Are You Approaching Working From Home Safety Wrong?

Working from home safety is not a new concept or challenge. But the significant number of people now working from home or remotely is a phenomenon we haven’t experienced before. Because of that, many organizations are trying to learn and adapt as the new normal becomes more and more, well, normal.  

In a sense, we are all pioneers, trying to navigate this new world, learning new lessons along the way in working from home safety. This is a new work environment where your hours aren’t always from nine to five, allowing more flexibility to take your child to daycare or get that run in before your next meeting. This is an environment where the lines between your professional and personal/family lives have become increasingly blurred, making it more difficult to establish that elusive work-life balance. 

Here at SafetyLine, we have also been dealing with the challenges of having a remote team, learning many lessons since last March. Here are seven areas around working-from-home safety that you may need to change for your team members working from home to be happy and productive. 

In the third of a three-part series focused on the 2nd wave of COVID-19, we look at common mistakes employers make when managing their remote and at-home teams, implementing working from home safety measures. In Part 1, we looked at three essential areas you must focus on to keep your team safe in the event of another viral wave. And in Part 2, we looked at what why solid, consistent communication is important to worker safety in the case of a second wave. 

Connection, connection, connection 

Yes, we said it three times because it’s that important. Regular communication and connection amongst employees improve productivity, engagement, wellness and ultimately working from home safety. At SafetyLine, we proactively book both formal and casual video meetings to not only maintain productivity, but to make those connections that we had in the physical office. We use Microsoft Teams for company meetings and to simply chat with our coworkers – the channel works very well, almost comparable to poking your head over the cubicle wall to ask a question or bounce an idea off of your office-mate. Also, a connected worker is a safe worker. 

Work-life balance 

It may be difficult because you are always at your “office,” but create a schedule for work and non-work activities. Companies should not expect their team to be available at all hours. Make sure it is determined early on when the worker will be on the clock and when they are expected to respond to any work-related communication. But with this flexibility, comes more responsibility to meet your deadlines, no matter what your work hours may be. And with this flexibility, you are able to do more personal and family tasks throughout the day, but work hard to establish that balance – it’s worth it. 

Make it a family 

Especially when you’re somewhat isolated in your home office, it’s natural to feel left out not having that inevitable contact in a physical office environment. It is important for managers to include as many team members as possible – if not for work-related reasons, but for social and engagement reasons as well. The SafetyLine family holds online “happy hours” where staff can connect over non-work-related conversation. Some shop talk is allowed but you are reprimanded if it dominates the conversation. 

Quality over quantity 

In some cases, workers are partially evaluated by the number of hours they spend working. But because those schedules have become increasingly ambiguous with more people working non-nine-to-five hours, they need to be evaluated more on performance, meeting deadlines and other responsibilities. As mentioned earlier, an agreement must be made as soon as possible to determine the expectations of the job, including when the employee is available and “on call.” Other options include automated check-in systems or lone worker safety app to confirm the worker’s well-being, providing you some valuable peace of mind and confidence. 

Change the way meetings are held 

With the pandemic and all of the social-distancing guidelines in place, we have since learned that maybe all of those meetings aren’t needed. This experience has provided some perspective on how to utilize your work time wisely and sometimes a meeting can be replaced with a quick messenger chat or maybe an email or two. Here at SafetyLine, we have fewer, shorter meetings and if they go over the predetermined time allotment, it’s because we are socializing and catching up – which is equally as important. 

Make workplace wellness a priority 

With this major shift to working from home, staff members are dealing with it differently. If it wasn’t a priority before, staff wellness resources should definitely be important now. The casual meetings we mentioned can help, but the organization must provide wellness resources to their team such as a monthly allowance for things like online exercise classes, weights for the home, or new running shoes –it's up to you. Extended benefits for resources like therapy are a must as well. Not only is the team happier, healthier, and safer, but their productivity will improve. 

Continue to recognize good work 

Continuing in the vein of workplace wellness, we think it’s important to continue, if not increase, the recognition of good work within the company. This can include a monthly award, or it can even be a thank you message on one of your company-wide channels. Gone are the days when your manager calls you into their office to thank you for the great presentation that day. Now, you need to use the technology available to provide that gratitude. 

Questions? 

While this is not an exhaustive list by any means, these are fundamental areas we think you need to focus on make this new normal a comfortable, productive, and safe one. If you have any questions about work from home safety, please don’t hesitate to contact us below – we'd be happy to help.