While the chancellor and the business secretary urge companies to return to the office, employers and employees are increasingly looking at flexible working as the new norm.

After the challenges of furlough and remote working, the lifting of coronavirus restrictions hasn’t led to the mass move back to the city centres that the chancellor had hoped for.

Many businesses that were able to adapt to home working now view the shift as a permanent one, albeit with a certain amount of flexibility.

The move has been made possible thanks to the vast array of digital technology available. It has made online meetings the norm and now, as other collaborative digital communication tools become standard, the software at the heart of these interactions will be an integral part of business life.

Keep reading for a look at five of the best online tools for business owners that will help to keep your business community together, even as you work remotely.

1. Zoom

Effective communication is key in business and Zoom is an obvious choice on our list. The rise of video calling – especially during the original coronavirus lockdown – saw the nation conducting weekly catchups with friends, family quizzes, and wine-tasting evenings over Zoom.

Back at work, the app is perfect for conducting client meetings, maintaining regular contact with colleagues, and keeping the social side of your business alive. This is particularly important if your business has been hiring during the last 18 months as you could have colleagues yet to meet face-to-face.

Additional features such as digital breakout rooms allow for pockets of specialist discussion or private chat. Zoom, or a similar piece of video conferencing software, is indispensable.

2. Slack

While Zoom is great for pre-arranged meetings and lengthy discussions on specific topics, Slack’s simple and intuitive messaging interface is great for briefer interactions.

Creating Slack channels dedicated to different projects or teams within your business helps to ensure the content in a given space is relevant and that the right people see the right information. Responses – or emoji reactions – can be added to acknowledge receipt or help participants gauge the reaction to a given message.

The instant video feature allows for rapid communication where a text-based conversation is liable to be confusing or onerous.

Setting up non-work-related channels also allows your employees to retain social interaction with their colleagues, helping to maintain morale and good relationships across your business.

3. Trello

Keeping track of complex projects involving many colleagues across multiple departments could prove difficult even before the pandemic.

Join the likes of eBay and Google by using Trello.

Set up Trello boards for each project and then add individual tasks, timelines, and project milestones. You can then use cards within each board to add comments, share attachments, and produce checklists and reminders.

Trello is a great way for your business to maintain its team spirit, allowing complex processes to remain creative and collaborative, even while your team is working remotely.

4. Asana

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently looked at home-working trends since the outbreak of the pandemic.

While the productivity of those working from home has occasionally been a point of contention, figures suggest this needn’t be a worry for business owners with remote-working staff. Lower sickness rates, longer hours worked, and an increase in unpaid overtime are among the trends the ONS uncovered.

As a business owner, though, you’ll still want to track the work that is being done. And that is where Asana comes in.

Set up individual tasks and break them down into specific teams or projects. Your employees can then log the hours they spend on each task, allowing you to track productivity and help with invoicing at the end of each month.

The reporting section allows you to build dashboards to track the progress of each team, department, or project, giving you an at-a-glance view of whichever area of your business you choose.

5. Microsoft 365

Microsoft Office is the most widely used Office Suite on the market and it sits at the heart of Microsoft 365.

Your team can share Word documents and spreadsheets or work collaboratively on PowerPoint presentations. And because 365 is cloud-based, you and your colleagues can work on any platform from PCs and laptops to mobiles and tablets, allowing for collaboration on the move.

There are different packages available too, making Microsoft 365 as affordable as it is integral.

Get in touch

If you would like financial advice on any aspect of your business or your own long-term financial plans, please get in touch to find out what our Chartered Financial Planners can do for you.