4 Virtual Office Tools to Keep Your Team Engaged
Updated: Feb 17, 2021.
As almost of our clients’ teams are currently working from home (as are we), one of the questions that I’ve gotten is how we keep the full team engaged when we’re not all in the same location.
While the core team is based in Gowanus, Brooklyn, we have several people who work from home (and I am often on the road), but we always stay connected and process driven.
Using Virtual Offices to Support Your Distributed or WFM Team
One tool I like to use is the virtual office. It’s an interface with chat, video, and a physical representation of who’s “in the office” and who’s working with whom, so that people can actually see when others are available and online. Here are three to consider:
Sococo
Several of our clients and partners use Sococo, and it’s the tool that we’re the most familiar with as well. It has a nice map layout and includes “rooms” for people to collaborate in. There’s built-in chat, audio/visual functionality (plus integration with Zoom and other video conferencing software), and screenshare.
Remo
With a similar feature set, along with more abilities to customize office spaces, an alternative to Sococo is Remo. I find that Remo appeals to the Sims lover in me, and I like that it has a universal broadcast feature for all-hands calls and announcements. Remo also has a 7-day trial so you can play around with the platform.
Pragli
For those of you who like the idea of Slack but want more of the togetherness features of a virtual office, consider trying Pragli, which is currently in beta and free to use. Now, as we’ve all experienced, products in beta will eventually have an associated cost, but for now, it’s worth a test drive.
Gather.town
Have you always wished your life were more like a 64-bit video game? Well, you’re in luck! Gather.town has a visual interface that’s reminiscent of OG-Super Mario or Pokémon. Just like those game, you need to get close to other people to speak to each other, enter buildings for different purposes, and interact with items that are glowing (e.g. videos or PDFs). Pricing is available for short bursts (e.g. events), as well as ongoing virtual work.
In addition to the tools above, I suggest a good project management tool to make it easier for your team to collaborate on documents without insane version control. To that end, using a shared cloud drive or platforms like G-Suite and Office 365 help tremendously. Happy working and stay safe and healthy!