Now that you’re in hybrid working land, your business toolkit has probably expanded greatly. To adapt to multi-location working, we have to do things a little differently than before. Thankfully, the tech world is racing ahead and there are myriad amazing tools for us to use, to help us navigate hybrid life. Tools to help us with workplace scheduling, tools to help us manage meetings and projects, and tools to enable our companies to continue to grow and be productive.

One of the challenges with hybrid working is how to ensure effective collaboration when your teams are geographically spread out. We have some tips here to help improve collaboration, and we’ve put together some ideas below for brilliant collaboration tools.

You may already be using tools such as MS Teams and Slack, but there are lots of others you may not have started using yet.  

Miro

This is an online virtual workspace, a digital whiteboard, designed to aid collaboration by providing a space for innovation, communication, project and work management. The scope of what you can do with Miro is huge. Its features enable companies to manage product development by using workflows, brainstorming, diagramming and process mapping.  Communication and collaboration can be in real-time, with meetings and workshops or by asynchronous collaboration. There are templates available such as mind maps, flowcharts, and strategy maps, and there is the functionality for bespoke solutions for complex workflows.  

Miro’s basic plan is free and includes three editable whiteboards. Further features are available with the Starter and Business plans, which charge a monthly fee.

Tally Forms

This is a great app for producing forms. Billed as ‘the simplest way to create forms’, it has a user-friendly interface and there is no coding required. Most features are free, meaning it’s a great tool for anyone to use without needing to pay a premium. Tally works using a block-building system to create your form. You can use one of the pre-built templates or build your form from scratch. Tally has a subscription option which includes features such as workspaces for team collaboration and the ability to include your company branding.  

Figma

One for the designers, this is a web-based graphics editing and user interface design app, which allows all involved in the design process to work together and collaborate virtually. Designs can be created from scratch or by using one of the pre-installed templates. Figma can be used for a range of purposes, including graphic design, web design, and social media posts. Features include shared asset libraries, prototype-creation, and the facility for developers to translate designs into code. Users can collaborate in real time or asynchronously, using online whiteboards, diagramming, strategy planning and team meetings.

Figma has an excellent free plan and three premium paid-for plans with additional features.

Pumble

Pumble is a communications app which includes a lot of features to help teams to stay connected, such as team channels, direct messaging, video conferencing, and voice calling. Conversations are organised in threads to aid organisation and ease of reference, and teams can share files using the app.

The basic plan is free, and there are levels of premium plans ranging from Pro to Enterprise.  

Trello

The online noticeboard, Trello provides a space for companies to manage projects and work using Workspaces and noticeboards (Boards) which contain Cards that can be populated with information about projects, such as individual tasks and to-do lists. It is a simple-to-use, lightweight project management option, and it can help your teams to plan and track workflows easily.  

The basic plan is free and is entirely suitable for simple projects. There are premium plans which enable teams to connect and collaborate asynchronously, offering power-ups and features to enable a more autonomous experience.

Visme

Visme is a marketing and design platform for creation of visual communications, such as presentations, documents, infographics, social media graphics, videos, wireframes, and mock-ups. You can use Visme to create content and also plan content, for example using the content calendar to schedule and publish social media posts. Designs can be created from scratch or using templates. Teams can comment, collaborate, and give feedback in real time.

The basic plan is free and there are two levels of set-price premium plans, as well as Visme for Teams, which provides a bespoke option.

Bonusly

In the hybrid world, it isn’t as easy to reward and recognise employee achievements as it is in the face-to-face world. Thankfully, there are a number of apps designed to meet this need. One of which is Bonusly, an online recognition, peer-to-peer programme based around rewards and incentives.

Colleagues can tag one-another for praise, and this is publicly celebrated in the company. Employees earn points, which become rewards, such as vouchers. Rewards are paid for at face-value.  

The core plan begins at a low monthly fee per user, per month, but there is a free trial period prior to this. Pro plans allow a more bespoke setup.

Hypercontext

Hypercontext is a meetings management app, which helps managers run meetings through generating agendas, notes, next steps and actions, and goals. The app provides insights and helps managers to track where the next steps are up to from each meeting. If you’re looking for a tool purely to support your hybrid meetings, this is a simple and useful one, which also includes space for one-to-one meetings; ideal for providing virtual catchups with team members.  

Hypercontext has a good free basic plan, offering unlimited meetings, 500+ conversation starters, and automated meeting minutes. Paid plans are available offering bespoke features.

Mo

Mo is an employee recognition app that aims to amplify culture and engagement. It focuses on managers recognising teams, and teams recognising or ‘boosting’ each other.  The recognition is about reinforcing company values, providing meaningful rewards, and building communities. Colleagues each have a profile, and the company can run annual rewards through the app and also set challenges for people to solve.

Managers have access to a dashboard, ‘The Assistant’, which gives them an overview of their team’s rewards, enables them to track reward budgets, and shows them special occasions and milestones on the horizon.

There is no free plan with Mo. The Starter and Level Up plans operate on a ‘per user, per month’ model, and there is a Custom option for a bespoke offering. ‍

Hive

Hive is a hybrid working project management app, structured around project hierarchies, and multiple project views such as kanban and Gannt charts. It enables teams to track progress on projects. Work can be proofed and approved in the app and teams can collaborate in real time using video chat or asynchronously using messages and notes.  

There is a free plan, though it is limited to up to 2 workspace members. There is a set-price paid plan and a custom enterprise plan.

Team Today

Well, we couldn’t have a list about collaboration tools without mentioning our good selves, could we?

We built Team Today around four pillars: Whereabouts, Work Planner, Desk Booking, and Holidays. It is a tool to help you manage hybrid working in your company, but it also helps your teams stay connected and collaborate. Our Work Planner pillar enables you to coordinate the work of your teams. You can see availability, projects, and deadlines in one simple view.  This helps teams to know what is coming up, who is involved, and to plot it all on the planner. And you can use the other features to complement this, by knowing where your teams are planned to be, when they will be away, and by enabling them to book space in the office for face-to-face collaboration.

Team Today is free for companies with up to 10 employees. We then have premium plans, with a low per-user per-month cost, as well as a bespoke enterprise option.  

This is an introduction into some of the tools out there. There are many more and new ones being created all the time.

For more insights and articles about hybrid working from Team Today, visit our blog here.