More essential tools for hybrid working

With hybrid work arrangements fast becoming the ‘new normal’, many employers are grappling with the employee communication, engagement, productivity, teamwork, and knowledge impacts.

In large part, the solution rests with an employer’s ability to harness the best available digital technology.

I invited business owners, managers, and hybrid workers themselves to share their favourite, but perhaps lesser known, tools and apps for hybrid working.

Discover the video, project management, task management, communication, and collaboration tools presented in part 1 of this feature.

Now in part 2, I’ll unveil another five essential tools for hybrid working.

Snagit for productive video screen capture

Although Windows comes with a snipping tool preloaded, the editorial team at PCMag describe Snagit as a, “beautifully designed, reliable, and efficient app that does just about everything a screen-capture app should do”.

Snagit lets you quickly capture your screen and camera, add additional context, and share images, GIFs, or videos across your preferred platforms. It’s the ideal solution for anyone who wants to quickly capture any process from a computer screen, mark it up, and create visual ‘how-to’ guides, tutorials, and documents.

Corey Donovan, president of Alta Technologies, agrees. “In a time of amazing live teleconferencing and chat tools, one of the most productive tools is still a simple video screen capture. Using Snagit to record quick video screen caps with narration gives the recipient a clearer idea of what’s required. As well, I get far fewer follow-up questions and re-dos because tone and nuance are picked up in my voice.”

Simulate your physical office with Sococo

Sococo is akin to a physical office simulator, complete with customisable, interactive floorplans.

Rooms can be rearranged and fashioned to make them comfortable and foster more frequent encounters. As in the real world, some rooms are designed for casual encounters (such as lunch rooms) while others are for specific purposes (such as meetings).

The virtual office layout means you can see who is meeting with whom, and where. It’s easy to move in and out of meetings and as long as your microphone is on you can talk to anyone who is in a room with you.

Steve Pogson, founder of US e-commerce agency, FirstPier, nominated Sococo because it replicates the experience of being in a real location.

Comprehensively manage your projects with Monday

Monday is an online collaboration/project management/CRM app which is popular with knowledge workers. TechRadar describes it as, “a comprehensive productivity suite that includes all the features needed to divide up the work of your team, monitor project progress, and ensure individual tasks are completed to schedule.”

Once tasks are assigned, Monday gives you a ‘timeline’ view of your projects: who’s responsible for what and by when.

Advanced collaboration tools and the ability to integrate with dozens of widely used third-party platforms are among the often-cited benefits of Monday.

Natalia Morozova, managing partner at Cohen, Tucker & Ades, a New York-based immigration law firm, describes Monday as a “valuable asset” to help manage legal assignments through remote and hybrid work. She says Monday’s legal case management template allows her attorneys, partners, associates, and paralegals to easily work on multiple case files at once and track estimated time to complete ongoing legal tasks, due dates, and priorities.

Value your frontline workers with Blink

Blink is a market-leading employee application for frontline workers (think healthcare, transport, logistics, retail, and facilities management), enabling them to be connected, empowered, productive, supported, and informed when on the move.

All these things can significantly enhance the employee experience and aid retention.

With mobile access to a simple platform, linked to a secure portal, frontline workers should have everything they need to perform their duties and feel like valued workers. From updates and announcements to forms and timetables, Blink and you won’t miss it.

Krisp for crystal clear calls

For many of us, working from home means dealing with the distractions of children squealing, dogs barking, music playing, or trades making a racket close by.

Krisp is a noise cancelling application which, through artificial intelligence, suppresses background noise including all acoustic and room echoes. What’s more, it can be set to work in both directions so you can cancel background noise from your speakers or headphones, too.

Lastly, Krisp can be tuned to be specific to your voice only — a feature which anyone who shares a remote workspace will appreciate.

London-based William Donnelly, founder of a senior care platform Lottie, says, “Krisp allows you to mute your environment so that you can focus on meetings and not miss out on anything important. It’s fairly easy to install, can run in the background with ease, and it has a virtual background feature that removes any digital distractions.”

How many of these apps and tools does your hybrid team utilise? And what are we missing?

Jacqueline (Jaci) Burns is Chief Marketing Officer with B2B agency Market Expertise