As a manager, you have a lot of responsibility – which is why there are so many awesome team management software tools on the market to help make your job easier.
So what are the best team management software tools?
I’m so glad you asked.
What Is Team Management Software?
Let’s start with some of the basics of team management software.
Team management software… well, it helps you manage the team.
You’ll typically see these core features, among others.
Scheduling.
You can get control over how your employees are spending their time, using team management software to schedule events, coordinate schedules between multiple individuals, and generally streamline the workday for each member of your team.
This prevents conflicts and ensures balanced workloads and time commitments.
Task management and assignment.
Some team management software also has project management functionality baked in; with it, you can create new projects, break them down into smaller tasks, then assign, supervise, and execute those tasks at the ground level.
Communication.
Throughout the entire team management process, you’ll be communicating with the team – and good team management software will help you do it.
You can talk about a specific task or a specific project in a thread related to it, or tap into another medium (like instant messaging or email) to have a conversation.
Good apps make it easier to communicate.
Collaboration.
A good team management tool will also make it easy for your team members to work with each other.
Instead of just passing tasks back and forth, your employees can talk to each other about a task, work out problems, and volunteer ideas for each other in a way that’s convenient (and transparent, so you can see what’s happening as well).
Reporting.
One of the most important features of any team management software is offering you detailed reports. You should be able to see detailed breakdowns of how your employees are spending their time, including which tasks they’ve completed, which projects they’re working on, and how much time they’ve spent overall.
The more you know, the better you can make decisions to improve productivity.
You can also find hybrid software that not only aids team management, but also helps you in other areas – such as hiring software or accounting software.
The Best Team Management Software Tools
Now let’s take a look at some of the best team management software tools on the market:
1. EmailAnalytics.
First up – and yes, I’m a little biased, but hear me out – there’s our very own EmailAnalytics.
If you’re like most teams nowadays, email is your team’s communication bread and butter. It’s how you communicate more than any other method.
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could visualize your entire team’s email activity, making it easy to rebalance workloads, analyze productivity, identify top performers, and more?
Well, with EmailAnalytics, you can do it easily. The average professional spends 28% of their time writing and reading emails. Don’t let your team’s email activity be a productivity black hole!
2. Google Workspace.
Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace is a collection of different productivity tools and useful apps for teams. You’ll get access to email, video chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and dozens of other tools to keep everyone productive and efficient.
Importantly, you’ll also get access to in-depth analytics about the team – work insights you can use to better distribute workloads, identify and address productivity issues, and more.
3. Asana.
One of the best project management platforms around, Asana is built to make a team manager’s life easier.
It has a variety of scheduling, project management, and task management tools to streamline your productivity and keep every individual on the team organized and focused.
You can also use it in a variety of different ways, so it’s suitable for a range of different types of projects.
4. Slack.
There’s also Slack, which has grown to become one of the most commonly used chat platforms in the world.
Slack gives you multiple modes of communication, between individuals or within groups, and you can also use it to organize all your team’s tasks and projects.
Improve your team's email response time by 42.5% With EmailAnalytics
- 35-50% of sales go to the first-responding vendor.
- Following up within an hour increases your chances of success by 7x.
- The average professional spends 50% of their workday on email.
It integrates with thousands of other tools and has built-in automatic reminders, so you can stay on task – and never forget another appointment.
5. Plus
If you want to put multiple data sources side-by-side, Plus is one of the best products for doing just that. With Plus you can take a snapshot of any app or website that automatically updates. You can then share your snapshots with others or import them directly into apps like Slack, Google Slides, and more. It’s the simplest way to get all of your data where you need it without setting up complicated integrations.
Taking snapshots with Plus is similar to taking a screenshot, except that Plus keep it up to date for you so you always have the most recent data available.
6. Loom.
Loom lets you easily create videos from screen recordings, including voice audio. Then you can share the recording with a copy/pasted URL to anyone on your team.
It’s sooooo much easier to send a 2-minute video to someone where you show them an issue and talk about it rather than trying to describe a complex issue in words via email or chat.
It’s quick, easy, and super satisfying to use. Plus, I find that it really helps me clearly communicate to my team, resulting in clearer communication and less back-and-forth.
7. Markup Hero.
MarkupHero is basically like Loom but for screenshots. It lets you easily take a screenshot, add simple markup to it (such as arrows, text boxes, shapes, highlights, etc.), and then share it with a copy/pasted URL to anyone you like.
Screenshots can be re-edited as many times as you like, and you can download the annotated screenshot as a .png image or as a PDF if you want a hard copy of it. It’s simple, easy, and brilliant for helping to communicate things to your team visually.
8. Trello.
Trello has earned its reputation as one of the best project management platforms on the market, thanks to its intuitive and innovative card-based organizational system.
It gives you the power to conveniently manage schedules and tasks, you can share files and images easily, organize data within your organization, and of course, communicate and collaborate with your other team members. You can also track time in Trello with third-party integrations.
9. Zoho Workplace.
Zoho Workplace also has a number of tools designed to make your life as a team manager easier.
You can upload documents, organize projects and tasks, communicate with your team members directly, and of course, review your efforts later with in-depth reporting.
10. Podio.
If you’re looking for something a little more customizable, try Podio. Podio is a task management and team management platform that allows you to customize (and automate) all your own workflows.
With it, you can share files with the team, collaborate seamlessly, manage tasks, and get an overview of your company’s progress.
11. Harvest.
Harvest has it all; it’s simple, straightforward, and easy to learn, but it has all the features you need to keep your team productive and in line.
With it, you can get access to real-time reporting, organize your workflows, track time spent, and keep all your team members suitably busy.
12. GanttPRO
GanttPRO is project management software based on the Gantt chart approach. The tool is designed to provide teams with perfect task and deadline management and collaboration. The Gantt chart timeline gives a visualized picture of what is going on in a project at every given moment.
It offers time tracking features as well as reports so you’ll never miss an important detail.
All these team management software tools have the ability to help you manage your team.
But there’s only one that can tap into your team’s email activity – and help you figure out how your team is spending their time.
That tool is EmailAnalytics.
EmailAnalytics has everything you need to analyze workloads, calculate efficiency, and pull KPIs to maximize results. You can also find out why it seems like your inbox never ends – and put new measures in place to stay on top of it.
Ready to get started? Sign up for a 14-day free trial today and see how it works directly!
Jayson is a long-time columnist for Forbes, Entrepreneur, BusinessInsider, Inc.com, and various other major media publications, where he has authored over 1,000 articles since 2012, covering technology, marketing, and entrepreneurship. He keynoted the 2013 MarketingProfs University, and won the “Entrepreneur Blogger of the Year” award in 2015 from the Oxford Center for Entrepreneurs. In 2010, he founded a marketing agency that appeared on the Inc. 5000 before selling it in January of 2019, and he is now the CEO of EmailAnalytics.
