Building a healthy workforce with remote working

Remote working isn’t just about preventing the spread of disease – long-term it could help you build a healthier workforce

For some industries, employee health has always been a major factor, particularly those where people are expected to operate in risky environments. The COVID-19 lockdown has now opened the debate to every business in the UK and beyond.

The reasoning behind social isolation is simple. If we’re not mixing with other people outside our immediate household, we are much less likely to contract a virus. We can slow infection rates and reduce pressure on important health resources until a vaccine is developed or the population reaches a sufficient level of immunity.

Even when we’re not in the grip of a pandemic, business owners should be concerned about the health of workers. Protecting employees is both a legal (see Health and Safety at Work Act 1974) and moral duty. It is also a proven method for maintaining productivity and profits.

Are you really going to rush back to the office?

As people return to work, they still run the risk of becoming infected by a virus that refuses to go quietly.

As an employer, the lingering risk of infection should be of concern. Do you really want your workers rushing into the office as soon as lockdown lifts, only to have them fall sick shortly afterwards?

A far safer option is to maintain home working for as long as possible, further reducing the risk of your valuable employees becoming infected.

Is your office making things worse?

Coronavirus aside, there’s a very real chance that your office is affecting your employees too. When the insurer Canada Life UK asked office workers, just 6.1% thought the environment was healthy (a similarly low 6.5% thought it helped productivity).

This isn’t a case of employees moaning about their office space either. The survey also found that people working in offices take 70% more sick days than their colleagues who work from home. The modern office is bad for both mental and physical wellbeing - a finding that several other studies in the USA, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand have confirmed.

Under pressure from the Coronavirus, small business owners who previously refused to consider work-from-home provisions will have found the outcomes less scary than expected. Obviously those with proper remote working solutions, such as G Suite, will have seen the least impact on productivity, but all have achieved some level of “business as usual”.

With this in mind, businesses should not be afraid to encourage employees who feel sick to work from home simply because they can (when equipped with the right tools). This will not only allow workers to recover more quickly, but it will also help to prevent the spread of illnesses in your workplace.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for British business. Those who invested in remote working tools, like G Suite as part of a Kimbley IT support package, will have been able to maintain a good level of productivity as staff work from home. Those who did not have a suitable technology solution in place will have struggled, placing the very future of their organisations in jeopardy.

As we prepare to exit lockdown, business owners will need to reconsider their own strategies. Given how well their home working provisions have performed, do they really want to force employees back to an office that could make them sick? Or to continue paying rent on a property that has a negative effect on productivity and profits? Can you afford to be unprepared for a second time?

For any business lacking remote working capabilities, the focus should be on resolving that issue as a strategic priority. The COVID-19 virus is still poorly understood and there is a very real chance that we will see further peaks in infection – and that may result in another period of lockdown in the near future. Can you afford to be unprepared for a second time?

What is your next step?

If you want to get your team and business setup so they can collaborate, be productive and have fun while working from home reserve a video call and lets see if we can help you.