With increasing cases of persons affected by the Coronavirus, employers have no choice but to let their employees work remotely.Working from home can be less productive especially for people who have to adjust to this mode of working.

There are many challenges and distractions that will affect productivity.You have to keep in mind that there are employees conditioned to work and focus when in the office, under the watchful eyes of a manager, restricted internet and set office hours.As an employer, you need to manage and collaborate with your employees to ensure their productivity is not affected.Here are ten ways you can ensure your employees are productive while working from home:

1. Work at home policy

If your company doesn’t have a work at home policy, it’s time to come up with one. This will serve as a guide on what’s expected while working at home.

2. Designated workspace

Request that your employees have designated workspace at home. A place they can work without disturbance. Combining personal space and workspace can result in less productivity. Of course, this doesn’t mean a whole room dedicated to being an office. Not all employees have the luxury. It could be just a corner in the house where one places a table and a chair dedicated to work.

3. Management tools

To keep your teams connected and productive use project management tools like Slack and Asana. With such tools, employees can post their tasks, their progress as well as completed tasks.

4. Plan Daily Work Schedules

Let employees know what you expect as deliverables at the end of each day.

5. Prioritize Tasks

Unlike in an office, it’s challenging for employees to work for a full 8-hours a day. It’s best to focus on tasks, starting with the most important tasks, as well as tasks that are complicated and may need collaboration.

6. Daily check-ins

Ensure daily check-ins. First to ensure that all employees are safe and are capable of performing their daily tasks.

7. Time tracking

This depends on the type of company or business you run. Some may require that you track the productive hours of your employees. There are apps available that can track each employee's time such as Toggl, Harvest, Paymo, and Time Doctor. Such tools also help instill a sense of accountability.

8. Hold frequent meetings

Meetings will ensure your employees are updated on the latest progress. This is also a good time to delegate work, brainstorm on tasks and how to solve problems. The meetings will help holds together all employees as a team. Make use videoconferencing software such as Skype, Zoom

9. Create a social experience for your employees

With the recommended social distancing, working at home can be quite lonely, especially if an employee stays alone. Create a group whether on WhatsApp, Facebook etc. to simply get your employees together. If you use apps such as Slack create a separate channel to just catch up. You can even have online coffee breaks where employees can catch up, bond, or gossip.

10. Security

This is very important. The cybercriminals are taking advantage of the current situation to propagate attacks using ransomware and malware. Such attacks can disrupt workflow and worse cause data or financial loss. Ensure that your employees use secure connections to connect to the office network and keep your security systems updated.

In conclusion

As a business, the current global pandemicThe effects of the Corona Virus in the Digital Marketing Space is something no one had planned for. But, you need to keep your business running. Letting your employees work from home is quite challenging. However, following the above tips will ensure that your employees remain productive at home in the same way they are while in the office.

Feel free to contact us today on 0727825764 or email info@dta.co.ke, if you need help setting up the technology tools to facilitate your employees working from home.