out through their phones, but the latest rendition of this app has all the features of a communication app.

It is powered with considerably prominent features like notifications, announcements, document sharing thus making it more than just an attendance and leave management app.

2. Slack

Slack

This is in fact a next-generation management system. Its communication style covers a range of options like messages, files, comments, videos, audios and even automatic notifications.

Unlike other tools, the speciality of Slack is its internal help robot, Slackbot that guides you through every process and enables you to instantly program automatic responses.

3. Ryver

Ryver

It is a free team communication tool which unites a team of any size easily. It features unlimited data storage and premium service can be accessed for free in first two weeks.

You can connect to more than 500 apps as it can be easily integrated with Zapier. Other pros include unlimited message history and built in task management.

4. Smartsheet

Smartsheet

This is an extremely powerful but a simple communication tool for office communication. Apart from basic communication, the tool can offer a helping hand with scheduling, resource management, file-sharing, task allocation and even sale tracking.

Easy and consistent communication is the key as it lets you share anything across mobiles and desktops. The employees are easily connected to any updates or changes through customizable alerts.

5. Microsoft Lync

Microsoft-Lync

This awesome tool from Microsoft lets you efficiently communicate with clients through chats and instant messaging. Microsoft Lync can be integrated with other Microsoft tools (including Skype) thus enabling flawless communication through a quality platform.

 

6. Biba

Biba

It is renowned as an all-in-one mobile communication tool that can take your office communication to a different level.

A lot of communication areas such as conference calling, business messaging, video conferencing and online meetings all from one place can be managed with this app.

It is even backwards compatible with a local dial-in phone connection. The tool can offer desktop screen-sharing options and comes with a one-click group chat feature.

7. VeriShow

VeriShow

This awesome tool comes with almost all options expected out of a comprehensive communication tool. It features online communication options like file sharing, video conferencing, chat, voice, whiteboard and screen-sharing.

It even allows live annotation capabilities. Its customer-facing features make it an ideal tool for team meetings. As this is a web based app, downloading it in your device is not a concern.

8. Skype

Skype

The app’s business version comes with powerful video and audio call functionality. The Skype for business communication tool allows real time collaboration for up to 250 people. The innovative radical redesign allows storage up to 1TB. It features integration with Microsoft Office 365 apps.

 

9. Yammer

Yammer

It serves the need of a full-service private social network which can easily connect decision makers and employees of all levels within the organization.

The tool promotes flexible collaboration with advanced knowledge sharing. Yammer can be easily integrated with Skydrive, SharePoint and Skype and helps with seamless sharing across teams.

It offers assistance for clearer communication with notes and comments and the contents are easily searchable.

 

10. eXo Platform

eXo-Platform

This open source social solution can be an asset for your office communication. The app can be customized to meet the particular needs of an organization.

The stress-free collaboration is the key speciality of the app and it enables the team to use productivity tools set as well as generate and share files and polls.

11. Campfire

Campfire

This web-based communication tool has taken team communication to the next level through password protected group chats.

Any vendor, colleague or client can be invited to join this chat and take part in the group communication. During communication, one can share text, file and code to convey the matters clearly. Unlike other apps, account setting has not many hassles.

12. CardBoard

CardBoard

This communication app is known for its unique visual approach which is both engaging and intuitive. Easily collaborating with anyone with an email id is possible through this app.

It even serves the role of a work flow manager and online whiteboard and allows collaboration on story mapping.

13. StaffConnect

StaffConnect

The internal communication within the team can be made easy and efficient through this professional app. The colleagues can be connected easily through this app as it encourages two-way dialogues.

The news can be delivered and broadcasted and the managers can easily share any data or updates in the form of texts, images and videos.

14. Stride

Stride

It is a novel team communication app which is an ideal option to organize company workflows. It features 10 integrations, 5GB storage and allows up to 25K messages.

The usage simplicity is the key for stride and team communication is allowed in private and public rooms. Stride provides audio and video call features and the workflow can be managed well with ‘Actions’ and ‘decisions’.

 

15. Twoodo

Twoodo

Organizing and streamlining team communication has taken to a different range with Twoodo by using the power of hashtags.

It comes with a Twitter-like interface and conversations within team can be made effective by integrating tasks, reminders and events.

The posts are shareable and searchable and easy integration with Skype, DropBox, and BitBucket enables comprehensive communication from a single place.

16. Flock

Flock

This is an awesome team communication app that features multiple integrations, instant messaging and built in to dos.

By integrating with Appear.in, you can even make audio and video calls with your team. Even its Freemium plan is limited with 10K message history.

The other highlighted features include deep integration with Google Drive and inbuilt polls.

17. Fuze

Fuze

A comprehensive and effective internal communication environment can be triggered through Fuze app. You can connect with the team easily through video conferencing and HD video calls.

The app’s features make it easy to set up a meeting with the team almost instantly. You may even integrate it with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Lync and Box for a better usage experience.

18. Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam-Revu

This amazing app enables users to collaborate on PDF markup, by editing tasks and making comments. The app allows real-time communication which makes the collaboration on design approval process easy and flawless.

It is considered as a major time-saver for project coordinators. Its key features include intuitive controls, simple menus, and easy document comparison.

19. Redbooth

Redbooth

It is a comprehensive app that is designed to improve team communication and easily transit the project management activities.

It comes with a chat room and provides options for file sharing, HD video calls, text documents, charts, and reports.

The project task and chats can be merged to trigger quality communication among employees and they will always be up to date.

 

20. Glip

Glip

Everyday activities of an employee in an organization can be effectively handled with Glip. This is designed for seamless communication and collaboration which can be handled through notes, calendar, tasks, to-do lists, and chats.

The app can save your time which you spend for checking emails in the middle of your work. It comes with built-in video calling functionality and connecting on the go with co-workers and clients is really easy.

21. Bitrix24

Bitrix24

The small enterprises as well as start-ups can make use of this communication app. It is a lot easy to use and up to date with user friendly features.

Its ability to create plans is what makes it special among similar office communication tools.

22. BlogIn

BlogIn

BlogIn is an effective internal communication tool; think of it is a platform to exchange ideas with each idea, to share feedbacks and even peer review concepts.

Essentially, it is a platform which employees and team members can use to keep themselves informed, to communicate ideas and concepts with the whole team and centralize information resources, as applicable to a project in a single platform for ease of use.

23. Trello

Trello

You can use Trello to keep track of the progress made by your team, review their work and even monitor their performance in real time.

It should be pointed out that all the tasks on Trello come with additional features such as file uploads, comments, checkboxes and much more.

24. EXo platform

eXo-Platform

EXo platform is an open source social solution that you can utilize to streamline your team’s performance.

This app enables you to share files, polls with others in your team, instantly communicate with others and even share ideas and feedback with the rest of the team.

Best of all, you can customize this app to suit the needs of the team and that of your company.

25. Hipchat

Hipchat

Hipchat allows you to chat instantly with the rest of your team and you can also use the app for private chats – but other than this, the app also makes it possible for you to make HD video calls, transfer large amounts of data without any hassle, and secure gated access and much more.

It comes with a reasonable price tag and there is a free option as well – just what every small enterprise or startup needs.

26. Wrike

Wrike

Wrike is an easy to use platform that you can use to collaborate with others, share files, hold discussions, and even assign tasks.

What’s more, anyone can communicate with others on any aspect of the project, share their thoughts, feedback and this should definitely help your team perform better in the long run.

Additionally, you can use this platform to assign tasks and monitor the progress on the same, to date.

Conclusion

Have a look into these amazing office communication tools whenever you are looking to find a solution to the collaboration concerns.

The right use of these tools can take your business to the next level as proper communication within and outside team is the key for progress.

These tools can not only enhance the productivity but also boosts up the overall efficiency, employee morale, and customer experience.

However, the organizations have to make sure that the right tools are chosen which exactly meets their actual purpose.

If you choose a tool of advanced level but with complex features, make sure that you give proper training to make its usage comfortable for the team.

The updated version of WiFi Attendance app was launched on 10th December 2018 and it is vivacious.

We have implemented some amazing new features to make the app completely employee friendly.

The WiFi attendance was originally designed to make it easy for the employees to mark their attendance through personal mobile phones.

It aimed at making the employer’s job simple, thus helping him, easily monitor employee productivity and performance.

wifi attendance

The latest edition includes the following features

Deductions

The deductions menu is set to keep tab of unplanned leaves, early punch outs and missed punch. With this function, it is easy for the HR manager to check the number of hours the employee has not worked. This comes very handy especially while calculating monthly payroll.

Rewards

Employee rewards are an innovative approach to foster employee engagement at workplace. There are three different stages of rewards- gold, bronze and silver.

The rewards can be assigned based on the clock-in clock-out time, performance, contributions to a certain project, overtime hours etc.

Documents

This feature makes it is easy for the manager and team mates to share documents with their respective teams. Personal documents specific to each employee can be shared in the personal section.

Notes

A trove of important details is discussed in stand up meetings every day. How often do we carry a notepad in such meetings?

Hardly! At times like these, the notes feature of the updated wifi attendance is at rescue.  Employees can take notes of important things like points discussed at the meeting, weekly tasks etc with this new functionality.

Attendance App

Announcements

The important notifications like holidays, events, company policy re-enforcements can be broadcasted using this feature.

Again in this case, the announcements can be shared between members of the team in a separate section and company announcements can be pushed into a different space common to all employees.

Notifications

Any updates, documents and announcements received through the app will now be notified to the users in the notification panel. This ensures that none of the important notifications are missed out by any of the employees.

Other Face-lifts

The punch details page is revamped to give it a fresh feel and a vividly comprehensive look.

The summary features an overview of clock-in and clock-out information of an employee for a month. It includes number of working days, on time punch in, late punch in, early punch out and missed punches.

The Apply leave page is revamped to showcase a calculated account of the used and remainder of the number of casual leaves.

How our new features will be a boon to your business?

  • Comprehensive exhibition of details drive a higher adoption rate
  • Fosters team bonding and co-ordination for superior output.
  • The on the go available details of daily work hours call for a constructive utilization of time.
  • Keeping tab on the productivity and other dynamics affecting business is easier.
  • Boost in employee engagement owing to implementation of persuasive “Rewards” feature.
  • The HR workforce can now resort to other planning tasks instead of continuously dwelling over redundant employee monitoring.

To experience a whole new level of business benefits try our new WiFi attendance app at https://www.wifiattendance.com

Get complete overview on the pricing of the app at https://www.wifiattendance.com/pricing/

When everything is doing well in your organization, you do not think too much about it. However, when productivity slackens, the pace slows down, may even grind to a halt and cost you your business.

Productive work and unproductive work are separated by a hazy line. Most times, unproductive cannot be discerned from productive work. Many tasks in the workspace are not clearly defined and many other tasks are of a collaborative nature.

In this context, it is important to realize that workplace monitoring is an important activity which ensures that employees end up doing the work that they are actually paid for.

Whereas employee monitoring is manually possible for those organizations with only a few employees, the same is impossible for an organization that employs thousands of employees in many different locations on regular and other shifts.

Such organizations use monitoring (oversight) agents installed on computers that help to provide complete visibility. They help to improve the office metrics and employee productivity and consequently the efficiency of the organization.

What Does Employee Monitoring Software Packages Do

In addition to the simple function of tracking time by recording clock-ins and clock-outs or managing employee schedules, the modern employee monitoring software packages are more extensive and possess monitoring functions such as logging in keystrokes, track the locations, and take screenshots.

The software can be customized according to different employee groups so as to suit their functions.

The data that is generated can be aggregated and interpreted as reports and dashboards and help to distinguish between productive and unproductive employees. In the rest of the article, we are going to discuss some of the most popular software tools that are used in corporate organizations to improve employee productivity.

1. Time Doctor

This is a time management tool that allows for real-time tracking of various jobs and works to prevent waste of time. It is best used by those organizations or individuals that want to remotely track a team’s work time. It helps to assess the productivity of the team as well as its time management.

Some of the metrics that are measured include Internet use time of the employee, a list of the websites that were visited, and the applications that were used.

Time Doctor is programmed to take screenshots once in every three minutes to ensure that employees are continuing to do their work. There are other features such as setting priorities for tasks and removing multitasking options.

2. BaseCamp

BaseCamp allows the employees to add tasks as they are scheduled for the coming week, month or even on a day-to-day basis. The tasks can be ticked off as soon as they are completed.

It gives a chance for the management as to how much an employee has been able to get through with their marked tasks without any direct intervention. The employees need to be taken into task only when they do too little work in a day.

3. WorkZone

Touted as an alternative solution to Microsoft Project, this software tool allows managers to define task/subtasks in a way that they understand. However, at the level of the employees, these tasks are broken down into smaller jobs that they would understand.

Sharing documents and framing comments are possible. In addition to all of these, one can feed in personal projects which allow him/her to collaborate with their managers.

4. WorkiQ

WorkiQ is built to study an employee’s computer behaviour and generates reports about how much time has been spent on non-productive sites as compared to productive work done.

Their dashboards are designed to display at a glance as to which of the employees are involved in work and which others are distracted from their work.

It is also possible to categorize activities across different applications and gives options to compare how the different workers handle the same type of work.

This helps to acknowledge and reward productive work and spot unproductive work when it occurs. True productivity can be measured even when it is a mix of complex tasks.

5. DeskTime

DeskTime is an application that allows for tracking jobs in real time and classifying each task as being productive or otherwise. In turn, this leads to finding out just how much productive each employee is. Agencies can also track billable hours among the employees.

6. 15Five

15Five is a web tool that helps the manager to link with all of their employees even at times when they are very busy. The software package works towards developing the employees so as to drive the business forward.

The package is designed so that all the employees are aligned to work towards the company’s top priorities.it helps to spot top-performing employees and acknowledge their good work.

The feedback is a lightweight affair (15 minutes a week) that helps the employee to focus on self-development as well as improve the team’s morale. Managers are allowed to pass comments as responses so that they create improved business results by removing roadblocks and coaching the employees.

7. SaneBox

Replying to emails is an activity known to be a time waster in most businesses. Reading and replying to emails as soon as they arrive at work is a common practice.

Many messages are irrelevant and redundant. Employees that batch up their emails and read them at one point in time are found to be more productive in their work. However, this may not be possible every single time. SaneBox can step in here to help.

SaneBox is more than just a spam filter in that it learns from a user’s previous email behaviour. SaneBox automatically filters emails according to what you tend to open first and what you tend to keep away for later.

The latter type is stored away in a separate folder and a summary of each of these messages is displayed to you. The software package has provisions for users to unsubscribe themselves from sites with just a single click.

8. Trello

Trello is a clear work organizer package. The software is cloud-based and helps to organize small and big tasks. It allows the teams to move in synchronization and works much like a project management software program. Processes and functions as and when they are started can be easily accommodated in Trello.

Many a time this does away with the need for unnecessary emails to fly across and is a definite time saver. The package is robust and enthusiasts can try out a free version.

9. Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud-based site and is specifically suited to those organizations dealing in sales and CRM. A sales manager can run up as to how many calls were made by his team in a day, how many emails were despatched, how many opportunities were handled and how much income was generated.

These metrics help to generate several relevant reports, automatically and is a great time saver. Similarly, customer data can be viewed optimally that ultimately helps to get more new clients and service the existing clients in a better manner. The Community Cloud aspect of Salesforce helps to redefine employee engagement with a view to improving productivity.

10. Todoist

Todoist helps an individual to follow up with every task that we need to accomplish on a day-to-day basis. Team tasks can also be planned and executed using Todoist. Deadlines can be input and productivity can be gauged with the help of the tasks that are completed on time.

The best part about Todoist is that it can be used on any platform. As the software package is cloud-based, you can access it using any device and you can practically monitor your workforce just about from anywhere.

11. Assembla

If your aim is to keep your entire team in constant communication, and want to know the latest of the workload, then Assembla is the right tool. Assembla helps you to enjoy repositories from just anywhere as it is cloud-based.

Project managers can work without intervening in the work of the development team as all the metrics are available anywhere. Moreover, it means less time on emails and improved productivity.

12. HipChat

HipChat boils down to an ‘instant messenger’ type of application at the workplace. It enables instant one-to-one communication.  This time tracking and management tool provides a complete chat history.

Any employee that missed out on important meetings or communication can catch up using the history without actually having to disturb anyone.

This becomes a tool to measure employees’ performance on a daily basis and also decide as to what strategies would work to improve productivity. Productive and unproductive groups can be segregated and some of them can be driven to better their own performances to improve total productivity.

13. Asana

Asana is a time-tracking software package that ultimately helps to control the expense budget. The Harvest Timer is a notable option in the package that comes with integrating Asana with Harvest, the time-tracking software. It enables an individual to determine the amount of time that is spent on every single task in a day.

Tasks can be assigned to individuals and thereafter tracked. All the project members can be kept in the loop. All issues surface immediately and can be corrected without any loss of time. This helps to complete the projects on time and stay within the budget. Above all, it keeps clients and the employees happy.

14. Google Streak

Everyone knows of applications that work to control big projects so as to finish them on time. However, the smaller jobs of a mega project almost always never make any entry into any app. Many of them are tracked only through emails.

In such a case, Streak helps to track emails and solve the unresolved jobs that come through them. Reminders for such emails are marked and follow-up is set up collaborators. This application helps one to see all the jobs through, both big and small.

15. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is an application that helps to monitor the performance of those working in sales organizations. The advantage of the app is that it is easily customizable and the data reporting function is extremely robust. This facility generates many metrics for employees as well as the management and these can be used to improve the productivity.

Final Thoughts

As many as 15 tools that help to improve business productivity have been introduced. However, it is crucial to understand that a tool by itself is not responsible for increasing the productivity of an organization.

The culture of productivity has to be instilled into the employees by making use of the right type of incentives and making them aware of the moral responsibility. Employee monitoring tools cannot be draconian tools that drain the morale of the workforce.