The ergonomics of working from home
You’re sitting on what?!
After weeks of speculation about the Government’s potential response to the growing number of Corona virus cases, suddenly we were organising ourselves and taking whatever equipment we could carry or Uber to our homes. And as home and work blur together and become the norm, we are still not necessarily set up to ensure that when we are working, we are working safely.
Home working for many businesses was only intended to be a temporary situation. However, heading into the fourth month businesses are starting to understand the positive implications on performance and productivity. Where businesses are positively impacted it questions the need to attend the office and therefore the requirements of an office space. Omitting for a moment the potential psychosocial effects on staff, permanently working from home or reducing the size of an office results in substantial savings on rent and overheads.
While people adapt well to situations such as working from home on a temporary basis, the possible effects on a longer-term basis need to be considered. Under the WHS act, the employer’s duty of care to protect the health and safety of employees extends to home working. The employer is required to minimise the risks identified in an employee’s home so far as is reasonably practicable.
Hazards may be present in our equipment set up, the surrounding environment, lighting or working procedures. Our postures may be compromised by unsuitable equipment such as sitting on a kitchen chair or working on a laptop, we may climb over wires to get to our chair and our lounge lighting may be more atmospheric than illuminating.
Workstation hazards are well understood and can be identified and mitigated with ease. However, left unaddressed these hazards may affect our musculoskeletal system, exacerbating pre-existing musculoskeletal issues or injuries and leaving us with discomfort. Hazards may also affect our ability to work safely and effectively or simply present a distraction.
This paper summarises:
The Employer’s responsibility to the employee in relation to working from home
How risk is identified and mitigated
Strategies to minimise risk
Employer’s responsibility
The unexpected shift to working from home for many may seem a positive move. No commute, more automation, potentially a quieter location and a better work life balance with more time available for personal activities. However, setting up a suitable working space in a home may present challenges even with the provision of suitable equipment. A workstation refers to the user’s furniture, equipment and surrounding environment. This includes their chair, desk, each item of equipment (computer or otherwise), access and egress to desk, surrounding environment, lighting and temperature.
As per the WHS Act, the expectation of employers is to provide an employee with guidance to setting up their workstation, the surrounding environment and the organisation of their work. This could be achieved through a risk assessment or advice on setting up a workstation and supported by a self-assessment checklist. The employer is required to minimise any risks identified through this process so far as is reasonably practicable.
The employer is expected to review and monitor any implementations as a result of the assessment or advice, to ensure their suitability and that they do not exacerbate a pre-existing injury, cause discomfort or affect a user’s ability to work effectively.
Identifying and mitigating risk
The intention of conducting a risk assessment or providing workstation set up advice is to identify the potential hazards and educate the user on:
the adjustment mechanisms of their equipment
how to adjust and position their equipment to support a suitable working posture
how to modify and maintain a suitable working environment
As we use our furniture and equipment, for example chairs, the positioning will steadily shift, we may also need to move our equipment to make way for other activities in the home. Therefore, educating users on these three aspects is key to ensuring self-adjustment and the continual mitigation of risk.
The risk assessment process should be a practical, interactive and visual session. Whilst traditionally this is a face to face assessment, in view of Covid-19 it is appropriate to conduct the assessment via video link. The assessor guides a user through each adjustment of their equipment to achieve a suitable and supported posture and where feasible, identify modifications that can be made to their environment to eliminate any hazards. It is imperative that the assessor and user can see each other adequately during the assessment. This will enforce learning, particularly in relation to equipment adjustments.
Where hazards cannot be eliminated or risk mitigated through equipment adjustment or simple modifications to the environment, additional controls will be required. These may include:
the provision of equipment e.g. adjustable chair, footrest, monitor raise, cable management
the provision of more direct lighting e.g. desk lamp
a fan or heater to regulate the environment
changes to work organisations e.g. to ensure employees are able to take adequate breaks and implement regular postural changes in their work.
If a user has a pre-existing injury or is experiencing discomfort working from home, the employer can provide more specialised workstation set up advice. A specialised assessment would enable the user to discuss their specific issue or injury with a health professional such as an occupational therapist and align their environment accordingly.
Strategies to minimise risk
Every individual is different in terms of size, shape, weight, fitness, strength, posture and in their method of working. Primarily injuries attributed to workstations are cumulative, sustained over time. Users therefore may not immediately feel the discomfort or exacerbation of a pre-existing injury due to a poor workstation set up.
For this reason, it is important to communicate the risk factors associated with workstation set up and the potential effects on the body to employees. To facilitate self-adjustment and continual mitigation of risk, users need to be educated to adjust and position their equipment to support a suitable working posture and modify and maintain a safe working environment. This will avoid a user adapting their posture to accommodate an unsuitably adjusted piece of equipment or the surrounding environment.
Users will need to be supported through the provision of required equipment. This can be established through workstation set up training, one on one training, or risk assessment.
An opportunity exists for the development of dedicated home office furniture. The need to maintain separation between work life and personal life in the home drives the need for workstations that can be packed up or made to ‘disappear’ after work hours. Lightweight, portable, adjustable and ergonomic are key words that should be considered in these designs.
It is also important to identify the psychosocial factors often inherent in an organisation’s sociotechnical system. Psychosocial factors can be exacerbated by significant changes to the working environment potentially impacting the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. This aspect of working from home needs to be considered along with the physical equipment.
For those users that are experiencing discomfort or have a pre-existing injury, it is necessary to conduct a specialised assessment. Specialised assessments can be conducted by a Human Factors Specialist/Ergonomist, Occupational Therapist or another health professional. The assessment is intended to educate and support a user to adjust their equipment and environment to their specific needs.
Author:
Kiri Taggart
Getting in touch
Ergonomie Australia Pty Ltd
66 Devonshire Street,
Surry Hills NSW 2010,
Australia
+61 2 9356 8014