Thanks to technology, employing talents such as virtual assistants from the other side of the world is now possible. While this is a mutually beneficial set up for you and your talents, it is not without its challenges. For example, since your team is in a whole other geographical location from you, it is harder to supervise and check their progress. How will you know if your they are actually working and not spending the time you’re paying for watching cute kitten videos on YouTube?

The answer is simple: use more technology!

Here are 4 software that you can use to successfully manage your virtual workforce:

Skype

 

 

The type of communication system you’re using matters a lot in virtual management. Depending on your needs, you might have to use several systems to communicate effectively. Usually e-mails are the go-to for business communications, however, it can get ridiculously tiring to keep up e-mails especially if you’re constantly communicating with your VAs.

For quick instant messages, you should consider using chat platforms such as Skype instead. Skype offers real-time messaging, free audio and video calls, and have some cool features such as screen sharing so that you can easily check in with your VA. Plus, your team is probably already familiar with the platform so you wouldn’t have to waste time in training them.

Trello

 

 

Monitoring your staff is hard, and it’s even harder when you’re working with a remote team. To ensure that all your operations are being handled well, you need to know what your team is doing and which tasks they’re working – but how can you do that without micro-managing?

The answer is simple, use a task-tracking system like Trello! Trello is an online management system that allows you to organise all of your projects into boards. Using Trello, you can easily add and delegate tasks to your team, see what they are currently working on, and archive your completed tasks. You can also add comments and attach files for each task, making it the ultimate task delegation tool.

The best part is you can invite as many people to your board as you need – for free!

Dropbox

Of course, no virtual team would be complete without an online cloud storage system. There are quite a lot of cloud storages out there, but I personally like using Dropbox for my team since it is very easy to use and ensures that all our files are safe, synced, and easy to share.

What I love most about Dropbox is it is very accessible and have apps for almost every device, making it the best choice for team access. It also has automatic sync and versioning features plus encrypts all the files you upload, making it a great choice for backing up your data. Admittedly, it can get pricey in the long run especially if you’re managing a big team – but I’d rather pay a few dollars more than skimp out on security!

Time Doctor

More than cutting costs, outsourcing aims to increase business productivity by hiring the best talents around the world. Help your team become more productive by using a time-tracking software such as Time Doctor.

Time Doctor tracks the websites your team visits, the applications they’re using, how long they spent working on a task, and the time they’re using for breaks. It also takes random screenshots so that you can monitor if they have been staying on their tasks or doing non-work related activities.

Time Doctor also has a payroll feature that can easily calculate the salary of your employees based on the hours tracked, which is especially useful if you are paying based on hours worked.

Time Doctor will be having a digital nomad event called Running Remote Conference 2018 this coming June in Bali, Indonesia.

The Running Remote Conference 2018 is carefully curated to teach you next-level, actionable strategies, and tactics you can utilize the very next day to manage & grow your remote team.

 

Traditional team management does not apply when you’re working with remote talents. It is important that you continually search for ways to better manage your team. By using these software you will be able to get the most out of your virtual assistant.