Tips for helping your employees stay healthy when working from home
As an employer, you have a duty of care to your employees. That includes when they are working at home, even if that’s only temporary during coronavirus. It’s in the business’s best interests too; healthy employees mean less absence.
Whilst in the office you may have a raft of strategies to promote good health, ranging from free fruit through to gym membership and even occupational health services. However, you’re suddenly facing a very different situation. Here we reveal some tips for helping your employees stay healthy when working from home.
1. Know your responsibilities
As an employer, you would normally undertake a risk assessment of an employee’s homeworking activities. Obviously that’s tough to do in current circumstances but following the ACAS guidance will help.
2. Get the ergonomics sorted
As the very minimum, ensure that each home worker has got a safe ergonomic set-up. Those working at home are at greater risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Make sure that they have a good supportive chair and know how to work safely at a desk, preventing back, neck and eye strain, as well as the potential for repetitive strain injuries.
3. Keep boundaries
Many of those now working from home aren’t used to it. The temptation to work odd hours and never switch off is high. Lead by example and place some structure around expected working hours and availability, developing a new home working culture. Try to facilitate some routine, for example, having meetings at set times.
4. Provide support
This time is tough for everyone. As an employer, try to understand the challenges your employees face. For example, are they struggling to manage childcare, or problems with connectivity and tech? If so, consider ways you can alleviate the stress they feel as a result. This is important as stress can weaken the immune system.
5. Encourage movement
All of a sudden, office workers who have typically scaled multiple staircases a day, undertaken an active commute, and perhaps gone for a run in their lunch hour, are now largely immobile. We need movement to stay healthy. Think of ways to encourage employees to move often, despite working from home. Perhaps have scheduled ‘movement breaks’.
6. Encourage healthy eating
There are some fascinating research insights into why healthy eating at work campaigns boost morale, as well as health. It maybe doesn’t suit every employer, to get involved in the diets of your employees, but if you have traditionally supported healthy eating, perhaps by providing healthy snacks and drinks, then there’s no reason to abandon this approach now. Perhaps consider offering vouchers for local delivery companies providing fruit and veg boxes. You can still reap the benefits remotely.
7. Promote socialisation
Many employees achieve a large amount of their socialisation needs simply by going to work. That’s now been removed, of course. Consider how you can promote connection and socialisation between colleagues. For example, here at The Access Group we’ve been running weekly team quizzes, which are definitely fuelling comradery despite remote working and our new team WhatsApp group makes sure that daily chat, as well as work, gets done!
8. Time out
With the current situation, many employees are cancelling their annual leave. While there needs to be flexibility, it may also be sensible to encourage employees to have some down-time, using annual leave, even if they can’t stick to their original holiday plans.
As an employer, if you can help your employees to stay healthy, despite working from home, then absence rates will be lower. It’s fair to say you can expect greater absence over the coming months because of coronavirus, so helping to reduce its impact is essential. You definitely want to reduce absence for reasons within your control, such as back problems caused by poor ergonomics.
