If you’re working as part of a hybrid team in 2022, you’ll need to make sure that you’re making the most of the best digital tools.
These include gadgets like interactive displays and software for project management and interactive meetings, and they ultimately all work online to create a hybrid working space. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the best hybrid working tools that your whole team can use!
The future of work is remote and hybrid, and these tools are essential for any partially or fully remote team. These helpful hardware and software gadgets can help teams work together as if they’re with each other in real time. With them, you can organise your team’s workload, host meetings and send essential files without stepping into the physical workplace.
However, if you do have a team who works in the office some (or all) of the time, these hybrid working tools can also help you to bridge the connection between the office space and those working from home. With them, you can take the office to remote teammates, making people feel like they’re working as a unit, even if they’re on opposite sides of the world.
So, how do you bring people together with these excellent hybrid working tools? Here’s our list of the best technologies that can help you to function as one workplace!
It goes without saying that a laptop is one of the most essential pieces of hybrid working equipment. Using a laptop, you can operate both in the office and at home, and you can save your own files onto the computer - it’s much more flexible than a desktop computer in either location.
It’s best to have a modern, high-speed laptop from which you can use up-to-date versions of apps and programmes. Usually, the higher the speed, the more efficient and productive a team will be! Generally, the employer provides laptops for hybrid workers, but this can vary from company to company.
Technically, you can join most Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings using the speakers and microphone on your computer.
However, if you’re partaking in lots of remote meetings, high-quality headphones and microphones are essential. Using these, you can hear people as if they are there - and they’ll effortlessly hear you as well.
Many people use their built-in webcam so their colleagues can see them in meetings, but you could also use an external webcam for a higher-quality picture.
Interactive displays are essential hybrid working tools for a hybrid team. They are essentially large screens which can feature their own computing system, so you can host meetings, browse the internet or view and collaborate on documents from the large format interactive screen.
Used commonly in the home office and meeting spaces, they’re also ideal for a hybrid work model. These interactive displays can also connect directly to people’s laptops for an extension of their own device.
This means that you can see your documents and applications on a much bigger scale, which makes annotating and collaborating effortless. Plus, when using your own device, no data is stored on the display which makes it very secure - you can only view any device’s data or information when the device itself is connected.
There are many on the market, but the interactive displays that we sell here at Avocor are the perfect mix of quality, with lots of features and great value.
Trello is a fantastic project management software, and it’s ideal for working with a team with a hybrid work pattern. With Trello, you can create cards and put them in different stages of the project. They’re ideal for teams who are collaboratively working on one project.
If you’re working as part of a team, you could assign a card to each person, and move the card around to show where each person is in the project. Or, you could assign a card for each task, and move it around as it makes progress.
For example, if you’re working with a team who is writing annual reports, you could have a column for “research”, “writing”, “editing” and “submitted”.
As the team members progress with their reports, they can move the cards around, providing you with a detailed look at where each employee is with their project. It’s a great way to visualise how people are progressing without being physically in the office with them!
Slack is a popular hybrid work tool where you can speak to your employees. Either send them messages on a one-to-one, small group or full group basis.
Think of Slack as your virtual office, where you can easily open conversations and converse with different team members. Its interface is fresh and modern and reflective of digital transformation, offering plenty of features that email doesn’t.
You can easily integrate Slack with up to 2,400 other apps; so whether you want to share events in your calendar or the latest excel spreadsheets, it’s effortless to see it all at the click of a button. It’s also easy to search messages and automate meetings.
Importantly, Slack is also much more secure than email and other platforms. The app boasts impressive security so you can rest assured that you won’t be a target of phishing or hacking and that the only people who read your messages are those who are supposed to.
Pre-2020, many people hadn’t even heard of Zoom. But with the evolution of the workplace it became a household name around the world.
The concept of Zoom is simple; using it, you can host meetings from two to hundreds of people. At its simplest, it’s a video calling software, where you can speak to remote employees on a one-to-one basis. You can also record the meeting to watch again at a later date.
If there are more than two of you, Zoom excels at group meetings. It’s ideal for small team conversations, like huddles, or if you have larger meetings all participants apart from the speakers can mute the microphone.
Zoom is nowadays one of the most popular conference calling apps and is used by hybrid and remote teams all over the world for engaging in remote meetings.
While WeTransfer isn’t as well-rounded as some of the other hybrid working collaboration tools on this list, it’s a fantastic niche tool to share files between other remote and hybrid workers.
With WeTransfer, you can upload photos and other files - sometimes in a zip folder - and send the link to your team.
Then, your team can use the link to easily download and see the files. It’s ideal for when you want to send larger or multiple files to your remote teams!
If you work with a large team who have multiple deadlines, Asana is perfect. This project management software operates within calendars; using them, you can assign your team specific deadlines, send briefs and communicate.
It’s much more visual than using emails, especially as Asana operates with deadlines. When one is approaching, the team member will get a notification, plus they will receive messages whenever there has been activity on one of the tasks that they are a part of.
Ultimately, it’s a group calendar and one of the best hybrid working scheduling tools where anyone can easily keep on top of their projects!
Virtual meeting spaces are an ideal add-on to a hybrid working space. Like conference calling software, these operate on interactive displays and remote employees can join them by logging in from their laptop or another device.
However, virtual meeting spaces are a little more dynamic than conference calling software and tend to reflect real life more. For example, each participant is assigned an avatar, which you can move closer and further away from others to hear them at different volumes. Because of the settings and features of these spaces, they are more suitable for casual meetings or networking events.
These spaces operate on platforms like pexip and gather.town, which you can either subscribe to and use on an unlimited basis or purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis.
With a hybrid team, these remote working hardware and software tools are fantastic. They can help you with some of the disadvantages of working remotely - such as less interaction and communication with your colleagues - and superpower your productivity when collaborating on a hybrid basis.
Incorporating Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slide, Google Workspace is a must for any busy hybrid teams.
The platform functions much like Microsoft Word, but because it is all online, collaborating is effortless. You can work on documents together with remote peers, edit communal spreadsheets, and access your presentations from any device (including mobile and interactive displays) - just log in to your Google account.
Google Workspace can also sync your emails to your calendar seamlessly, making it easier to time keep and ensuring you don’t miss any important appointments.
Notion is an app that aims to bring digital teams together. Used by companies like Pixar and Headspace, it’s a planning application where you can detail individual steps to a business plan, which is then broken down into to-do lists. Aiming to bust silos, Notion makes it easy for every employee to envisage the business’s goals and progress.
Monday is a useful collaborative project management tool. Within the platform, you can work on specific tasks, which you can view in a number of creative ways. You can assign different employees to specific tasks and chat directly about the tasks. It’s a great space to base your digital workplace.
With the tagline “there are now 13 months in a year”, Motion (not to be confused with Notion!) is a fantastic calendar planning app that will help any busy hybrid team to organise their time. Simply input the different tasks and let AI generate a calendar that optimises time wisely.
It can be used by the manager of a company or by each employee on an individual basis. You could use this to create the team’s weekly schedule or arrange business meetings or encourage your staff members to utilise it to plan each day.
Operating for over two decades, Basecamp has streamlined its project management software to create a tool that’s suitable for every team. Used by businesses like Shopify, Basecamp has a beautiful interface that’ll impress any project management team, with features like file sharing, seamless to-do lists schedules and “campfire” chats.
Microsoft Teams is a great all-rounder tool for hybrid workplaces. Not only can you use the software to host meetings with remote team members, but if your team uses Microsoft email, you can sync it to have email threads and instant messenger discussions. Depending on your tastes as a company, you may prefer teams, Zoom or another conference calling software like Google hangouts.
Ryver is a Slack alternative that includes countless ways to communicate, all in one app. Use their instant messenger software for quick conversations or opt for voice and video calls if you need to discuss things in a little more detail. Ryver also offers some project management tools, with similar features to Asana and Monday, where you can assign tasks to different employees and watch their progress.
While many people work on a hybrid basis because they don’t want to go into an office environment every day, others work remotely due to distance from the office and find it difficult to work from home all the time.
For example, if someone has an office in London but works in Edinburgh and just goes into the office for one day per month, they may want to attend a coworking space in Edinburgh for the rest of the time.
This is where WeWork comes in. It’s a co-working chain where people can work in a casual office setting. Features include high-speed WiFi and meeting rooms, making it easier and more productive to work than at home.
If part of your team works to this kind of arrangement, you might want to consider investing in a WeWork membership for them to enhance their productivity.
Likewise, Priority Pass can be suitable for some hybrid teams, particularly those that need to travel a lot on business. If your team is located all over the world, but they frequently travel internationally to your office, you might consider buying them a priority pass. These passes can get your employees into airport lounges all over the world.
Typically, lounges have high-speed WiFi and plenty of refreshments, helping them to have a more relaxed journey, perhaps catching up on some work and arriving in the office feeling refreshed.
Whether you’re an experienced hybrid team or a group who are just starting to work on a partially-remote basis, these tools can help you to succeed in 2022 and beyond.
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