Thanks to technology, finding the best talent for your organization is no longer limited by location.
The ability (and acceptance) of working remote has increased significantly over the past few years, allowing for more flexibility on both the employer and employee.
But with so much space, being able to effectively communicate and understand employee challenges and productivity becomes crucial. So we asked 14 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) which apps or software they find most effective for monitoring employee engagement or performance. Their best answers are below.
1. Basecamp
We love Basecamp in our office. Employees add their tasks for the day/week/month and check them off as they're completed. It helps management see what's on an employee's plate for the day and what they were able to get through without having to grill them. The grilling comes when they don't get through enough tasks! – Brooke Bergman, Allied Business Network Inc.
2. DeskTime
DeskTime is a simple yet powerful tool that provides real-time automatic tracking capabilities. This allows management to categorize applications as productive, unproductive and neutral to truly gauge just how productive each and every employee in the organization is. The software also allows agencies to track billable hours among their employees. It's an all-in-all great application for any business. – Cody McLain, WireFuseMedia LLC
3. Asana + Harvest Integration
My favorite app would have to be Asana. Since it can be integrated with Harvest, it enables everyone to track their time so we can manage our budget efficiently. Tasks can be assigned individually and tracked in real time, so we are all in the loop regarding our projects. This enables us to handle any issue immediately, which helps us keep our clients happy, as well as our employees. – Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
4. iDoneThis
Reply to an evening email reminder with what you did that day. The next day, get a digest with what everyone on the team got done. iDoneThis is a simple way for employees to monitor their own performance and gives the team a chance celebrate their accomplishments. – Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
5. 15Five
15Five is a web-based tool that creates clear communication and connection with my employees. Although I speak to them all quite frequently, there are times when I am just too swamped to evaluate how they are doing and what they might need help with. 15Five allows us all to work together to solve problems, keep projects moving and maintain an open and honest workplace. – Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com
6. Trello
Trello helps visualize workflow and keep things organized. By using a cloud-based board to organize tasks, you can keep growing teams in sync. It's easy to create new boards for different business functions and manage processes more effectively by getting out of the inbox. The free version is pretty robust, so it's easy to get started and try it out. – Matt Hunckler, Verge
7. Google Streak
There are plenty of great apps for big projects. But many side tasks never make it into any app. They get sent out via email. Senders forget, so recipients follow suit. Another opportunity missed. So we track email requests with Streak. It lets us see all our unresolved emails, set reminders and follow up with collaborators, making sure we take time to see every idea and opportunity through. – Manpreet Singh, TalkLocal
8. Salesforce
Albeit it's an expensive tool, but EVENTup runs on Salesforce. I can see how many calls they have made a day, how many emails were sent, how many opportunities created, and of course, how much money was made. They make it easy to create a variety of reports specific to your brand KPIs. Every night, I have automatic reports sent to me at 11 p.m., summarizing the activities and performance of each day. – Jayna Cooke, EVENTup
9. Assembla
Assembla proved to be a great tool to keep our dev team in strong, constant communication with each other and define what the present workload is. We also use the git integration to keep our commits and tickets in synchronization. For project managers, it decreased emails, improved our quality assurance stage and allowed them to operate from 30,000 feet without pestering the dev team. – Dalip Jaggi, Devise Interactive
Related Article: Awesome Employee Perks You've Never Heard Of
10. Todoist
We use Todoist to keep everyone up to date with everything from the little things that can slip our minds to the tasks we accomplish daily. Individual assignments, team tasks and custom-labeled projects are listed with deadlines, and productivity is monitored in regard to tasks completed on time. The biggest perk is that it's cross-compatible with every platform we use. – Anthony Johnson, American Injury Attorney Group
11. SnapEngage
I love the live chat application SnapEngage. In the dashboard, I can see what customers are frequently having questions with and how employees are solving their issues. This helps determine if employees are truly providing up-to-date information and what improvements our website could use. I can also see how responsive employees are and keep them busy in between phone calls. – Robert De Los Santos, Sky High Party Rentals
12. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a great tool to monitor the performance of salespeople and, if applicable, your team responsible for putting a competitive proposal together. It's easy to customize the app, and the data reporting is incredibly robust. It's one of the few CRM systems that is easy for employees to use, but can also provide data for management. – Travis Holt, Brush Creek Partners
13. WorkiQ
My favorite app is WorkiQ, which tracks employees’ computer behavior and provides reports on their time spent on productive and nonproductive applications. The dashboards provide clear visuals to tell you which employees are actively engaged with their work and which are continuously distracted. – Jyot Singh, RTS Labs
14. TinyPulse
At When I Work, we use TinyPulse. It allows us to get a good vibe of how people are feeling in the office. The best part of TinyPulse is that it takes less than five minutes to fill out. In that time, we can get a good pulse of what the company is feeling and possibly needing. We talk about the results in meetings and address them to the company as a whole. – Chad Halvorson, When I Work