Recent studies show that the best employees are drawn to companies that provide them with more flexible work schedules, and that includes the ability to telecommute. Unfortunately, many managers are still reluctant to allow their employees to work remotely, believing that they would be more likely to waste time on the Internet, and that would mean lower productivity on the part of those employees.

If you are a supervisor or small business owner that falls into that category, we have some good news: there are several cloud-based tools that are readily available, relatively inexpensive, and provide you with everything you need to ensure that your telecommuters are spending their time on productive, work-related tasks. Here are just a few of the cloud-based tools that can help you provide a flexible work environment for your employees:   

• TeamViewer and GoToMeeting – Allow you to share control of your employee’s desktop, making it easy to conduct training sessions and/or review the progress your worker is making on current projects.  
• Skype and WhatsApp – These popular communication tools allow your remote workers to virtually attend meetings and communicate with you and others inside the company on a regular basis. Telecommuters can feel out of the loop when working outside the office, but these and similar cloud-based tools increase their participation and allow you to have “face time” with your remote workers.
• Dropbox and Asana – Tools like Dropbox and Asana allow employees to share documents and work jointly on projects with other team members no matter where they might be physically located.
• MySammy – Enables managers to measure remote workers’ productivity levels without having to limit their Internet access or resort to “spyware” in order to keep track of employee activity. MySammy is designed for both employees and managers, and produces a variety of helpful reports that provide supervisors with insight into productivity levels, while giving employees a convenient way to effectively contribute more to the success of their companies.

Managing remote workers and effectively motivating them to be as productive as possible isn’t complicated. Often, it’s simply a matter of utilizing the existing cloud-based tools that are designed for this very purpose. If you’ve wanted to allow telecommuting in your organization, but still feel hesitant to do so, relax! These cloud-based tools will give you the confidence you need to know that your remote workers are being every bit as productive as your in-house staff.