{"id":9837,"date":"2020-03-19T12:22:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T10:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bmkedev.wpengine.com\/?p=9837"},"modified":"2022-01-12T19:07:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T17:07:21","slug":"managing-employees-working-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home","title":{"rendered":"Managing Employees Working From Home: 5 Top Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced businesses to rethink their operations, employee productivity and business continuity. Governments in hard-hit countries have taken measures to confine people at home and enforce social distancing to reduce the spread of the virus. The Kenyan government has advised companies to allow their employees to work from home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are an employer or manager whose team has never worked remotely before, this work-from-home directive might have caught you off guard and you are still reeling. Until now, only a handful of companies in the modern field of functioning, mainly IT and tech companies, offered the flexibility of employees working from home. However, it looks like companies will need to fast-track digital transformation to maintain effective operations now and in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69f460bd495a1\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69f460bd495a1\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#The_Current_Status\" >The Current Status<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#How_to_Manage_Employees_Working_from_Home\" >How to Manage Employees Working from Home<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#Employee_Skills_and_Role\" >Employee Skills and Role<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#Information_Privacy_Protection\" >Information Privacy Protection<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#Have_a_Communication_Plan\" >Have a Communication Plan<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#Provide_Appropriate_Equipment\" >Provide Appropriate Equipment<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#Monitor_Employees\" >Monitor Employees\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/managing-employees-working-from-home\/#When_All_is_Said_and_Done\" >When All is Said and Done<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Current_Status\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Current Status<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a class=\"article-body-links\"href=\"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/why-millennials-leaving\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BrighterMonday Millennial Report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> revealed that many professionals in Kenya prefer companies that offer flexibility as opposed to rigid structures. It also revealed that while millennials around the world preferred working remotely, most millennials in Kenya did not. The reason for this was high internet costs, reduced collaboration with team members and lack of necessary equipment. This means that if these issues were sorted, the Kenyan will enjoy working remotely like the global millennial.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_Manage_Employees_Working_from_Home\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to Manage Employees Working from Home<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working from<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">home<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is becoming a reality, here are tips on setting up a working-from-home system for your company and managing employees working remotely.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Employee_Skills_and_Role\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Employee Skills and Role<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider each employee and their role in the company. Determine their key performance indicators and deliverables in their jobs. This will help you identify their needs and how to facilitate their performance working remotely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Information_Privacy_Protection\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Information Privacy Protection<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the major concerns for your company is data protection. Ensure that employees adhere to data protection policies. Make it clear that the equipment provided is for official company business only. Also, ensure that you have an IT policy that is well understood by staff and install firewall software on laptops.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Have_a_Communication_Plan\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a Communication Plan<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When staff work alone remotely, a sense of isolation is common. This is likely to slow down work or even make systems fail at times. Thus, putting up formal communication systems is crucial. Fortunately, there are collaboration tools like Slack, Skype, Trello, that your team can use to keep conversations going and monitor tasks. As a manager or employer, you can initiate daily stand-ups with teams to ensure daily tasks are completed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Provide_Appropriate_Equipment\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide Appropriate Equipment<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the employer, you\u2019re responsible for providing the necessary equipment to facilitate your employees&#8217; tasks. They will need a computer, internet, airtime to communicate with clients, suppliers, colleagues and other stakeholders. While this might seem quite an investment at the beginning, it is worth keeping operations up and running.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Monitor_Employees\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitor Employees\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitoring employees&#8217; performance is crucial, especially when they are working remotely. Encourage regular reporting on KPIs and deliverables as this will help track performance trends and correct any issues early. At the same time, monitor customer satisfaction, new clients signups etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_All_is_Said_and_Done\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When All is Said and Done<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Covid-19 outbreak has tested the world&#8217;s way of life and is proof of how life can change within an instant. Businesses that will survive are those that will quickly adapt and make use of available technology to ensure continuity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced businesses to rethink their operations, employee productivity and business continuity. Governments in hard-hit countries have taken measures to confine people at home and enforce social distancing to reduce the spread of the virus. The Kenyan government has advised companies to allow their employees to work from home.\u00a0 If you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"content_author":[],"class_list":["post-9837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9837"},{"taxonomy":"content_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brightermonday.co.ke\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_author?post=9837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}