Are you getting the right balance at home and at work?

The impact of coronavirus continues to develop and alter our home life and our working life.

Whether you and your colleagues working from home for some or all of the working week, it is vital their workplace is safe and comfortable for them and their wellbeing is being protected.

Home working

In a recent survey from Working Families:

• before COVID-19, 65% of respondents were working flexibly. During COVID-19, this number has shot up to 84%
• 97% of respondents want their workplace to retain flexible working post-COVID-19
• almost half of parents and carers surveyed (48%) plan to make permanent changes to their working patterns to work more flexibly after COVID-19.

If you or any of your colleagues are working from home, make sure you are protecting your wellbeing.

Safe and suitable workspace
Employers have a duty of care to ensure their employees’ seating is safe and suitable. For employees working from home, there are many resources to advise them of how to maximise the efficiency and comfort of their workspace setting including:

Regular breaks
The ‘new normal’ for home working means a change in the usual office-based activities: no walking to meeting rooms, no tracking down a colleague on a different floor and no making the tea rounds. It can be all too easy to remain seated without a break for several hours, especially if your employee has several Zoom meetings scheduled in any given day.

Therefore, it is important employers encourage their staff to people to take regular breaks from their workspace and replace to offset fatigue and remain healthy.

‘Down time’
If it is possible and safe to do so, encourage your employees to go outside of their home at least once during the day. Fresh air and a change of setting away from their workspace will help improve their mental health and wellbeing.

Regular exercise before or after the working day can help to increase concentration levels, boost people’s mood and improve quality of sleep.

*sources: Working Families (2020); Health & Safety Executive (2019; 2020)