How home office set up is affecting your bottom line

Are you turning a blind eye to your staff’s home office set up? Even if you’ve ticked all the right boxes to cover yourself as an employer, not following through to ensure your team are working in a suitable home office is affecting your bottom line.

In the past year your work from home policy has undoubtedly changed dramatically. As businesses around the globe went virtual due to circumstance rather than thoughtful design, they were left to quickly reimagine what this means for their remote staff. 

Now a year later, and with many companies choosing to prolong remote work, it’s time to take a thoughtful look how you are supporting your remote staff and protecting yourself as an employer. 

One of the buzz words emerging from 2020 when it comes to remote work is productivity. Many studies site increased output from their remote staff, but at what cost? And for how long? A big influence on sustained productivity, efficiency, and deterring burnout is the physical working environment for employees. Which raises the question, do you know what your employees’ home offices look like? And more importantly if your staff are set up to ensure both safety and productivity while working from home?

Improper ergonomics can lead to familiar injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, back injuries and neck strain. But did you also know that incorrect posture can be a trigger for headache sufferers to experience more instances of migraines? Lighting that is even slightly too bright or too dim can lead to headaches, eye strain, and even nausea. These scratch the surface of common injuries that can directly impact your team’s productivity and well-being. And that translates to money lost for the company, and risk to the long-term health and sustainability of your employees. 

Perhaps you’ve had your employees attend an ergonomics webinar or complete another form of compliance questionnaire to confirm that they understand how to properly set up their desk at home. Without confirming that they have actually complied with the instructions provided, while you may feel better about your liabilities as an employer, you are still losing money if they are not working as efficiently as they could be. You may also be exposed legally should there be an injury to one of your remote staff while working in their home office. 

It’s a simple equation: how much longer does it take your staff to complete their job functions due to improper home office set up? That has a direct impact to your bottom line. And one that employers could avoid. Companies like Capella provide a simple, user friendly, portal for HR professionals and employers to virtually assess that their staff’s home offices are properly set up. Easy to administer and document, this technology tool can have an immediate impact on your team’s output and your company’s long-term profitability.

If health, safety, productivity and profitability are not enough, consider the implications to your culture in how you support remote staff. When a new employee starts with your firm, their first weeks are often spent inducting them into the culture of the company, providing training from teammates and managers as to their primary job functions, and making sure they have everything they will need to succeed. Because remote work is still new to many companies, it’s easy to overlook how important the physical workspace is to that success. Employers should strive to provide the same level of support to their employees – new and existing – regardless of whether they work in the company’s home office, or their home office. 

As employers and HR professionals, your focus and responsibilities have unexpectedly, and understandably, shifted dramatically this past year. There are new stresses to consider, impediments to productivity, and implications to profitability that have stepped into the foreground. Although your staff’s home office set up may have seemed like an afterthought when working from home was a temporary measure, as remote working becomes a more likely reality for the future of your firm, this too needs to become a priority. And if like many leaders in your position, you feel like you have too much on your plate right now, Capella can help. By helping your team work efficiently and safely at home, we help you protect the the long term success of your both your team and your profitability.  

Criona Turley | Capella