How has working from home affected people?
Working from home has become more common, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. With this, we have become more accustomed to meetings over Zoom and working in pajamas from the waist down. But it’s fair to say that many people have experienced different emotions.
For some, increased productivity and the ability to spend more time in their preferred working environment, e.g. low background noise. Along with the ability to save money and time on commuting, as well as increased flexibility as they are able to balance work and home life better.
But for others, this time has been lonely, and finding the right balance between work and home time has been difficult. Distractions have proven difficult to ignore, and relationships with colleagues and managers have become broken, with limited face-to-face communication.
Is working from home for you?
Some industries simply cannot offer to work from home options, like midwifery or railway work. But on the 16th March 2020, and more recently on the 8th December 2021, Boris Johnson asked us to work from home where possible.
A huge number of people, especially from sectors like information technology and communications have experienced a long period of working from home. Whereas this is much lower in sectors such as hospitality and retail.
For those who did, and are working from home, this meant taking monitors, laptops, and files home to set up a new workspace to do their job from. But with this comes to a new workspace, different chairs, for some limited space, and trying to balance home and work life on the kitchen table.
Workstations at home
Many companies carry out assessments and questionnaires to ensure their employees are safe and healthy when at work. For some sectors this will continue, especially for those unable to work remotely, however for many working from home means these services are not as frequently available to employees. Workstation assessments are very common within offices and similar environments, but for many home workers, these assessments haven’t been carried out on their ‘new’ (however temporary) workspaces.
Workstation assessments for home workers
‘Ergonomic workstation assessments’, or more commonly ‘workstation assessments’ are designed to ensure that the elements of the working environment are matched with the capabilities of the employee, to optimise human performance and maximise comfort.
These assessments are common in offices and similar environments. However, when employees move to home working, these are often not carried out. But as home working environments differ much more than when in an office environment, some would say they are more important, to ensure the employees are comfortable and have a good workstation. Taking just an hour, our technicians are able to give advice on posture, ergonomics, and assessing the work area for hazards in compliance with the Display Screen Equipment (DSE) regulations (2002).
The workstation assessments are not only aimed at identifying risks to employees regarding their working environment, but also advice on ways to reduce the negative impact that working from home can have. Ensuring that employees are doing things right to prevent work-related illnesses and injuries in their home environment.
Contact us
Workstation assessments for your employees who are working from home are a great way to show the business takes the wellbeing of their employees seriously, even when they aren’t in the ‘normal office’ or environment. Technicians are able to give advice to individuals on how they can improve their workstation to make it a healthier and more productive space.
For more information on our workstation assessments, get in touch via email at info@acormoh.co.uk or call us on 01260 277797.