Most of us have heard the old adage that a company is only as good as its people. And perhaps that has never been as true as it is today, when so many employees are working from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a manager, it’s relatively easy to gauge the morale, productivity levels and general attitude of your onsite employees when you’re able to see them face-to-face and work with them every day. As a supervisor, you learn how to provide the support your employees need and how to help them do their best when working in an office environment. But that’s not so easy when your employees are telecommuting. And the truth is that working from home can be challenging. What follows are some tips for how to help your telecommuting employees overcome work-from-home challenges:

• Help them to establish a schedule and maintain it. One of the greatest problems people encounter when they begin to work from home is actually getting their work done without procrastinating. As a manager, you can help your workers by establishing a set schedule for them each day. This should include the number of hours you expect them to work, as well as the tasks you expect them to accomplish during the course of each day.
• Set up regular meetings and check in with your workers on a daily basis. When an employee transitions from working in an office to working at home, one of the greatest challenges is being productive without the benefit of direct supervision. But just because you aren’t physically in the same location as your workers doesn’t mean that you’ve abandoned them. Let them know that you’re there to provide whatever support and guidance they need, whenever they need it.
• Urge your employees to set up a separate work area inside their home where they can concentrate on work tasks without distraction. When you’re surrounded by tasks that need to be done in your personal life – chores like laundry, housecleaning, etc. – it’s all too easy to get distracted and end up doing those chores instead of accomplishing any work-related tasks. Having a separate work area will help cut down on the distractions.
• Provide clear expectations for each employee. Tell every worker exactly what is expected of them in order to excel in their jobs. And make sure they understand the differences between what you would consider to be below average, average and above average performance. This is sometimes a challenge even in a normal office environment. But when employees are working from home, it’s crucial to spell this out very clearly for them.

If all this sounds like a challenge to accomplish on your own, we have some good news: MySammy can help! In fact, MySammy is designed specifically for managers who supervise remote workers. Our cloud-based software will help you to measure the productivity levels of each employee, set performance standards for your workers, and even to visually see how each employee is performing in a variety of easy-to-interpret charts and graphs. And MySammy is designed to be used with the full knowledge of your remote workers. It can even help your telecommuters to stay motivated and challenge themselves to remain at their most productive throughout the course of each workday. Help your employees overcome work-from-home challenges by signing up for your free trial of MySammy today!