Because teleworkers and remote desktop workers perform their jobs without the physical presence and supervision of a manager or other coworkers, employers, especially those working under a lone worker legislation, must-have solutions to monitoring the safety of their remote team. There are several project management and time tracking platforms that can help follow the work’s progress. Still, to monitor an employee’s safety, the employer should have an online worker monitoring tool available on their smartphone and the home office desktop. The advantage of having a safety monitoring app on the users desktop is that it does not require cell phone power or a battery,

When COVID-19 turned our world upside down last spring, the global labor market responded, sending many of its workers to perform their jobs remotely and at home. According to Stats Canada, nearly 40% of Canadians were working from home in the last week of March and those numbers have undoubtedly increased over the summer. And according to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, as of June, 42% of the

Working from home safety is not a new concept or challenge. But the significant number of people now working from home or remotely is a phenomenon we haven’t experienced before. Because of that, many organizations are trying to learn and adapt as the new normal becomes more and more, well, normal.

As we approach what could be another wave of COVID-19 and therefore more workers doing their jobs remotely or at home, employers must not only make their safety a priority, but must also focus on the three areas of mental health, engagement and productivity. After many months of living in a pandemic world, you workers may experience quarantine fatigue with their anxiety increasing, and their engagement and productivity decreasing.

In the early days of working from home, it was great. But after the quick honeymoon period (about a month into the quarantine), there were times I desperately wished I had the privacy of my old office. I found that there were more disruptions at home, like our son crawling into my workspace while on a call or having to meet the Amazon delivery guy downstairs, that were breaking my train of thought – I know, first-world problems. One day, I texted a single friend to see how he was doing during the quarantine and working from home. He told me it was getting tough and he was lonely. I never thought of that way and it put my circumstances into serious perspective. I began asking questions like, “How are people finding that meaningful connection during quarantine?”

While it’s still somewhat debatable at the moment, increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases are showing us that a second wave of the virus may be imminent. The good news is that there may have been lessons learned from the first time, allowing us the privilege of hindsight to improve our tact, better protecting our workers and communities.

With today’s far-reaching technology and many online networks, it’s fairly easy to manage people working remotely. Here are some simple tips for doing so:

Always communicate with your team members

Whether it’s in an email, a text, or a quick phone or video call, make sure you communicate your expectations and work priorities clearly and regularly…