ErgoHOWL
Quarter One 2021
Developing Your Work from Home Program
Navigating the Work from Home Chaos: Preparing Your Ergonomics Program’s Remote Work Policy
Throughout the COVID pandemic, many businesses have had at least a portion of their employees work from home. Many companies found they were not prepared to have most of their employees work remotely and had to adapt quickly. Moving forward, a Global Workplace Analytics survey found that only 5% of companies expect a return to normal when the pandemic is over. Nearly 25% of organizations surveyed expected 75% or more of their workforce to work from home 3+ days/week post-COVID, and 22% were still undecided. More and more employers are considering allowing employees to work from home full-time or part-time on a permanent basis. However, working from home during the pandemic does not quite translate directly into a strong long-term work from home policy. There is a big difference between adopting quick fixes to address a situation and preparing for a long-term solution.
The work from home model is changing how companies purchase and distribute technology and furniture, budget for real estate and workplaces, attract and keep employees and manage risk. It is important that processes and policies be defined for all employees to ensure consistent treatment and efficient resolution of any issues or injuries. Why develop a formal program? Companies
should put thought and effort into their program before making it official – to protect both the company and its employees. Prior to implementing a Work from Home Policy, employers should have a full understanding of the undertaking and establish the appropriate policies and processes. When the foundation to a work from home policy is well designed, the likelihood of running into issues is reduced. If you already have an ergonomics program, make sure it encompasses information and resources to support remote work environments.
Before companies consider having employees work from home for the long term, they need to ensure necessary resources have been considered and updates to budgets have been agreed upon to best support their employees. For example, consider what the response pathway looks like when employees are experiencing discomfort at home or if additional equipment is needed to complete their work long term. Not all employees who began working remotely during the COVID pandemic were prepared to do so. One study by Nulab showed that only 28.6% of remote employee are working from a dedicated home office, and only 58.5% of remote employees are working from a desk. Others are using anything from a dining table to a couch. If these employees are to become full-time or part-time remote workers for the long run, an investment and/or robust guidelines may be needed to ensure they have the right equipment. What does your company need to do to identify and support the needs of your remote employees?
There are several important aspects that need to be considered and included in a Remote Office Ergonomics Program. Key program elements include the resources and processes for employees to report discomfort or injury, and to assess, identify needs and procure furniture and/or equipment for their remote office. This could include self-help educational resources on proper workstation setup and a list of standardized products.
Your program should easily inform employees how to navigate key tasks.
- Discomfort or Injury Reporting: Did you know that if an employee is injured while working from home and performing their job duties, their injury could be considered as work-related? Nearly half of respondents to the Global Workplace Analytics survey said they were unaware of the worker’s comp and health insurance liabilities associated with not providing employees with an ergonomic home office. If employees are experiencing pain or have been injured in their home office, the reporting pathway should be clearly outlined and available to employees.
- Employee Training: One proactive step all employers can take is to train their employees on basic ergonomics principles for working at the computer, either at home or in the workplace. With proper education and training, employees may be able to address some issues they are having on their own. The training can comprise of simple on-line resources, training modules and self-assessments. Even if employees have a great set-up, it is important for them to understand how to use it correctly and what can happen if they don’t.
- Workplace Assessments: Whether you decide to be proactive or reactive in identifying and addressing employee concerns, implement a process in which employee home offices are assessed for potential issues or risk factors. The evaluation of a home office can take place in the form of an employee self-assessment and/or a virtual assessment with a trained professional. On-site home office evaluations can be tricky for both the employee and the evaluator. It’s much safer and more cost effective to conduct these assessments virtually. This means finding a method to give the evaluator a complete picture of what furniture and equipment is currently in use and how well it fits the employee.
- Furniture and Equipment: If the employee needs any furniture or equipment to support their work from a remote office, you will need to identify 1) what the company is willing to provide, 2) how the employee will procure any furniture or equipment they may need and 3) where the funding is sourced. Some companies pay from a general fund, identifying a specific limit per employee. Others may provide a stipend or monthly allowance to employees. Your company may decide to work with a vendor to provide a one-stop-shop for employees or identify several recommended solutions and approved products. At a minimum, provide clear guidelines for employees as they navigate the multitude of products on the market. Providing tiered solution guidance helps prevent the purchase of solutions that may look nice or come with a lower price tag. Products that do not function well for a given situation, may cause more issues than they address. To avoid potential challenges that may arise from the installation of large or awkward furniture and equipment, product implementation guidance should be provided.
- Employee Resources: Lastly, consider providing resources to address social, emotional and/or behavioral issues employees may experience as they navigate a long-term work from home environment. Guidance on ways to maintain a work/life balance as they spend more hours on the computer, in Zoom meetings and potentially juggling a wider variety of responsibilities is recommended. Examples include providing best practices for meetings and networking with peers, recommendations for taking breaks, stretching, and staying active while working.
As working from home may become your company’s new norm, investing time and preparation into developing a complete Ergonomics Program lays the groundwork for a streamlined remote work policy. A comprehensive approach helps to address the financial, emotional, and physical impacts of these challenging times.
https://www.fmlink.com/articles/study-who-pay-home-office-setup-costs/
https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/remote-work-statistics/#gref
https://nulab.com/blog/collaboration/adjusting-to-remote-work/
Returning to Work During COVID-19
As workers around the globe begin to return to their workplaces, the exposure to ergonomics stressors will increase. This article outlines some of the administrative and engineering controls to consider as employees return to the workplace.
As COVID-19 spread, many workers were sent home to wait for word on when facilities would reopen. During time away from the workplace, many of these workers experienced deconditioning. Once the workplace reopens, employers will be faced with teams that may have suffered reduced muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness, endurance, and flexibility. Upon restarting lines and 
processes, workers could face increased body fatigue and encounter a heightened sensitivity to workplace stressors due to a regression of conditioning levels.
As we return to our workplaces, several controls should be considered. The highest impact on reducing exposure to COVID-19 is continuing to exercise work-from-home policies, with only the critical personnel returning to the facility. However, to begin opening their doors and returning to work, companies are bringing workers back after engineering changes have been made in the facility. The lowest business impact and highest risk of workers not adhering to policy are administrative controls, such as physical distancing, and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). Despite the risks, companies find themselves heavily reliant on these administrative controls. A multi-faceted control approach will be needed to keep all of us safe. The following include some ergonomics considerations as we welcome our workforces back to our facilities:
ENGINEERING CONTROLS
Physical Distancing Outside the Office
Not all workers can be positioned so there is 6 feet between them and others while working. Dividers between workstations can be used for workstations that are in proximity to one another. Visual guidance can be provided in spacious work areas to provide area visitors guidance on where to stand to maintain physically distancing. In areas where physical distancing is not possible like vehicles, control rooms or during two-person material handling, masks should be used.
Identify Workplace Ergonomics Stressors
As your workforce ramps into the new normal, engage your ergonomics team to keep their fingers on the pulse of force and posture concerns. A potentially unconditioned workforce may feel the effects of tasks more than prior to slowing production. Follow the analysis pathway to identify the highest risks. Brainstorm and implement engineering controls to reduce the risks, taking advantage of slow production times to apply upgrades.
Physical Distancing in an Open Office Environment
In open office settings where cubicle walls are low, consider installing higher panels/shields between workstations. Also, re-orienting workstations so employees do not face one another is
recommended. To accommodate six feet of social distancing, start with a detailed floor plan indicating the workstations to be occupied, to determine your maximum capacity per floor or wing. Remove chairs or even monitors to discourage un-occupied workstation use. Seating should remain assigned until the widespread threat of virus transmission has diminished. Another suggestion is to consider alternating work-from-home and office days so that only half your company’s office area is populated on any one day, and the space can be cleaned in between.
Reduce/Eliminate Sharing of Office Tools
Sharing of keyboards, mice and headsets is discouraged due to the possible transmission of COVID-19. In shift settings where multiple people share one workstation, accommodations need to be made for each employee to bring their own technology gear or surfaces should be disinfected before changing users.
Accommodate Remote Workers
To provide ease of transport of office equipment and materials, consider providing a standard set of solutions such as a laptop backpack, travel laptop riser, and an external keyboard and pointing device. Additionally, resources on home office setup and backpack loading could be considered.
Housekeeping for Work Areas
In the office environment, equipment location to minimize physical workplace stressors occasionally takes a back seat to personal items. During enhanced cleaning practices during the COVID-19 response, workers should remove personal items and work items should be put away to allow nightly worksurface cleaning. Office ergonomics guidelines should be revisited to optimize workstation setup.
Repurpose Conference and Training Rooms
For the foreseeable future, use of large conference and training rooms may look different. These spaces may transform into work areas for teams into these spaces by relocating furniture to satisfy social distancing requirements.
In-Person Meeting Guidelines
When an in-person meeting is essential, consider the following guidelines:
- Limit meeting size to 10 in-person attendees, providing a remote attendance option for larger attendance.
- For in-person attendees, move chairs to the outer edge of the room to provide 6 feet of spacing between attendees or leave at least one chair empty between attendees. If appropriate, an outdoor meeting could be considered.
- Skip physical contact, like handshakes between attendees, and encourage hand washing before and after each meeting.
- When possible, encourage talk-only meetings where the attendees take a stroll away from their workstation to encourage circulation, change posture, etc.
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROLS
Establish or Update Physical Demands Descriptions
As you welcome back higher risk workers, companies may provide additional protection to this population to lower physical contact. Having up-to-date Physical Demands Descriptions can help to place high risk workers.
Maintain Wellness Routines
To preserve workplace conditioning, encourage workers to maintain fitness levels. Additional tools to sustain mindfulness and stress relief can help to manage physical stress levels. For companies with stretching programs, transform larger group participation into smaller groups that rotate through the stretching opportunity.
Encourage Regular Break Schedules
When workers transitioned from the office to their home offices, exposure to physical stressors changed. Setting up home office workstations is just one piece of the puzzle. Assisting family members for homeschooling or caring for a family member while still completing work tasks adds a level of stress. Additionally, workers many times find themselves putting in more hours due to the segmental nature of the new norm and not being able to walk away from their work. Whether at home workstations or when workers return to the workplace, break schedules will be equally important. Regular breaking from tasks is important for muscle recovery, flexibility, circulation, and eye health.
Extended Shifts and Exposure to Physical Workplace Stressors
It is recommended that overtime hours be limited. Additional exposure time to physical stressors when workers have reduced conditioning can increase their risk of developing discomfort and muscle fatigue, raising the risk of potential injury.
Attend Ergonomics Training
Welcoming workers back to the workplace can increase their likelihood of developing discomfort as production begins to ramp up. Having workers attend general ergonomics awareness training to raise awareness of ergonomics, why it is important, how to apply ergonomics principles, and when to report work-related discomfort. Proactively reporting trends in comfort can help prioritize ergonomics team focus and solution implementation to reduce the risk of a worker developing a musculoskeletal disorder.
Reconsider Job Rotation
From a physical workplace stressor perspective, companies use job rotation to mitigate workers exposure to one or more high risk tasks. However, in response to COVID-19 guidelines, job rotation is likely eliminated or looks different to reduce the common touching surfaces. Depending on the frequency of cleaning procedures, it may not be feasible for lines to rotate. Best practice is to implement engineering controls to reduce or eliminate physical stressors to reduce risk.
In Conclusion
As workers begin returning to their offices and workplaces, a myriad of engineering and administrative controls will be needed to keep everyone safe. COVID-19 has forced all of us to alter the way we conduct business and how we interact with one another in our physical workspaces. Companies that adopt these measures will be most successful in ensuring the safety and well-being of their workers.
Resources
- NSC – SAFER Task Force
- OSHA – Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19; OSHA 3990-03 2020
- Harvard Business School – What Makes an Office Building “Healthy”
Member Spotlight: Our New Home
On September 3, 2020, The Ergonomics Center officially moved into Fitts-Woolard Hall on NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh, NC. Along with our offices, the building is the new home for the dean’s administration; the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE); and the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE). To
reach this day, it took almost 20 years and required passing two bond referendums, overcoming a recession, several name changes, and a pandemic.
Fitts-Woolard Hall is approximately 225,000 gross square feet and will be home to 1,560 students and 170 faculty & staff members. It features flexible and adaptable teaching and research labs, classrooms, and offices. The layout was designed to promote valuable interaction and collaboration among faculty, students, and staff. Furthermore, the building serves as teaching tool, demonstrating sustainability and engineering components throughout its envelope, structure, and control systems. The building’s architecture is highlighted via transparent labs and exposed building components.
The $154 million Fitts-Woolard Hall project received $75 million from the voters of North Carolina through a 2016 bond referendum, an additional $2 million in design funding from the NC Legislature, and NC University is providing $17 million in support infrastructure. The College pledged to contribute the remaining $60 million through private philanthropy.
Fitts-Woolard Hall is the latest step in the College of Engineering’s move to Centennial Campus, providing the necessary infrastructure to allow faculty members and students leverage the power of convergence across disciplines in an atmosphere unmatched anywhere in the nation.
NC State’s Centennial Campus provides a unique research park environment that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation in the College of Engineering. The state-of-the-art engineering buildings and their proximity to industry and government facilities on Centennial Campus nurture and facilitate innovation in research and education through partnership opportunities and inspire and enable faculty, staff, and students to address the challenges of 21st century. Once the COVID Pandemic restrictions are lifted, let us know if you are in Raleigh and would like a tour of our new home!