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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a large fraction of the workforce has had to transition to working from home—and this isn’t an easy or intuitive transition for everyone, even if the basic functions of your job can be done anywhere.

It can be particularly difficult for those who manage other employees, especially if you’ve never managed a remote team before.

Here are some tips for helping your team—and yourself—make a smooth transition to the home office.

Rely on technology. There are lots of applications out there to help you keep in touch with your team remotely, from tools like Monday and Todoist to manage your to-do lists, to Slack for project management and Zoom for face-to-face communication.

These apps can streamline communication for your team, help you disseminate important information quickly, and manage everyone’s workload.

Make sure employees have what they need to do their job. If your team needs specific software or hardware to do their job from home, make sure they get it.

This could include laptops for remote work, software installed on their existing laptop, new office furniture or equipment, and more. If your employees have the tools they need to do the job from the first, they should be able to hit the ground running.

Keep meetings manageable. Everyone’s pressed for time lately—especially working parents. It will be a kindness to everyone if you can keep meetings organized and streamlined, and only meet when necessary.

When planning a meeting, make sure you set clear goals, send out materials and agendas a few days ahead of time, and be sure everyone knows their deliverables. During the meeting, make sure things stay on task. It can be helpful to set time limits for each topic, as well as an overall time limit.

Establish a work-from-home policy. What rules do you want your employees to abide by? Do you want them to be available within certain hours or use specific software? How will you track their time or determine whether they’re meeting their productivity goals?

It’s important for everyone to know the expectations up front—so there are fewer misunderstandings.

Set expectations for communication. How do you plan to communicate with your employees—and how do you want them to get in touch with you? How often do you want your employees to check in?

You’ll have lots of options—from emails to phone calls and Zoom sessions. Whether you set up brief meetings at regular intervals with employees over Zoom or just keep the channels open via Slack and email will depend on your preferences, your employees’ preferences, and your work culture.

But when you don’t have the option of communicating face-to-face in the office, these options will become more important—and it will be important to establish expectations.

Setting expectations early is important—as is making sure your employees have the tools they need. If you can do that, working from home can be just as productive and effective as working in the office—sometimes even more so.