When running a business, it is vital that all of your employees are as productive as they can be so that the business runs smoothly with no wasted time or money. There are a number of tools and apps that can help your business improve its productivity, here are some of the best;

Evernote

Evernote is a list making tool that can really benefit employees when managing their work load and collaborating as a team. Evernote provides an environment where users can store lists, notes, research and much more including clips of web articles.

In addition, documents stored within Evernote can be shared between users via the app and email, making collaboration and team work much easier.

Skype

Skype is an invaluable tool for businesses, allowing users to easily communicate across regions and countries via phone or video calls and instant messaging.

Skype also has a screen sharing option which has proven to be highly useful for business users. This feature allows users to share their computer screen with another user and cuts down messy or complicated feedback where a person tries to describe what they are seeing and is particularly useful if your business is predominantly online.

Yammer

Developed by Microsoft and billed as a private social network, Yammer is an app aimed at improving collaboration across departments, locations and businesses. Current users of Yammer include DHL, Nationwide and Shell.

Yammer allows employees to communicate and share files in a private, closed environment helping to cut down on large amounts of group emails and other ineffective file sharing practices. Yammer also provides a number of resources to help businesses improve their productivity, for example there are engagement guides and access to customer success experts.

If This Then That

If This Then That is a brilliant tool for connecting various apps and programs together, allowing you to share, store and sort essential information as quickly as possible. A lot of business time is wasted daily by employees performing necessary but invaluable admin tasks such as adding information to calendars and checking group communication tools to see if there are any messages they need to address.

If This Then That works across over 60 different websites and services, providing a bridge between each that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Simply program the tool using a ‘recipe’ to make it perform the required action. There are thousands of recipes available to suit a variety of needs and they can be amended or modified to suit your requirements.

Google Drive

One of the original apps used by business aiming to improve their productivity, Google Drive can help your business improve group communication and file sharing. Google Drive lets users edit and upload documents in real time so that each user can see the latest version of the document without having to download and upload it each time.

Google Drive also has a mobile app which works on iPhone, iPad and Android, with full editing features real-time updates and the option to work on documents offline.

There are a variety of free tools available to help your business and employees improve productivity, ultimately improving profit and the efficiency of your business.