Productivity & Efficiency

5 Ways to Improve Productivity in a Distributed Workforce

Distributed workers can work smarter by using paperless onboarding systems and other workflow automation tools that improve efficiencies across workflows.


Excelling as a business with a distributed workforce is easier today than ever before. By working smarter and using modern productivity tools, you can increase your team’s efficiencies and automate many of the tedious processes that used to take hours out of every week.

The distributed workforce model provides organizations with a host of benefits including cost savings, increased productivity, and access to better talent. Organizations that embrace this transition become more resilient and reap the rewards of happier employees who live more balanced lives. 

Below, we look at how you can work smarter with upgraded systems and processes that are remote-friendly and work across locales. 

How to Work Smarter With a Distributed Workforce

Coordinating work across locales using only emails and phone calls can become a minefield. When you have to ensure you provide a professional service to your customers, you don’t want to spend hours looking for files and cause delays. With customers expecting more from companies, here are five ways you can support your team with workflow automation and secure document-sharing technologies. 

1. Digitize All Your Documents and Forms

The first step to working smarter with a distributed workforce is to eliminate paper documents from your business processes. With digital forms, you can organize all your files and share vital business information securely across geographies. If you use a digital workflow automation tool, you might be able to create templates for all your information requests and attach the required forms to your workflows. 

Using systems like FileInvite, employees can share information securely, allowing your team to log audit trails to ensure you remain compliant with all your industry regulations. By digitizing your forms and information requests, you can streamline all subsequent business processes and save your distributed employees' hours every week

2. Transition to a Paperless Onboarding System

Securely exchanging information remains a challenge for distributed business, but it is nearly impossible without a paperless onboarding system. Many organizations in this position default to using email as their primary document collection system, however this comes with a host of challenges. 

Emails are vulnerable to cyberattacks that could expose private information and damage your brand reputation. Using a paperless employee onboarding solution enables you to secure all information from the source to the destination. An online client portal also allows you to onboard clients securely while handling personally identifiable information in regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare. 

A paperless onboarding process for both employees and clients needs to be easy to deploy and use for all the parties. Ideally, you should be able to set up an online portal quickly and be able to use this technology in a matter of minutes. Using a paperless onboarding system will allow your team to eliminate tedious processes like typing out email requests and having to follow up repeatedly when there are delays.

3. Use Digital Signing Technology

Manually signing documents and forms adds a lot of time and effort when you have to execute these processes in a distributed workforce. Clients and employees may have to print the document and sign the physical copy before scanning and returning the digital file. Digital signatures are legally binding and eliminate the many tedious steps of collecting handwritten signatures.

Digital signing technology lets you request a signature from any of your contacts, including multiple parties when required. This allows you to streamline your entire onboarding workflow and easily collect signatures from anyone, anywhere in the world.

4. Invest in Workflow Automation

Once you have a secure way to collect files and signatures, you should automate as many of your workflows as possible. Once you receive a form from a client, your system should automatically route the information contained in the document to the right department or employee. Workflow automation helps you eliminate friction points during your business processes and improves communication - both internal and external -  throughout your daily operations. 

Automating your document collection is critical when you have to process tax information, renew contracts, or get new agreements in place before a deadline. FileInvite lets you set a due date for each request and automate the reminder by sending alerts directly to your customer’s email or mobile phone. With workflow automation for document collection processes, you can free up your employees and won’t have to spend hours chasing down essential business information.

5. Integrate all Business Applications

If you have to use different business applications for different parts of your workflows, a solution with powerful integrations can help you effortlessly move data between these apps. Information from a specific document can trigger a subsequent workflow that updates your ERP, CRM, or another line of business (LOB) applications with the latest data. 

Integration platforms like Zapier give you powerful automation capabilities that you can deploy with FileInvite to maximize productivity in a distributed workforce. Your teams can use the software they are familiar with and automate sharing information between departments for improved accuracy and greater efficiency. 

Your Distributed Workforce Can Work Smarter with FileInvite

FileInvite gives you everything you need to work smarter and faster in the age of digital transformation. You can automate your document requests and intake processes, integrate your existing business applications, and deliver a seamless experience to your customers quickly. With a detailed audit trail, automated alerts, and digital signatures, FileInvite helps you save hours every week and coordinate all your business processes in a single, scalable solution. 

To learn more and request a demo, visit FileInvite today.

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