DSE Homeworker Assessments – The key to Healthy Working at Home

Working from home has taken a new dimension in the past year. In most professions, homeworking has become a long-term practice instead of a temporary workaround. Thus, with work transitioning to our houses, we are no longer working from home and rather living at work. Such a transition calls for serious examination of work-related practices. Employers would need to make double the efforts to ensure their employee productivity and wellbeing stays the same as before. What we all need is to ensure that we have a healthy working pattern, even in our homes.

The primary concern associated with prolonged hours of work is that it causes many body disorders. Sitting in front of the DSE (computer or laptop screen) for hours at a stretch leads to neck, back, arm, or shoulder pain, along with strain on the eyes and fatigue. Thus, there should be stringent measures in place to avoid these DSE-induced risks. Hence, Healthy Working from home takes a three-step approach:

• E-learning for Ergonomics and self-assessment – Each person has individual needs when it comes to ergonomics. While working from home, each employee will have a different workstation design, DSE, and work environment. Hence, each person will have to undergo a homeworker self-assessment. E-learning will help employees to understand their individual ergonomic needs. Many organizations are now providing expertly devised online courses to handle ergonomics-related issues. Many companies also have specialized safety systems integrated with DSE self-assessment to provide customized feedback to users.
• User Engagement – Conducting homeworker assessments is not enough to counter DSE-related issues. No matter how aware an employee is about the DSE-related issues, long hours of work are sure to bog him down. At times, it becomes hard for people to get up from their workstations, take a walk around, or do some stretching. Thus, what the person needs is a constant reminder, engaging enough to drive him away from work. So, providers of safety and DSE-related training are coming up with interactive content including video-based stretching exercises, engaging smartphone apps, voice assistants, hot-desk advice, and real-time feedback.

Hassle-free DSE Program Management – Providers of health and safety training are coming up with powerful program management modules that will help all users to manage the DSE assessment program easily. With detailed reporting capabilities, a secure database, and task management tools, employees can handle the homeworker DSE assessment comfortably.