Notes on: How to Keep Your Employees Healthy While They're Working From Home.

'How to Keep Your Employees Healthy While They're Working From Home' is an article by Sophie Downes and was originally published on inc.com.

Poor home-office ergonomics and pandemic-related stress can cause health problems. Here's how to manage those issues in your (remote) workplace.

Since COVID-19 forced many workers back home, more health concerns began to emerge like back pain from being hunched over with our laptops and tooth fractures from managing stress caused by the pandemic.

Working at a desk consistently over a long period of time can have adverse effects on our health, but the issues have been exasperated as people work from their beds, couches and counters, often having to adjust their posture, which leads to pain or long-term damage.

The nature of a laptop puts strain on the neck and back as it forces a person to look down as they use the keypad.

Creating ergonomic workstations and establishing behaviour changes can help fix some of the issues caused by working from home. Here are some ideas to help your team:

1. Lead by example and give frequent reminders. Helpful reminders include: ensuring the monitor is at eye level, use a detached keyboard and mouse and keep them at elbow level, sit with your feet planted on the floor or a footrest and ensure you move them throughout the day.

2. Create remote-work policies that include ergonomics. Some ideas can include training sessions, sharing resources like self-assessment checklists or even custom evaluations from a professional ergonomist.

3. Pay for some perks. It might cost less in insurance fees in the long-run if you invest upfront in giving your team budgets to upgrade their workstations and make them more ergonomic according to their needs.

4. Remember the mental impact. Dealing with the pandemic itself can be stressful, add to that a political divide, feelings of isolation and care giving concerns for some, employees need resources to deal with the mental stress as well.

5. Get feedback from your team directly. The best way to address the individual needs of your team members is by understanding their situation and listening to what they say they need.