An employer's duty to ensure the safety of workers extends to those working from home. Organisations are responsible for keeping their employees safe and free from harm, regardless of where they work. Their safety should remain a top priority, even if they are working outside the office.

In this article, we lay out some of the top health and safety tips for working from home to ensure the well-being and safety of your employees.

Set up a safe workspace

When asking their employees to work from home, one of the first things employers must do is set up a safe workspace. The work environment should be safe and comfortable, such as having proper desks, chairs, and lighting to ensure safety and comfort when maintaining a sitting position for the entire day.

Offices are set in a particular way to ensure that an employee's joints are aligned and well-positioned. Awkward positions can result in misaligned joints, resulting in pain and injuries. Employers should assist work-from-home employees in the proper setup of their workspaces.

If you need to work late, ensure you have proper lighting. Otherwise, your eyes will start to strain. Poor lighting can make your eyes and muscles work overtime. Bright or natural light is ideal for working on a computer. Low light can cause your eyes to strain easily.

Encourage workers to move between jobs. They should get up and move around throughout the day, not just lock themselves on their desks. Ideally, employees working from home should schedule movement breaks every once in a while to allow the body to reset and utilise different muscles.

Create a healthy and regular working routine

Employees must establish a healthy and regular working routine when working from home. Like working in the office, they should have a work schedule and aim to stick to it. They should follow a routine that signals the start and end of their working day. For instance, they can start with a cup of coffee to keep them pumped up for the day and end their work routine with a walk to the park.

Employees should include taking regular breaks in their work schedule, such as an hour-long lunch break and short breaks. They should make the most of their break. Employees should avoid ending their break earlier just because they received an email from their boss, even when working from home. They should allow time to transition from taking a break to working again.

Moving is crucial when working from home. Feel free to go out for a walk or perform some light exercises during breaks. But even when you are working, look for opportunities to move. Stand and do heel lifts while on a Zoom meeting, or you can do pelvic tilts while sitting in front of your computer. Remember, every bit of movement counts.

Partake in health and safety training

Your workers must be safe and healthy regardless of where they are working, and this can be possible if you provide them with health and safety training. The training teaches employees to observe precautions while working from home, just as they would while working from the office.

Health and safety training is mandatory for many industries. Authorities expect employers to train their staff to stay safe and healthy while working, even outside office premises. The training helps workers identify hazards and risks while working remotely, allowing them to do their jobs safely. It will also discuss legal duties relating to work-from-home setup and guidance to minimise mental and physical well-being risks.

Accidents can be costly, and you will be responsible for covering the costs if they are harmed on the job. As a result, investing in training is worthwhile. Choosing efficient and cost-effective online health and safety training courses not only ensures a well-prepared workforce but is also considerably less expensive than bearing the financial weight of expenses incurred as a result of workplace mishaps.

Implement cyber security practices

Working from home comes with cybersecurity risks. Aside from putting the remote workers' privacy at risk, working from home can also lead to a breach of company security. Unfortunately, many organisations do not have the infrastructure to support a work-from-home setup and have less security to protect their company data. In fact, most companies only have underlying cybersecurity measures designed to accommodate those working within their premises.

Companies allowing their employees to work from home should ensure their IT department has the infrastructure to handle the strain of remote users accessing their network or having numerous connections over private virtual networks.

Aside from ensuring the company's IT system can handle numerous remote workers, the management should also consider if their organisation has established security guidelines for remote working, including employees' use of personal devices for company business and remote access to company information systems.

One of the most essential cybersecurity practices companies should impose for those working from home is installing antivirus software, which can detect and block malware and other viruses that could harm the company's computer network and systems.

Manage your Stress Levels

While many think working from home is much less stressful, it can also leave you stressed and overwhelmed, especially if you have numerous workloads and deadlines to keep up with. So, just like working in an office setting, you should be able to manage stress while working from home. Getting into a work routine and structure while working at home is one way to avoid getting overwhelmed while working from home.

Stick to a schedule when starting and ending your workday. And as already mentioned, you should include breaks in your schedule. By having a structure, you can tick off more tasks from your to-do list.

Not dressing up and commuting to work can also come with drawbacks. Since your home is now your office, it can be challenging to stop working, and you'll end up overworked. So, just like in your office, you must adhere to specific working hours even when you're at home.