Even in the best of times – when you have one or more professional trainers working full-time to train employees at your place of business, for example – training new hires can be challenging. So, needless to say, if you are faced with the task of training a new remote employee, or providing additional training for one or more existing employees who work at remote locations, it can be even more daunting.

Many companies are currently helping their employees to do something they never expected to do: transition from working in the office to working at home. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has made remote work a reality for managers and small business owners who may not have even considered it just a few months ago. The good news is that companies who have allowed their employees to work from home report a happier, healthier workforce, as well as one that is surprisingly productive. But that doesn’t happen without some preparation upfront by company management.

In light of the recent coronavirus pandemic, the vast majority of companies who can allow their employees to work from home are doing so. In fact, in the midst of this pandemic, encouraging employees to telecommute is the most responsible action that any employer can take in doing their part to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, an increasing number of employers are allowing their workers to telecommute. While it’s true that some companies have provided employees with this option for years, the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in remote work becoming more and more commonplace throughout the world. If you think that working at home is a new concept, you might be surprised to learn that just the opposite is true. Remote work has actually been around since the notion of “work” began.

The World Health Organization (WHO) just officially labeled COVID-19 a pandemic. And companies, schools and other organizations around the world are now urging their employees and students to work from home. From China to Italy; from the U.K. to the U.S., companies of all sizes are insisting that their workers stay home and telecommute to help stop the spread of the virus. Over the last several years, there have been some companies that continued to promote remote work, but in the end, it may be the coronavirus that finally makes telecommuting mainstream.

The recent spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is a frightening reality not only for people living in China – where the pandemic originated – but all over the world. Pandemics are nothing new. In fact, they have affected mankind for centuries. Just consider the Spanish flu that tragically took so many lives early in the 19^th century. But a pandemic in this day and age can have even more dire consequences.

Burnout can happen to even the best employee. While burnout is hard enough for the worker experiencing it, it’s just as concerning for the employer. As a company owner or manager, there are several symptoms of burnout that you should watch for in members of your staff, including:

Striking a work-life balance is something that virtually all employees strive to achieve. After all, it’s an essential part of enjoying a full, well-rounded life. An employee needs to put in the hours required to do the best job possible for his or her employer, but that same worker also needs enough time to devote to family and friends, not to mention the time needed to keep healthy enough to juggle it all successfully. So it’s pretty obvious why this would matter so much to employees. But if you’re a business owner or manager, why would it matter to you?

It’s easy to get distracted at work. Other people carrying on conversations, annoying phones ringing, or even the normal white noise of any office environment can be enough to distract an employee’s attention away from work-related tasks. Several years ago, when access to the Internet became widely available to most workers, distraction rose to an entirely new level. But in recent years, technology has produced what is arguably the biggest distraction of all for office workers: the smartphone.

Recent studies show that the best employees are drawn to companies that provide them with more flexible work schedules, and that includes the ability to telecommute. Unfortunately, many managers are still reluctant to allow their employees to work remotely, believing that they would be more likely to waste time on the Internet, and that would mean lower productivity on the part of those employees.