From back pain and eye strain to loneliness and working an unhealthy number of hours, the welfare issues arising from long-term working from home are starting to take their toll on the UK population.
Rewind to the beginning of the pandemic; whilst thousands of organisations moved quickly to adapt their workforce and business operations to new ways working, it’s unsurprising that health and safety may have taken a back seat.
Though now, just as many employers were about to re-establish their ‘office’ culture, the government has once again urged businesses to work from home if they can, adding that the public should assume the latest restrictions will be in place for “perhaps six months.”
But what does this mean for the wellbeing of your employees, and how can you instil a culture of health and safety during what may be many more months of homeworking?
We look at the 3 key areas for consideration, in line with guidance from the HSE, to help you mitigate the risk of short-term and chronic physical and mental health issues experienced by your employees whilst they continue to work from home.
1. Using Display Screen Equipment (DSE)
Under the Health and Safety (DSE) Regulations 1992, an employer must ensure that staff have the appropriate equipment not just in the office but also when working from home; particularly when doing so for an extended period. Your risk assessment of employees’ workstations should consider their new working environment and on an individual basis.
A good starting point would be to provide adequate health and safety training for their designated workstation, showing them the correct way of sitting and working to help reduce the possibility of health issues such as tiredness, RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome and eye strain.
It’s likely that many of your homeworkers simply do not have the current setup to meet the desired health and safety standards. In which case, take the opportunity to ask for employee feedback, either through pulse surveys or by encouraging one-to-ones with their line managers, to find out what issues they may be having and how you can minimise these. Are they taking regular breaks from their screen? Can they assume the correct posture to work comfortably and avoid injury? Do they need to be provided with specialised equipment such as a chair, desk or monitor to carry out their job safely?
All issues can be prevented with properly adjusted equipment and by training your employees on the correct control measures. However, a failure to rectify any problems could lead to reduced productivity, absence due to injury or, in more serious cases, a claim against your organisation. So, it really does pay to get this step right.
2. Lone working
With the rise of physically disconnected workforces, the number of lone workers has skyrocketed in the past six months. Defined by the HSE as ‘those working by themselves without close or direct supervision’, lone workers may not necessarily be physically alone, but they are in a separate location from their team or manager.
Lone workers, in general, can be vulnerable in many ways. However, in the specific scenario of homeworking, your employees may feel disconnected, isolated or abandoned if contact is poor. This could potentially have an impact on their performance at work and ultimately, their mental health if left unaddressed.
As part of an employer’s duty of care, you should take steps to ensure levels of contact are kept high with your remote workforce. This could include line managers setting up regular catch-up meetings, organising virtual team social events or providing employees with frequent updates from the wider business. You may also consider providing other opportunities for employees to share their concerns and invite feedback on how to improve processes to keep the levels of communication and collaboration high.
From video chat tools such as Microsoft Teams to employee engagement and recognition software, there are plenty of ways to enable your remote workforce to stay connected so that they don’t feel out on a limb.
3. Stress and mental health
In what remains an uncertain climate and unusual working arrangements, it’s no surprise that many homeworkers are experiencing work-related stress and mental health issues.
The relationships with and support from other workers and managers play a major part in our day-to-day happiness at work, yet if these are not managed properly, they can lead to work-related stress. The physical distance could also mean that support is more difficult to come by.
As mentioned earlier, maintaining direct contact between managers and their teams can make a huge difference in mitigating detriment to employees’ mental health. Though going a step further, have you considered training your managers to ensure they can recognise abnormal behaviour and symptoms early on to nip stress and employee burnout in the bud?
Whether work is exacerbating a pre-existing mental health condition or causing it, you have a legal responsibility to help your employees. To identify any issues on a company-wide level and assess the best route to then supporting individuals, you could look at using an employee check-in tool to ascertain where support is needed most.
By taking action to remove or at least reduce stressors, you can prevent employees from becoming ill and help those with a pre-existing condition better control their illness. And providing a culture of open communication is key to this.
A side note on homeworking and regulatory compliance
Minimising the risk of harm to your people and your business isn’t just a concern for health and safety professionals. Regulatory departments also have a significant mantle to bear.
You can’t afford for out of sight to mean out of mind and staff working remotely are, in fact, your biggest regulatory risk, especially when you consider cybersecurity issues and phishing scams. You must ensure employees stay up to date with their compliance requirements and that you are able to evidence this where required.
Out of the office doesn’t need to mean out of reach. Your people are your greatest asset, so you should make every effort to ensure that they're engaged, compliant and well-supported both now and in the future.
We're all now planning for the long-term. Discover our Organisational Resilience Solution to ensure you're able to manage the health and safety risks for your employees, wherever they are working.