Great Tech Tools for Remote Work

If you’re one of the 3.7 million employees working from home – or you’d like to join their ranks – here are two great tools to keep you in touch with your work colleagues and supervisors.

Buffer

While originally designed for a company’s social media marketing management, its technology tools allow remote workers to stay in touch with other virtual colleagues or the staff back in the corporate office, through collaborative shares of conferences, meetings, off-site presentations, or perhaps a 3-D look at your home office. Depending on which Buffer level you choose (there’s a free option if you want to test the waters) you’ll have access to some or all of its features. These include a mobile app for either IOS or Android, image creator, upload of video or GIF, content creation and scheduling, RSS feed, calendar, link shortening, and social optimization and analytics.

Image via bufferapp.com

PukkaTeam

This always-on collaborative tool keeps workers in touch no matter where they are. While physically-separated workers and supervisors can have nearly real-time presence with each other throughout their work day, anyone can choose to opt-out for lunch or private conversations. There’s an easy click-to-call feature as well as chat capability. PukkaTeam works by way of your Web browser, enabling a Web camera that intermittently takes a photo of you as you work. The photo gets shared with your colleagues. PukkaTeam might not be for everyone, however. You probably don’t want your supervisor seeing you working on your laptop from your recliner, clad in your pink flowered flannel nightgown. However, if you’re trying to convince your boss to let you work from home, the assurance to him or her that you’ll be visible while remote could sway the argument in your favor. Pukka offers a free trial for 14 days, after which its paid options start as low as $7 per month per user.

Image via PukkaTeam

Remote work needn’t mean that you’re out of touch with the others on the team. With these two tools you, your fellow workers, and your supervisor can easily collaborate.