David Hylton, wellness consultant at Sitemark, discusses the importance of running a wellness assessment with every employee working from home to ensure they are physically and mentally supported. The assessment should include furniture set up, IT, natural light, regular breaks and potential distractions. Companies should work with staff to have regular check ins and make sure they are doing all they can to support them.
As lockdown measures continue to ease we’re starting to see more workplaces gradually reopen. However, it will still be a long time before offices are at capacity. Some businesses will ask their staff to work remotely for the rest of the year; others will have staggered shifts or operate partial opening hours. There’s also the possibility of localised lockdowns or a second wave that could see workplaces have to close again.
All of which means that for the foreseeable future a large percentage of the workforce will be working from home. Indeed, if and when a vaccine is found, studies have shown that the majority of employees want greater flexibility in their working hours. Working from home is here to stay and businesses need to adapt.
The benefits of employee wellness
Employee wellness has been growing in importance in the workplace and facilities management sectors for a number of years, with many leaders recognising the many benefits of a happy and healthy workforce. These benefits include higher productivity, increased employee engagement and talent attraction and retention. Sitemark created my role to develop wellness benchmarking criteria, so that we can advise clients across various sectors on how to achieve best practice wellness processes.
While it’s great to see employee wellness being taken so seriously, a lot of the work was based on people being in the office. Comfortable chairs, standing desks, communal collaboration areas, air and light quality are among the considerations companies have been taking. Now, they need to do the same for the home working environment of each individual employee, and that presents a whole new set of challenges.
Individual wellness assessments
The biggest challenge facing businesses is how to understand and address the unique situations of each individual employee. It’s essential that they do; a one-size-fits-all approach that may have worked in an office simply won’t suffice now.
The first step that businesses should take is to conduct a wellness assessment with each employee who is working from home. Assessments may differ slightly depending on the company and the employee’s situation, but should generally cover the following areas:
- Working from home – familiarity with working from home; confidence in being able to carry out the job role; quality of work; organisation and planning.
- Workspace – defined work area; desk with IT space; comfort; natural light.
- IT set-up – employer support in providing and installing equipment; ongoing support; stationary supplies.
- Employer support – general level of support; social interaction; sense of community; frequency of contact with colleagues and managers
- Wellbeing – comfort; home schooling responsibilities; breaks from the workstation, exercise; overall satisfaction at working from home.
Employees should be asked to score every question on a scale and return the assessment to their line manager. A follow up phone call from the manager is a great next step, as the assessment can be discussed in detail and it will demonstrate to the employee that their situation is truly being considered and acted on.
It’s then up to the business to address as much of an employee’s feedback as possible. That may be by delivering some office furniture to their home, allowing them a flexible schedule that works around childcare, and setting up regular team calls so there is sufficient social interaction.
Though it may not be possible to provide the “perfect” home working set up for everyone, carrying out and acting on an assessment will be hugely appreciated by all staff.
Stay in touch
Employers must be sure to keep open communication with all employees – it may even be worth carrying out assessments every month to track the impact of any changes made. The circumstances of staff may also change over time. For example, as schools reopen or if a partner who was furloughed goes back to work.
Regular wellness check-ins with employees will help cement changes that have been made, and also show employees that their wellness is an ongoing consideration. That in itself can play a big part in wellness.
Among all the difficulties during the pandemic, this presents an opportunity for businesses to take a proactive approach to a vital workplace issue. What’s been the biggest challenge for you in supporting your employees who are working from home?
David Hylton Bio
David Hylton is wellness consultant at Sitemark, the facilities management best practice benchmarking company. David has developed a working from home wellness assessment tool to help employers gather feedback about how they can support their staff, and is developing wellness benchmarking criteria to complement Sitemark’s benchmarking expertise in other areas of facilities management including cleaning, security and waste management.