Many companies are currently helping their employees to do something they never expected to do: transition from working in the office to working at home. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has made remote work a reality for managers and small business owners who may not have even considered it just a few months ago. The good news is that companies who have allowed their employees to work from home report a happier, healthier workforce, as well as one that is surprisingly productive. But that doesn’t happen without some preparation upfront by company management. Here are a few tips for helping to prepare your staff for making the transition to remote work.

• Equip your remote staff with the tools they’ll need to do their jobs away from the office. This includes communication tools, such as IP phones and remote desktop technology, but also the myriad of cloud-based tools that provide not only shared work spaces but secure work environments as well. And remember to include MySammy as one of the essential cloud-based tools for every employee. MySammy provides a convenient, accurate way to measure productivity levels of remote workers without the need for spying or monitoring software.
• Set the ground rules early on for at-home work policies. Your employees should clearly understand what is expected of them. That can include not only what their tasks are and how much they will be expected to produce, but also when they should be available to communicate with management and other team members. IP phones will allow them to keep their regular phone extensions when working away from the office, and there are a variety of video conferencing tools available that will allow you to meet regularly with employees and remote teams.
• Keep employees engaged. We discussed briefly how important it is for employees to be readily available throughout the course of each workday. That is essential in order to conduct day-to-day business. But keeping in touch with your staff and conducting regular face-to-face team meetings using video conferencing tools is the only way to make sure that your employees stay actively engaged with you and with their peers. Remind your staff that you’re all working together, even if you aren’t together in a physical sense.
• Motivate your employees to be as productive as possible. You may not be physically working in the same location, but you can still motivate your workers to keep up a high level of productivity every working day. Use MySammy to establish productivity standards that each staff member should strive to attain, and set individual goals for each employee. You can even allow workers to monitor their own progress using MySammy.

Business doesn’t have to come to a standstill in these challenging times. In fact, you may be surprised at how productive your employees can be while working remotely. Just be sure to take the necessary steps to help them transition into telecommuting smoothly and successfully. Signing up with MySammy is a great place to start!