According to a March 2020 survey conducted by Zoho, 47% of SME owners would like to work remotely more often, while 32% already prefer working remotely. Furthermore, business publishing company getAbstract has found that 43% of U.S. full-time employees have already declared that they'd like to continue working from home, even after the economy reopens.
Among our portfolio at Antler, we now see a lot of great teams being built completely remotely and it benefits both the employees and the organization. By having a remote team you get the chance to work with great people from all over the world, not just the town you are located in. While larger organizations often have subsidiaries in multiple countries, it is often too costly and cumbersome for a small startup. There are lots of great readings on how to lead remote teams, but some obstacles that remain are the administration, paperwork of hiring and ensuring collaboration in a remote team. We have listed some tools and services that startups and VCs we know recommended.
HR and payroll
Remote
Increases ease of employing members both remotely and globally which allows hiring of international talent in just minutes by providing global payroll, tax, HR, and compliance solutions for distributed teams. Currently available in Denmark, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Features:
• Fast and easy employment, salary contracts, data collection, and digital contracts, etc.
• One-click payroll, tax, and benefits
• Organizes everything in one places - contracts, approvals, benefits, and reports
• Team of in-country experts (i.e. labor law) to help navigate compliance risks and benefits
• Job board for finding international talent
Pricing: $599 month/employee
Deel
Features:
• Contacts - template contracts that help with local law compliance
• Payments - payment flow and mass pay feature
• Customer support - 24/7
• Tax documents - an automated collection of US tax documents
• Ability to employ full-time employees through them
• Invoices - in beta
Pricing: starting at $35 a month, per person
Papaya Global
A global payroll automation platform that reduces payroll costs and ensures compliance with local laws.
Features:
• Integrates with 3rd party management tools
• Real-time data visibility and BI
• Zero payroll errors
• Global data consolidation
• Employee engagement portal
• In-country partners in over 100 countries
• Expert advisors on compliance, benefits, and benchmarks
Pricing: starting at $20-$100 per employee per month
TransferMate
TransferMate is a global payment service for businesses that makes international payments act in the same way as domestic ones. They support 162 countries and payments in 134 currencies.
Features:
• Same day cross border payments
• Industry-leading API integration
• Regulated & secure payments
• Transparent pricing
• ERP system integration
Pricing: Free sign up
Mistro
A company helping to streamline benefits and perks for distributed teams; provides your team with the benefits + perks they need to stay productive and engaged.
Features:
• Perks - healthcare, wellness, coworking, wifi, equipment, meals, childcare, cleaning, birthdays
Pricing: Request for a quote
Recruitment and hiring
Scouta
Scouta helps companies hire more talent via referral; either from their employees or via verified referrals from other tech companies.
Features:
• Candidate insights - soft skills insight, behavioural profiles, skill verification
• Candidate screening
• Referral network
Pricing: Request Access
Shepherd
Shepherd is a headhunter agency for finding top overseas talent from the Philippines for your company at a lower cost.
Features:
• Hire full-time employees for around $9000 USD a year
• Employee pool talented in sales, operations, customer support, finance, programming, creative, etc
• Shepherd will search for potential candidates and pre-interviews them
Pricing: Upon successful placement of a great individual, you pay us our fee of 30% of the assumed first year's salary for the candidate
PairPro
Allows employers to evaluate problem-solving, coding and communication skills of developers with real-time pair programming interviews
Features:
• Collaborative code editor
• Video conferencing
• Code execution
Pricing: US$ 249/month (starter)
Codility
Codility supports online technical interviews and coding challenges to help recruiters screen prospective programmers.
Features:
• Recruiters can create tests, evaluate candidates' code, and engage candidates. The most significant advantage is that tests are delivered and scored automatically so they can be set by non-technical managers for candidates anywhere in the world.
Pricing: Request for a quote
Berke
Lets recruiters mix and match tests for various job roles to assess candidates on skills such as personality traits and problem-solving abilities
Features:
• Assessments - personality traits, problem-solving traits, skills, and attitudinal measures
• Hiring profiles
• Benchmark studies
• Reports - job fit report, interview guide, spotlight report, participant report
• Applicant tracking system
Pricing: Request for a quote
Talview
Talview is an AI-powered measurement platform for hiring and proctoring
Features:
• Recruiting bot - resume & reviewer
• AI video interviewing features - with behavioral insights
• Live assessments - with automated scheduling
• Online assessments - for coding, essay, and more
• Built-in user authentication and proctoring features
Pricing: Request for a quote
Project management and team collaboration
Teemly
Teemly is a virtual office that helps organizations build truly connected distributed teams. They envision a future where everyone gets the chance to work in a team they love, regardless of where they're located.
Features:
• Rooms and modes
• Walkie-talkie function to co-work side-by side
• Coffee room for casual conversations
• Focus mode and focus room
Pricing: Free for beta testers (in exchange for feedback)
Atium
Atium is the platform where teams build and maintain human connections remotely. We design, build and provide activities that build trust, mitigate conflict, enhance communication & improve collaboration.
Features:
• Team building activities
• Coffee-chat activities
• Energizers and ice-breakers
Pricing: Free sign up
Complish
Complish keeps your team aligned and accountable with daily check-ins connected to your teams' goals and objectives.
Features:
• Daily check-ins with built-in accountability
• See what everyone's working on
• Lightweight goal management
Pricing: Free for 5 users, $3 per additional user with a free trial
Upflex
Upflex provides safe & flexible workspaces that give your employees the options they need to get back to work safely - while lowering your cost. Create efficiency among teams distributed across workspaces, work-from-home, and HQ.
Features:
• On-demand access to 5,000 locations in 65 countries
• Instant booking
• Upflex mobile app available
• Reduced costs
• Streamlined billing
• Maximum flexibility
• Upflex will plant a tree for every seat booked
Pricing: Team plans and Employee plans available
Slack
Slack is a messaging remote work tool. A digital space that helps in communication among teammates, sharing ideas, and sharing comments in real-time so everything moves swiftly.
Features:
• Channels
• Direct messaging
• Notifications, mentions, reminders
• Access to tools and services
Pricing:
• Standard -- $6.67 USD per person per month
• Plus -- $12.50 USD per person per month
• Enterprise
Asana
Asana is a work management platform for project, goal and task tracking.
Features:
• Timeline
• Portfolios
• Workload
• Forms
• Automation
Pricing: Free trial
Mikogo
Mikogo is a screen-sharing online application that is free to use and offers a number of different features to help with remote communication within teams and with partners/clients.
Features:
• Cross-platform, switch presenter, remote control, session recording
• Mobile apps
• Voice conferencing
• Session scheduler
• Multi-use whiteboard
• Application Selection & Multi-Monitor
• Profile manager
• File transfer and chat
Pricing (USD):
• $14/ month = Standard (1 single user license, 1 participant/session, all features)
• $16/ month = Professional (1 single user license, 25 participant/session, all features)
• $48/ month = (5 single user license, 25 participant/session, all features)
Trello
Trello lets you work more collaboratively and get more done. Trello's boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible, and rewarding way.
Features:
• API availability
• Activity logging
• Attach photos, drawings, sketches & mockups
• Boards
• Due date tracking
• Lists
• Security & encryption
Pricing: Free standard account (or paid upgraded plans-- Business and Enterprise)
Mural
Mural is a tool for collaboration that replicates a quick and easy whiteboard environment for teams who want to brainstorm, organize ideas, and collectively design and map content.
Features:
• Visual collaboration
• Video and chat
• Project management
• File storage
• Text documents
• Presentations
• Product development and design
Pricing: Free trial but is subscription-based with multiple plans
IDoneThis
IDoneThis is a way for all your team to provide daily check-ins and updates in one easily accessible place.
Features:
• Daily status updates
• See what has been done, people's goals, and what's uncompleted
• Robust reports on your whole team or organization's progress over time
Pricing: Free trial with 3 price plans
• Standard -- $9/user/month annually
• Plus -- $22/user/month annually
• Enterprise -- $35/user/month annually
Duet
Duet covers three main areas for your business: Project management, invoicing, and creating client portals.
Features:
• Project management
• Invoices and estimates
• Payments
• Client portal (a private portal for each client)
• Task management
• Integrated with WordPress
• Customizable reports, inline discussions, document sharing
Pricing:
• $59 then $15 per month for ongoing updates
• $179 one-time fee with 12 months of free updates
It is critical to ensure smooth and uniform management of your team, no matter where they are in the world. By considering the needs of both employers and employees, these tools are able to fill in the gaps of remote working. Instead of viewing remote working as a temporary solution, these tools will allow your team to function at full efficiency and productivity, regardless of whether the remote situation is short-term or long-term.
