FMJ.CO.UK WELLBEING SPONSORED FEATURE
IN AN ERA OF HYBRID WORKING, WELLBEING
IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2021 17
Workplace wellbeing has become
significantly more important during 2020.
The obvious hazards presented by exposure
to COVID-19, however, are just part of a shi
in culture that has seen many organisations
react with speed and sensitivity to the needs
of employees isolated in the home working
environment.
The changes faced by millions of o ice workers
are profound. In July, the British Chambers of
Commerce revealed that up to 62 per cent of
employers expect part or all of their sta to
continue working remotely for at least the next 12
months. It’s part of a global pattern that has seen
major international employers such as Twitter
formally adopt a new normal, having announced in
May that employees would be allowed to work from
home indefinitely.
In Japan, technology giant Fujitsu launched a
work-from-home plan that will o er ‘exceptional’
flexibility to its 80,000 employees, while in the UK,
the NatWest Group is just one of many businesses
that has built home working into its standard
practices, with 50,000 sta allowed to work from
home until 2021.
And this isn’t just about working from home.
Good employers are now much more attuned to
the all-round physical and mental health of their
teams. The best go much further and take proactive,
holistic steps to ensure that an emerging hybrid
workplace - a mix of o ice and home - are safe and
healthy places where their people can thrive.
The widespread ‘disruption’ of traditional working
culture means o ice environments - wherever they
are - need to change if workplace wellbeing is to
become a permanent feature of post-pandemic life.
But what developments are we likely to see in the
next 12 months, and where do employers need to
focus their e orts to secure a healthy workplace
dividend in the long term?
DELIVER FLEXIBLE OFFICE ENVIRONMENTS
Facilities and o ice managers have already
faced significant and urgent challenges to safely
re-configure work spaces. Flexibility remains key
and many of today’s ‘kinetic’ and mobile o ice
furnishings allow firms to repeatedly adapt their
spaces, not just to maintain social distancing rules,
but to also build wellbeing into the DNA of today’s
hybrid workplace.
For example, equipment such as adjustable
monitor arms, sit-stand desk converters and
mobile workstations enables people to work in an
ergonomic and productive way no matter which
room or desk they use each time. The sheer agility
that a monitor arm and a sit-stand desk converter
gives users to adapt their desk space to their needs
allows employees to thrive at home or in the o ice
without sacrificing productivity.
FULLY SUPPORT REMOTE WORKING
Employers that genuinely advocate remote working
must widen their duty of care to support wellbeing
in the home environment. The starting point is to
help their teams to utilise their working technology
and furniture in a safe and appropriate manner.
O ering proactive help to create healthy home
working spaces that are flexible enough to meet
every need is the only way for employers to move
beyond saying the right thing, to actually doing
what’s right for their employees.
Think of it this way: sofas, dining-room and
kitchen tables, and even beds were never designed
for long-term, comfortable or productive working.
As a result, some organisations are now requesting
that home-based employees take photos of their
working area so a health and safety assessment can
be undertaken.
Increasingly, to ensure employees can then take
advantage of appropriate desks, seating, laptop
equipment and monitors that optimise wellbeing,
companies are o ering to provide resources such
as sit-stand desks and other fixtures to set up a
suitable home-o ice environment. These are not
only highly a ordable, but o er the all-round
flexibility to fit into either environment, and do so
while promoting healthy posture while minimising
the harmful e ects of an all-day sedentary working
style.
CREATE A HAPPY HYBRID WORKPLACE
Many organisations claim to operate ‘happy’
working environments, but how many truly
deliver? Those who succeed almost always create
a comfortable and healthy working environment
as a foundation for delivering a positive, content
workplace, and in an era of hybrid home and o ice
working, this is more important than ever.
In many ways, this is nothing new. Even before
the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of
the contemporary workforce was shi ing. As older
generations began to leave it, and millennials and
Generation-Z entered, changing attitudes towards
work meant wellbeing and happiness were gaining
much greater importance than at any other time
in living memory. Indeed, employers that fail to
recognise the role working environments have on
happiness are not only missing an opportunity, they
are risking success.
Despite the current uncertainties most people
face, the world of work needs a shi in longterm
thinking. According to research from
Global Workplace Analytics, 25-30 per cent of
the workforce will be “working at home on a
multiple-days-a-week basis by the end of 2021”.
That represents a seismic shi in how businesses
are organised. If employers want to maximise the
opportunities this brings, focusing on workplace
wellbeing will become a major driver of employee
engagement, productivity, loyalty and success.
For more information on how Ergotron’s range brings comfort and productivity to remote workspaces visit:
https://www.ergotron.com/en-gb/markets/office/home-office
/home-office
