One of the areas which had to adjust massively is the working world, which had to rethink its traditional working arrangements (“the famous 9-5”) in light of the general lockdown.
As a result, Working from Home (WFH) was adopted “en masse”, but in most cases, with a lack of organisation, such as inappropriate equipment, absence of training and guidelines…, due to the need to start lockdown overnight.
While people were rushed and quite often forced into adopting WFH, it is safe to say that it has been widely adopted by the working community, and most people are not keen to go back to the old normal.
This statement is obvious, especially, if we based ourselves on the recent surveys which are showing that most people would, in the future, favour a mix between office and work from home.
This should not be a surprise to anyone, as the recent years, have seen an increase place of the technology in our personal life, allowing us to unlink an activity from its physical location.
For example, there is no need to go to a branch to perform day to day banking, or to a high street shop to buy clothes…
Therefore, it was only a matter of time for the working world to go through the same changes, and the pandemic, with the necessary lockdown has brought forward this revolution, and shown companies that staff do not need to always be present in the office…
One of the other reasons staff members are keen to continue WFH is the possibility to achieve a better work-life balance, and the possibility to not choose between work and personal obligations (childcare, elderly parents care…)
While the Lockdown measures has loosened, some companies have been reluctant to bring back staff in the office, due to
- The potential remaining risks from the COVID 19 pandemic
- Their staff desire to continue working from home
- The desire to review their organisational model
All of those can be highlighted by the recent decision from Royal Bank of Scotland group or Google to ask their staff to continue WFH well into 2021, or by the recent announcement from Lloyds Bank to review its real estate footprint...
Overall, it is clear that WFH is here to stay in the long run… but, how to make sure the positive image of WFH doesn’t disappear….
Office work is linked to potential risks, such as Musculoskeletal Disorders, Mental Health Issues…which can generate Non-desired costs for employers such as
- Direct costs : Employee absence, Health insurance...
- Indirect costs : Employee replacement, Absenteeism, presenteeism…
In order to help dealing with those issues, employers are subject to regulations and obligations….
Some of those risks were highlighted in the “Emma study”, a project describing the office worker in the absence of preventive measures…
During the first few months of the pandemic, and as people did not know how long the lockdown situation was going to last (a temporary situation), the regulatory body, the HSE, took a conciliatory view and authorised companies to keep their arrangements quite loose,
As we are now entering the fourth months of Covid 19 pandemic, it is clear that we have moved on from the temporarily, emergency measure to a more long-term situation.
As a result, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has now changed its recommendations and requires companies to adopt the same approach for homeworkers than they must adopt for office workers, i.e. inform, train, audit and address any potential issues arising from workplace arrangements.
This is even more important when we consider the following points :
- An employer has potentially no control over the WFH arrangements
- As a result, the probability of risks arising is even greater than in the office
- Regardless of the work location, employers’ liabilities remain the same
Agilea, through its solution Agileapp, and its innovative approach,
- based at the crossroad of the three departments (HR,FM,H&S) in charge of staff wellbeing,
- designed for the working arrangement of the future
- In line with regulatory obligations
is the perfect tool for companies looking to meet a dual goal :
- Respect their legal obligations
- Take care of their biggest asset, their workforce
By being complacent and not taking any actions, companies are taking the risk to forget their social responsibilities and may facilitate its workforce transformation, into “Susan”, the Homeworker of the future
To find out how Agileapp can help your company, please reach out our team