BATON ROUGE - Adapting to daily life during a pandemic has been challenging for individuals and communities the world over. 

Louisiana's leaders, not immune from the hurdles associated with the health crisis, experienced difficulties in navigating certain state employees through the transition of in-person work to telework from home, according to a recent report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office.  

Auditors say executive branch agencies encountered a host of difficulties when they implemented telework as an alternative to carrying out duties in-person, after the governor’s March 2020 stay-at-home order. 

Auditors explained that issues seemed to stem from two factors. For one, most agencies did not have telework policies in place before the pandemic. Secondly, agencies did not consistently accommodate non-essential employees whose job duties could not be performed during telework.

Auditors add that technology challenges were the most common obstacles employees faced in transitioning to widespread telework. A survey revealed that 83.6 percent of the agency's leaders and 47.2 percent of its employees reported experiencing barriers related to technology.

The report also mentioned that agencies did not always provide supervisors with sufficient guidance on how to manage their remote teams and how to measure and track employee productivity.

According to a survey, 26.6 percent of agency supervisors reported issues related to leading their remote teams. They say these issues included maintaining productivity while simultaneously balancing the needs of staff during the pandemic. 

Click here to view the auditor's full report.