Nowadays, there aren't just a variety of job types but various opportunities as far as the work location further diversifying the job market. Some individuals seek out onsite, while others prefer remote and/or hybrid. For these many types of jobs, those that involve a high level of collaboration and high skill level are mostly still onsite. Working from home, does not work as effectively and after the pandemic situation, they got up and going...back into the office that is!

So, the pandemic is not "the death of the office space" as some speculate, however, working from home (WFH) also won’t become entirely a thing of the past. Many workers enjoy the freedom and flexibility WFH provides but some folks just don't have their home space properly setup. This situation leads to ergonomic risks that arise that wouldn't normally be a factor when going into the office. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 20% of workers were working from home already. After the pandemic, things went back to approximately where they were before.

The solution for the future is a structured hybrid model, acknowledging that working from home doesn’t work long-term for most jobs, while still giving workers flexibility. One way to do that would be to allocate time slots—perhaps specific days—of in-office working for all employees to maintain workplace productivity and collaboration, while also allowing working from home to continue outside those hours.

Remote work does show that it leads to increased productivity, as well as job satisfaction, particularly for those working in technical jobs that require minimal teamwork. In 2007, one study showed that 53% of employees ranked remote work as one of the five most-valued work benefits. Individuals employed on creative projects on the other hand who work on virtual teams reported feeling more like a worker than a member of a close team. The damaging effects of working from home is primarily aimed at it's effect on teams as a whole. Remote work can break the mechanisms that allow a team to work together creatively. There is no digital technology out there that can reliably create ‘flow’ remotely. If it did, the necessity of pandemic restrictions for us to work remotely, it would have already been embraced.

Companies need to also resolve the issue of providing employees located all over the world so having a scalable ergonomics program is important for businesses. Virtual ergonomic evaluations can assist in serving employees located across the globe. These entail a pre-evaluation questionnaire that helps prepare the employee and ergonomic specialist for the session to make them most effective.

If you are in need of an ergonomic evaluation at your home to resolve any issues with your computer work setup call Ergobility today to have an ergonomics expert come and assist you.