Since remote work took the stage during the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work environments have been popular. When you manage a hybrid team, you must account for unique challenges. Luckily, there are tons of tools on the market to give business owners an extra hand.
Below, we’ll dive into some of these difficulties and the tools to address them. Then, we’ll give you some tips on figuring out the best tools for your hybrid team.
The challenges of hybrid work
Hybrid work is here to stay—and for good reason. Did you know that businesses that switched to a hybrid work schedule saw a 33% decrease in resignations? Employee retention is one of the best ways business owners can save money, so it pays to keep your team happy.
As we said, there are extra challenges that you have to keep in mind with a hybrid workplace that might not arise in an office building or a remote team.
For instance, businesses with office employees may need workspace scheduling software. However, since there’s an in-person component, they may not have as many needs around virtual social support. Alternatively, remote-focused workplaces may have a higher need for asynchronous collaboration tools.
The main difficulties of hybrid work revolve around scheduling and communication. Offices that offer limited desks or communal spaces need a way to manage those spaces. Likewise, team members need ways to communicate when some are working from home, like a virtual assistant.
Productivity and security are also big concerns. It’s easy to lose track of project progress when team members work in different places. Security is very important when remote employees work from computers outside the office.
Luckily, many tools address these things, regardless of your team’s size or hybrid work model.
15 top hybrid work software tools
Without further ado, here are our top 15 hybrid work software choices. From communication to productivity, there’s a tool for it!
Hybrid work communication tools
Hybrid work communication tools include Slack, Loom, and Google Suite. We discuss them here below:
Slack
Slack is pretty much ubiquitous when it comes to office chat software, though there’s so much more to it than text communication. For instance, Slack offers a voice call feature called “Huddle.” Huddle makes quick conversations that would happen in the office even easier for team members working from home.
In addition, every Slack conversation has a “Canvas.” Canvases help you keep track of to-do lists, notes, and other information you don’t want to lose. Slack also has over 2,500 integration options, including Google Drive, Airtable, and other tools in this list.
Loom
Loom is a screen recording software that enables users to quickly make videos. This ease can make asynchronous team collaboration easier for hybrid offices. A hybrid office model often means that not every team member can attend every meeting. Sometimes, there are concepts you want to outline that require a bit of explanation and screen sharing. This principle is what Loom is all about.
On the receiving end, when you watch Loom videos, you can speed them up or slow them down to reiterate points when necessary.
Google Suite
If you’re looking for a one-stop communication and collaboration shop, look no further than Google Suite. Team members can collaborate on Docs and Sheets, have virtual meetings via Meet, store projects on Drive, and more. Google Calendar also streamlines scheduling meetings and deadlines among your team members.
Not only that, but Google Suite can integrate with many other software solutions to create a more seamless system. Plus, Google offers multi-factor authentication to keep your information safe.
Hybrid workplace management tools
Now, we can move on to the hybrid workplace management tools. These include Condeco, OfficeRnD, and Robin,
Condeco
Condeco covers physical space booking in your office, from individual desks to conference rooms. You can also manage visitors, create employee schedules, and get usage analytics. Analytics can help you determine what’s working in your office’s space and where you can make improvements to best support your team.
Along with all of this, Condeco is also intuitive to use, which is great for hybrid employees. Booking a conference room was never easier!
OfficeRnD
OfficeRnD is another software that allows office employees to book desks, conference rooms, and more. What makes OfficeRnD stand out is its scalability. They make adding new team members, locations, or rooms simple. This feature makes it an excellent solution for growing businesses. It’s also a great tool for business owners who are figuring out the layout of their offices.
Another OfficeRnD standout is its seamless integration with Microsoft and Google products. If your office primarily collaborates over these platforms, you can do so through OfficeRnD. Then, everyone can keep track of everything in one place.
Robin
Robin is desk booking and room scheduling software that emphasizes security and measures in-person collaboration. If you want to encourage your team to use your office space more often, Robin sets you up for success. It’s an easy-to-use tool that offers analytics for owners and managers so you can optimize your physical space.
You can also manage office navigation with a feature called “Wayfinding.” Wayfinding enables employees to see where their colleagues are sitting for meetings. Wayfinding also helps plan efficient routes through your office, which is perfect if you have a confusing floor plan or a large space.
Hybrid workplace calendar and scheduling tools
Your hybrid workplace can also benefit from calendar and scheduling tools. These include:
Calendly
Calendly is a meeting scheduling software with an intuitive interface. When someone wants to meet with you, they can just book it based on time slots that work for your schedule. Once you book your meeting, you get a reminder on your Google Calendar.
Calendly is a great option for people who aren’t in the office often or team members who work across time zones. While It doesn’t have many advanced features, it’s a basic app that gets the job done.
TeamUp
TeamUp’s versatility makes it an excellent scheduling solution for everyone. It allows you to consolidate and view your calendars in different formats, like grids. With TeamUp, you can even manage company vehicles and physical office space.
These features simplify collaboration, scheduling, and meetings. Streamlining these factors is always a good thing, no matter what kind of hybrid office you have.
UKG
UKG is people management software that covers employee scheduling and payroll, and you can tailor it to just about any industry. Through the app, employees can track their time and make scheduling requests. Managers can create schedules and even get analytic insights into employee time. UKG also offers built-in communication features, so you’ll never lose a time-off request.
The payroll inclusion is a great feature for smaller businesses without a finance department. Keeping your employees’ hours in the same place as your payroll mitigates issues that can cause delays. Overall, this is a great option for a hybrid team, as it keeps everyone on the same page about schedule expectations.
Hybrid work productivity tools
The following productivity tools also make it to our top tools list for your hybrid workplace.
Airtable
Airtable is much more than a productivity tool—though it gets massive points for enabling hybrid workers to easily track project progress. With Airtable’s interface, you can see the big picture of your projects and the nitty-gritty details, keeping your team on track. Everyone knows what they need to do next to keep progress going.
Airtable also has many other features, such as AI integration, a feedback repository, and CRM abilities. It offers many integrations and the built-in ability to create your own apps.
Monday
Monday comes packed with templates to help your business get started easily. Each template is fully customizable, so you can adjust it if something is not good for your team’s workflow. Monday lets you see what stage projects are in at a glance, who’s working on them, and what you need to do next in real time.
Monday is an automation powerhouse, which gives management less to delegate. From reminders to automatic task assignments, you can rest assured that your team is on track, no matter where they work.
FocusMate
FocusMate imitates the principle of “body doubling.” Body doubling is when you’re working on something in the same room as someone else working (like an office). One of the challenges of remote work is that there isn’t the same amount of accountability. But with FocusMate’s match system, you can have a buddy on camera with you while you work.
This tool is great for hybrid workplaces because working at home can sometimes make team members miss the physical collaboration vibe of an office space. Plus, this is a great way for team members to get to know each other.
Hybrid work security tools
Secure your hybrid workplace and online tasks, such as contract signing, with the following tools:
Jotform
Jotform is a secure document-building and signing software. So, you can rest assured that all your contracts and other important documents are good to go. With Jotform, you can build reports, edit PDFs, and even build tables. If your finance or HR team has members who work from home, Jotform offers a place to keep track of managing these important documents.
Jotform offers many integration options to streamline document-building, signing, and sharing experience.
DocuWare
DocuWare keeps your documents safe but still easy for your team to access. When your team is remote for at least some of the time, there’s nothing more important than cybersecurity. With the rise of data breaches and other hacking incidents, you want to make sure your business’s sensitive information is secure. This is super important both for your sake and your customers.
DocuWare also supports HIPAA, GDPR, and other legal document security mandates. So, even if your business is in a field dealing with sensitive customer information beyond card numbers, you’re covered legally.
LastPass
Businesses use lots of tools, and for each one, you should have a unique password for it. Understandably, this can be hard to keep track of, which is where password managers come in. LastPass tops our ranking of password managers, and for a good reason. LastPass is super easy to use, generates strong passwords, and works across browsers and devices. All of these factors make it perfect for hybrid offices.
In addition to password storage, LastPass can store other information like business credit cards, tax info, and more. They also make it easy to share password information securely among teams, which is great for offices with people working from home.
Choosing the right hybrid work software for your needs
Now that you’ve seen what hybrid work software has to offer, you can start narrowing down your choices.
The most important thing you can do is consider your office’s pain points and choose tools accordingly. For example, If you need to strengthen communication and collaboration across your team, find a solution tailored to this. Think about what kind of workplace you are and where your needs lie.
Here are some other things to consider when you’re debating different software:
- Your budget is important when it comes to considering different software solutions. Robust software may be pricier, but the cost may be worth it if it combines a few necessary tools.
- If you can do a free trial or sign up for a month-to-month plan, you can try different tools and see which works best for you. Just be sure not to burn your team out on software training.
- Think about security since these tools hold lots of sensitive information. Being aware of security trends and innovations is a great strategy to combat data breaches. Then, you can rest assured that you’re doing all you can to keep your information safe.
- While figuring out where your business needs support, think about what’s working for you. Consider what makes it work for your team – is it a user-friendly interface or integration ability? Take note of this and see which tools come close to emulating this success.
Conclusion
Managing a hybrid work environment presents its own set of unique challenges. Luckily, there are many software options tailor-made for those challenges, no matter what they are. When you’re thinking about a new tool for your office, consider your pain points. From there, you can narrow down which software is right for you, though you can’t go wrong with any of our picks!
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