While flexible work arrangements can lead to benefits at both organisation and individual level, there is emerging evidence that extensive work from home arrangements can lead to mental and physical health issues if not managed well.
Safe Work Australia along with many other organisations have identified 6 work from home risks that all employers and employees should be aware of and, moreover, have strategies in place to mitigate these risks.
- Being isolated from managers, colleagues and support networks.
- Blurred boundaries between home-life and work-life.
- Work fatigue.
- Lack of collaboration amongst teams.
- Less support. For example employees may feel they do not have the normal support they receive from their supervisor.
- Low job control.
Most of the above work from home risks not only require strategies involving management processes, rosters and working behaviours, but also consideration to the work environment and conditions of the physical work space.
During 2020 we conducted a Design Thinking exercise that highlighted people’s needs when working from home and were able to also identify some latent needs that addressed points 2 and 3 directly.
From observations and conversations, we found that many people did not have a dedicated work space in their home or enough space to allocate to office furniture. Roughly 60% of the people we spoke to were working from benches, tables and bedrooms all of which present both ergonomic issues as well as less likelihood to disconnect from work resulting in fatigue.
We came to conclusion that desk users needed an ergonomic product that could be easily moved, transported and, importantly, stored away easily to enable a clear and tangible break from the working day.
On researching currently available desk options, we found hundreds of Sit-Stand desks but none that were mobile (castor wheels) as well as foldable for easy storage.
So our aim become to develop a desk that delivered these key benefits, plus looked smart and could be offered under $400. The result was the FlexiPro Sit-Stand foldable desk – an ideal flexible addition to your home office, classroom or workplace, especially where space is a challenge.
The purchase of our FlexiPro desk is tax deductable and will help employers and employees manage the occupational health and safety risks in a work from home setting. ORDER NOW
Or if you want to discuss your unique requirements please call us on 0386011197
