Remote Control: Workforce Tools to Make Offices Mobile.

• Author: Gray, Bruce A.
• Position: TechTalk

Last fall, I wrote an article about whether your firm was prepared for a mobile workforce and provided some important steps to take to be adequately prepared. As the world gets smaller, cost of office space increases and transportation issues grow larger, it seems likely we will see more and more instances of a mobile or distributed workforce.

Additionally, many of the workers who have entered the workforce in the past few years are balancing their work and personal lives in new and different ways than some of us more "old-school" types. Even if our staff is in the office during the day, they are increasingly working on projects and checking email and voicemail at all hours of the day--and night.

Studies are starting to show that remote workers are often more productive without the distractions of the office. But this productivity also comes with a price: isolated workers and more difficult oversight of the work. So, if we continue toward a trend of more remote workers, how do we stay engaged with each other during the workday and best manage the workflow?

There are several tools that any firm with a remote workforce should consider having in their tool kit to be able to keep engagement among the staff at a high level.

Instant Messaging

IM apps aren't new. In fact, they've been around for many years. These are great for more immediate types of conversations that may not lend themselves well to email. Time management gurus tell us to schedule our time with email to avoid allowing it to consume our day, so if there is something of a more urgent nature that may require a more rapid response, IM is the ticket.

There are many options available, but Finances Online lists Slack, Jive and Skype as its top three picks. Our firm is using Slack and have found it friendlier than Skype (and there is a free version that is sufficient for small groups). Most of the collaborative software apps like Zoho and Google also offer some form of IM, so if you're utilizing these, their respective tool may be a good fit.

Project/Task Management

Again, the number of options is legion and in many cases your IM tool may also have task management functionality. This is true of tools like Slack, Basecamp and Wrike. Others integrate with IM tools cither through their collaborative suite (think Google, Zoho, Microsoft) or through integrations with IM tools.

For example, HourStack (thanks to Scott Hoppe of Hoppe Tax for...