Tips to Keep Your Employees Productive While Working From Home

Though many of your employees may love working from home, it can be hard to manage your team that way. You want to make sure that they are still getting enough work done, but you aren’t there to make sure. It can be hard to motivate them when they are stuck in their home office (or their dining room table).
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some tips to keep your employees productive when they are working from home.
Make sure that they know exactly what is expected of them. Your employees need to know how much work that they are expected to get done every day (or every week). You may want to give them a to-do list so that they can easily stay on task.
You may need to give them some flexibility to work hours that are better for them. Since many parents are working from home with their children, they may not be able to work a full eight-hour day from nine to five. Instead, they may get up earlier and put a few hours in before their children are up. If they are night owls, they may prefer to stay up after the family has gone to bed. As long as they get their work done and aren’t required to be answering phones or other things, you may allow them some flexibility, as long as their work gets completed.
Check in with them regularly. Though you don’t want to bug your employees, you should try to check in with them, even if it is just through email. Be honest with them about how it is going, so that they feel like they can be honest. They may not be able to get as much work done as you want, and you may have to make some adjustments. They may also be getting more done at home, and you can add more work on their plate, if they want it.
It can be hard to manage employees that work from home. However, if you are able to give them a to-do list, as well as some flexibility with their hours, they should be able to stay on task. You also need to check in with them. You don’t want them struggling, but you also don’t want them to not have enough to do!