Well, this has all now gone on long enough, hasn’t it!? And early March – when stay-at-home guidelines started going into effect – seems like a century ago.

But as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has said, we “don’t make the timeline; the virus makes the timeline.”

Which means that even though it’s early April when we write this, we’re more than likely going to be self-isolating (alone together) for a few more weeks, at best. (Although some experts are predicting that many areas of the U.S. could heat peak resource use in mid- or late-April. Let’s hope they are correct!)

Are you managing employees who work from home?

Many types of workers – those who predominately use computers for their work – now are working at home. So if you operate digital marketing agency, multimedia/graphic design company, a publishing business, or a computer/consulting agency, chances are your workers are well on their way to decent productivity.

But even if your business is construction, if you offer facility maintenance services, etc. and your employees or contractors often have to work at a client’s site or other location other than an office, you probably have at least a few employees who can work from home: admins, accountants, HR professionals, and so on.

Are you – and possibly your employees – still “getting the hang” of remote work?

Many people have been tackling remote work for a while now. But some may still be struggling, even if they’ve been at it for a few weeks (and especially if they’re working at home surrounded by family).

What’s more, your managers may still be figuring out how to supervise their team members.

Actionable strategies for remote work management

If you’ve never before managed employees or contractors working from home you may want to:

• Check on them daily: Not that you should hover or micromanage; we mean see if they need your help, ask them how they’re doing personally, etc.
• Consider providing them with daily, weekly and monthly to-do lists and/or deliverables: Doing so will help them say on task and focused. This type of structure also can help them stay calm while helping them reduce stress during this exceptionally stressful time.
• Focus just on controlling what you can control (and encourage your workers to do the same): There’s so much none of us can control right now and it’s understandable that this realization can cause each and every one of to have – well – a major freakout. Instead, encourage your employees to focus on what they, personally can control. Can your AP/AR clerk make all the vendors who haven’t yet paid pay their bills so that your company won’t go under itself? No! But she can reach out to them and ask if they are undergoing hardship and perhaps offer them a more lenient payment plan.

A robust Enterprise Resource Planner (ERP) can help

An ERP can help your managers manage from home and your employees working at home….work at home.

In other words, if by chance you’re a bit late to the game regarding offering remote work to employees, if one asks you “how do  I work at home?” an ERP is your best answer.

For example, the Aysling ERP can pretty much run your entire business. If can help you oversee and administer sales, to projects, to invoicing, to payments, to HR, and more. 

The software platform is easy to install and configure for your specific needs so that your team members can:

• Perform their marketing/advertising and sales tasks
• Send in employee timecards and/or contractor invoices – and pay them automatically
• Billing and payments, AP/AR
• Help managers oversee employees via Aysling’s project management module.

Help you and your employees’ new work situation become as bearable as possible with Aysling

Are you asking: “What software allows me to work from home?” The Aysilng CRM/ERP can become the tool you and your employees use to manage our entire company, now and into the future.

How can we help you and your employees successfully work from home?