The Ultimate Guide to Remote Management Tools

The Remote Working Shift

Remote working is increasingly becoming ingrained in the UK corporate culture.  According to StandOutCV, 58% of UK employers offer remote work, with 16% of the UK workforce working full-time from home in 2023.

Cutting-edge business technology, robust internet connection, and the peak of the COVID-19 restriction in 2020 are the top reasons for the increasing shift to this new work culture.

That creates the need for remote management tools to help businesses streamline workflows, manage and monitor remote teams, and ensure secure access to company systems and networks.

Playroll is an all-in-one payroll and HR management platform that offers employment and payroll solutions to help businesses build and manage remote teams efficiently.

Top 7 Must-Have Remote Management Tools

This article covers the seven types of remote administration tools for businesses in 2024 and beyond.

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Effective communication and collaboration are essential when employees work remotely from different locations. Video conferencing tools and instant messaging apps are the top remote management tools in this category that help bridge the gap and create a seamless work environment.

For instance, video conferencing tools facilitate face-to-face meetings and remote presentations. With messaging apps, remote teams can create groups or channels to organize conversations by topic or project and communicate in real-time.

Reliable communication and collaboration tools to check include:

• Zoom
• Microsoft Teams
• Google Meet
• Slack
• Google Chat

Project Management and Task Tracking Tools

With about 12.7% of employees working full-time from home, project management and task-tracking tools are absolutely essential for businesses. They enable managers and supervisors to plan projects, schedule tasks, and allocate resources.

From behind a computer screen, managers can set deadlines, assign tasks, and set clear responsibilities to enable remote teams to collaborate on projects. Again, these tools provide important reports and insights to help managers track overall project progress, identify issues, and make adjustments accordingly.

The best remote management tools in this category include:

• Trello
• Jira
• Asana
• Monday.com

Time Tracking and Productivity Tools

The 9-to-5 working schedule is lost when employees work from home. That makes it difficult to monitor their home office activities because supervisors don’t have physical access to their remote computers and mobile devices.

Time tracking and productivity software help solve this problem. They work in the background to track down employees' activity and non-activity time. That enables companies to determine time spent on assigned projects or tasks to evaluate performance and productivity.

Time tracking tools also ensure that working hours are fully recorded to enable HR managers to generate payroll easily and quickly. Top remote management tools in this category include:

• Timeular
• Toggl Track
• Monday.com
• Buddy Punch

Playroll's HR and payroll management software integrates with time tracking and productivity tools to automatically log working hours and generate accurate payroll.

File Sharing and Cloud Storage Tools

Cloud-based storage systems are great remote management tools for file sharing. Unlike in-house file storage systems that are only accessible locally, files on the cloud are accessible to team members at any time regardless of their geographical location.

That enables team members to create, store, edit, share, and access content from any device. Teams can easily collaborate and work on projects or tasks on shared files where everyone can see updates and track file versions. That helps eliminate slowdowns and ensure faster completion of workloads.

The best remote management tools in this category include:

• Google Workspace
• Dropbox
• Microsoft 365
• Livedrive
• Box
• iCloud Drive

Remote Desktop and Access Tools

Remote desktop and access tools help technical support teams and managed service providers (MSPs) offer remote support without needing physical access. These tools are embedded in operating systems on company devices, including laptops, computers, tablets, or even mobile devices.

That enables technical support teams to respond to issues quickly without the need to travel on-site. They can remotely manage operating systems' updates, troubleshoot networks, and transfer files. They can also send a command line of tasks to multiple PCs, configure devices, and if necessary, shut down remote computers. 

Top remote desktop and access tools include:

• TeamViewer
• AnyDesk
• RemotePC
• Dameware

Employee Monitoring and Productivity Tools

If implemented well, employee monitoring has been found to increase employee productivity by 7%. Remote monitoring and management tools help businesses track and analyze how employees utilize working time and company resources.

They track and monitor employees' activities like internet use & browsing, emails, phone calls, or even video surveillance. Such data is then analyzed to draw important insights and identify areas of improvement.

That helps companies ensure remote workers perform their duties efficiently, adhering to company policies and ethical standards. It also helps protect and identify insider threats that can result in damaging data breaches.

Best remote management tools for employee monitoring include:

• ActivTrak
• DeskTime
• StaffCop Enterprise
• Traqq
• Controlio

Security and Data Protection Tools

With companies spending an average of $4.37 million to recover from damaging data breaches, the need for robust data security tools cannot be overlooked.

These tools ensure real-time monitoring of computer networks to identify and report threats. They also scan and remove viruses and malware apps to improve the security of remote and hybrid work environments. Top remote management tools for data security include:

• HashiCorp Vault
• FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
• Egnyte
• Check Point Software Technologies
• Google Apigee Sense

Integrating Remote Management Tools With Playroll

As remote working continues to take root, remote administration tools are becoming an indispensable part of modern business operations. Therefore, business owners should consider using the above tools to ensure hassle-free remote monitoring and management of their workforce.

Playrooll's HR and payroll management system integrates with your remote management tools to ensure streamlined HR and payroll processing for remote teams.  Request a demo to see how you can optimize your remote management with Playroll.