HR teams help ensure a given organisation complies with local health and safety regulations to maintain a safe and healthy work environment. Many times, these compliance concerns also apply to remote work or ‘work from anywhere’ schemes for employees who may come to the office less often (or not at all).
Every country has regulations regarding what constitutes a safe workplace. These determine many areas including optimal office temperature, desk ergonomics, trainings required, safety protocols, tripping hazards, equipment storage.
However, in recent years, employers have had to quickly re-assess those in the home office context, where they can often be more challenging to control. Many countries already had some regulations to guide them, while others have been recently making updates to include remote working.
It’s important to note that when we talk about workplace safety both physical and mental health have to be considered. According to a recent report by the The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, workplace absenteeism is soaring since the pandemic. So while trip hazards, good posture, and other aspects of work that impact the physical health of an employee have to be considered, mental health and work related stress should also need to be taken into consideration. Much of the increase of the absenteeism, in particular the long term absences is due to work related stress or mental health.
Health and Safety can be a complex area, especially if dealing with multiple jurisdictions with different requirements. While HR teams are the ones that carry the responsibility for good health and safety practices, finding a local partner to guide them on local regulations, trainings, risk assessments, ergonomic set-up and mental health supports can make things a lot easier for them and they should consider doing that.