Increases in technology are consistently making the remote workplace idea easier to embrace. Many large and small companies are jumping on board with digital workplaces to meet the demands of employees worldwide.
According to a global survey by PGI, 79 percent of knowledge workers said they work from home, at least part-time, and 60 percent of people who took the survey admitted they would leave their current job for a full-time remote position at the same pay rate.
Keeping a remote team engaged requires different tools than businesses who are on-site. Remote workers need enhanced communication to feel part of the team. Asana is a great mobile and PC based tool to help remote workers stay in the loop, on track, and part of the team.
What is Asana?
Founded in 2008 by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-engineer Justin Rosenstein, Asana is an application that was designed to help work teams track work projects. The Asana app is available for us on desktop, mobile, and tablet, and runs synonymously between the three.
Asana offers many tools to help remote employees stay engaged, and here are some of the top features:
- Individual, team, and project calendars where people can attach documents, assign tasks to individual people, and follow the production of any product from start to finish.
- It is straightforward, but also has plenty of training tools to help you utilize all its features.
- It enables easy to navigate communication, with no confusing e-mail threads.
- Collaboration between multi-users is simple and can be performed within a specific task where only members of that task can see the communication.
- All tasks can be assigned to people, can have subtasks, can include links, can be attributed due dates, and can be added to calendars.
- It is cloud-based which means you can easily access everything from your laptop, desktop, mobile phone, and tablet.
- It covers task management, conversation tracking, team assignments, and project archives.
For companies who want to cut time spent in messy meetings or on projects where the tasks are unclear, Asana is a great app for you. Asana allows you to focus on the big picture and the multiple tasks needed to accomplish goals. When you have a significant picture need, like a deadline for a project that involves several people and due dates, you create a task that includes all the details needed. Then, you develop subtasks that are assigned to the people who will complete them. It allows everyone on the team to see precisely what phase a project is in and to know what their role is and when it is due.
If you are looking for more information about the training Asana offers to individuals and teams, its resources page has a wealth of information.
How Does Asana Work?
After signing up and logging into Asana, you will see a simple interface that shows tasks, which can be sorted by project, due dates, likes, or by unfinished tasks, completed tasks, or all tasks. At the top of the screen, there are links to tasks, your inbox, and the dashboard. Right next to those links is a plus sign to click when you are ready to create your first project.
On the left side of the screen, you will find favorite tasks, reports, team conversations, team calendars, and project lists.
An example of how Asana can work for you is in blog production. For a company who writes regular blogs, there is a person who ideates blog topics, someone who approves ideations, writers who write the blogs, another person who approves the blog, people who find images and upload blogs, and someone who makes sure the blog uploaded, and still yet another person who shares the blog on social media. Even if these responsibilities are only shared between a couple of people, there is a specific process to be followed and that’s where Asana can help.
What Asana does is allow you to start a project with the title of the blog, share notes about ideation, and add any links or attach any documents that will help the writer. Then, the person who created the project can add subtasks for each of the processes listed above. Those subtasks are then assigned to the appropriate people and given due dates. When a person is assigned a task, the task will automatically appear in their task list and give them reminders of upcoming due dates.
Once a task is complete, the person who performed the task will click to checkmark the completed circle and it will be removed from their task list.
One of the best things about Asana is that users can set up personal tasks as well, and those are private from any other team. This allows users to only need to depend on one app for all of their calendar, to-do list, and task management needs.
How Must Does Asana Cost?
Asana has great pricing options, making it affordable for most businesses. Their pricing plan is broken into three categories including free, premium and enterprise.
Asana Free
For teams with 1-15 members, Asana offers their basic version for free. The features of the free version are unlimited projects, tasks, and conversations, and their basic dashboard and search feature.
Asana Premium
For teams of over 15 members, or for businesses who want upgraded features, Asana premium is $9.99 per person if paid yearly or $11.99 per person if paid monthly. Asana premium members enjoy the same benefits as the Asana Free members, but also have added features including:
- No team member limit.
- Unlimited dashboards plus advanced searching and reporting functions.
- Custom fields and task dependencies.
- Private teams and projects.
- Admin controls, SSO, Priority support, and
- Customer success webinars.
Asana Enterprise
Asana Enterprise pricing is not available online because the costs are dependent on the number of members who want to use it. Asana Enterprise members receive the same features as Asana Premium members but also have extra options like having their logo front and center, a two-day guarantee for all support needs, service accounts, SAML, the ability to maintain strict control over data, and more.
In Conclusion
Remote workers require different interaction than those who work at a brick-and-mortar business. The benefits of hiring remote workers and independent contractors continues to increase as technology grows.
Actually, among jobs in management, business, financial, and other professional jobs, thirty-five to thirty-eight percent of employees work from home, and 68% of U.S. workers say they expect to work remotely in the future.
As more and more businesses and workers embrace remote work, as remote work statistics show, the need for an online collaboration tool to help employees stay engaged, on task, and in the loop, will become more necessary. The development team at Asana has done a great job of making the app seamless between PC’s, mobile phones, and tablets which means team members can stay in the loop no matter where they are. Asana is a great tool to help teams work together seamlessly, no matter where in the world they are working from.
After you check out Asana, reach out to us for help finding the best remote team for your company. We love to help!
