If anything at all is clear about the global economy and workforce after the chaos of the last two and a half years, it is that remote working has become more ubiquitous than before the pandemic, and that our relationship with the office has changed for ever.

On top of this, businesses everywhere have been forced to re-assess how and where they operate, and many have chosen to relocate individual workers, entire teams and sometimes a complete workforce to another country. This has naturally produced challenges for HR teams managing recruitment, staffing levels and pay remotely.

Below, we have taken for a test drive ten HR tools that companies with remote workforces, or who are remotely managing staff in a variety of different locations across the globe, can utilise to make functions like onboarding, payroll and expense management in this scenario a little less challenging.

Papaya

Papaya is the ideal Cloud-based tool for global HR teams who are responsible for hiring, onboarding, and paying employees in multiple locations around the world.

With Papaya, you can onboard workers in any jurisdiction and be compliant without the need to partner with a local entity. You can also automate a range of other functions and management processes, with all workforce data able to be accessed from a single dashboard.

Papaya also makes it simple to manage PTO and attendance, while ensuring that your employees are paid accurately and on time wherever they are located, and that all appropriate deductions are made in line with local laws.

If you are looking for an effective global payroll tool to help alleviate the stresses associated with managing a diverse global workforce, go to www.papayaglobal.com.

Zoom

Whether we like it or not, thanks to covid it seems like everyone on the planet has used Zoom at one time or another. In fact, its use has become so essential that for many businesses it continues to be used in place of face-to-face meetings, and has meant that many of us are spending less time in the office than ever before.

If you are one of the few people who don’t know what Zoom is, it’s one of the best video conferencing apps around, and has become the preferred platform of choice for many HR professionals during the interview and onboarding phase for new staff, as well as training and induction when new members join the team. zoom.us

Slack

Slack is one of the most effective tools for remote HR team communications, as it provides a platform for both instant group messaging and other forms of collaboration. In essence, it acts as a form of digital HQ for your organisation.

A key feature that makes Slack so easy to use is Channels, spaces where related files, conversations and people all come together and provide easy access for all. You can also collaborate with colleagues in either real time or a later time that suits you, and you can control the sort of notifications you receive and when they come.

For anyone working remotely, Slack is a great tool for creating teams and collaborating together. slack.com

HowNow

HowNow is a learning platform that is ideal for inducting new staff, training, and sharing corporate knowledge. It is quick and easy for your team to create effective learning content and share their experience, through instructor led sessions and other formats.

There is an inbuilt assessment and rewards feature, and you can also track the effectiveness of the learning tasks that have been set through a variety of tests and multimedia assessments. HowNow also enables you to assess skill levels throughout your organisation, and identify areas where further learnings are required.

Using HowNow also means that learning content can ben personalised in line with both the individual’s and the company’s needs. gethownow.com

Proofhub

Proofhub is a project management tool that supports remote team managers, enabling tasks and projects to be allocated to workers anywhere, and their progress monitored from a central dashboard.

It is a very easy platform to get to grips with and use, and the utilisation of Kanban boards means that teams are better equipped to see work-flows and chart their own progress through tasks. At the same time, managers can control access to projects to ensure that roles and responsibilities are always clear, and there is accountability for on-time delivery.

Proofhub has no per-user fee; instead there are fixed price plans, so scaling up when required is easy to do. www.proofhub.com

AttendanceBot

When managing a remote workforce, monitoring attendance can be an issue. AttendanceBot is a helpful HR tool that records when workers check in and check out, as well as periods of absence, and so can also be used in the management of PTO.

You can also use AttendanceBot to manage shifts and worker schedules, and it is also a helpful platform for publishing your HR policies. It can easily customised to suit your particular shift and leave schedules, and is straightforward to integrate with Apple, Google and Outlook calendars.

AttendanceBot can also be used for scheduling and tracking billable hours, making it easier to produce and issue invoices, and there is real time support available around the clock. You can check it out here www.attendancebot.com

Recruitee

Recruitee is a collaborative platform designed specifically for the recruitment of remote workers. HR teams in different locations can come together to jointly publish job descriptions (complete with social sharing links), and then receive and track applications.

The platform has built in schedulers to ensure that everyone is working to the same time frame, and you can easily share amongst your HR team interview formats and questions when you are evaluating potential hires. Once you’ve found the right candidate, it’s quick and simple to bring them onboard, with paperwork made easier thanks to an integrated e-signature function.

Recruitee makes it simple for members of your HR team to be involved at every stage of the hiring process, regardless of where they’re located. recruitee.com

iSmartRecruit

iSmartRecruit is designed to make managing a range of HR tasks easier, and to help managers use their time as efficiently as possible. It utilises AI technology and provides support at every stage of the recruitment process.

For instance, you can automatically advertise available posts across social media, job boards and other platforms, receive, track and review applications, and then quickly identify potential candidates right at the outset of the process, helping you to get ahead of the curve.

iSmartRecruit can be easily implemented with your existing HRMS, and customised to meet your specific organisational needs. There is also real time support available wherever in the world you’re based. www.ismartrecruit.com

ExpenseTron

ExpenseTron is designed to simplify the management of tasks such as expenses approvals and reimbursements. It can be integrated into Slack or used via its own stand alone dashboard, and features real time expense reporting, and alleviates the need for manual data entry for mileage logs, etc.

Receipts are also easier to manage and keep track of, as they can be quickly and easily sent to Slack, and the platform can be configured to work with multiple currencies, so is ideal for managing remote workforces in different locations.

ExpenseTron is customisable to suit your organisation’s particular needs and circumstances, and makes it easy to track the expense of an individual, an entire team or a complete department in real time. www.expensetron.com

Donut

Donut is a great way for teams working remotely and in discrete locations to be able to interact, engage, and establish positive working relationships with each other. For instance, people in teams who don’t know each other well are introduced via direct messages, and encouraged to meet up either IRL or virtually.

It is also an effective tool for peer-to-peer learning, consolidating DEI best practice, or just simply celebrating a goal being reached. You can also integrate Donut with Slack so that you are connected to all the team members you collaborate with.

There is a free version of Donut that will meet most organisations’ needs, but there are also paid versions if additional functionality is required. See here www.donut.com