Adaptability, ergonomics and wellbeing: building blocks for the workplace in 2025 British Safety Council

They should also allow for the wrists to stay in a neutral position because too much extension and flexion lead to more strain on the hands and fingers. In the simplest terms, it’s a station that promotes a conducive posture during work hours to better improve your health and your quality of life. Finally we will provide an ergonomic blueprint that gives new remote workers effective strategies to make the transition easier. Working from home can affect posture in various ways, depending on where and how you work.

Environmental Health and Safety

We also offer Telehealth appointments with individualized care to reduce pain and help you progress. Our team has a variety of strengthening exercises to help you find long term rehabilitation solutions that best suit your needs. Some desks may not be high enough to elevate your laptop screen to your eye level when sitting. Poor posture makes the spine curve off its neutral position for as long as the work lasts, leading to pain and discomfort or even severe health issues in the future. Taking a few moments to ensure that your home office is set up properly can help you reduce repetitive stress and strain while working. This can minimize pain, improve posture, and improve your overall productivity while working.

Under desk ellipticals

Standing doesn’t even make it better, as you can quickly develop joint pain, muscle fatigue, back pain, and others. It is important to switch your working positions and take a few walks during your break. If you use more than one screen, ensure all the screens at placed side-by-side with each other in a way that there is no space between them. Keep the primary monitor in the middle and the others by the sides. However, if you use only two screens side by side, these screens should meet at your sightline, which is your direct eye level when you raise your head. Your computer monitor is well placed if the middle of your monitor is a little below your eye level.

Sitting or standing for long periods can cause blood circulation problems, muscle tension, joint pain, and other health issues. To prevent these problems, take short breaks every 25 minutes to stand up, walk around, stretch, or do light exercises. Ergonomic workstations minimize physical discomfort by promoting proper posture and reducing muscle strain, which can lead to decreased stress levels.

Creating a flexible work environment for long-term health

Safety is paramount when working from home, to maintain your well-being and protect your family members from accidents and injuries. Go for chairs with a backrest to support your spine’s natural shape. If you can’t find this kind of chair, add a towel roll to support your lumbar. Get these tools below and follow the instructions required to set up your ergonomic workplace at home. Cybersecurity and data protection are crucial when working from home.

Step 1: Chair and Posture

These include maintaining a quiet environment, managing high call volumes, and dealing with demanding customers. Leveraging the right tools and platforms can facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among remote teams. Prioritizing your health and taking proactive steps to maintain it while working remotely is essential.

• Unable to make it to the clinic for physical therapy during the coronavirus?
• Similarly, a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management reported that 74% of remote workers believed that a comfortable and well-designed workspace improved their productivity.
• However, working remotely does come with challenges for older members of the workforce.
• Better posture at work is directly connected to increased productivity and better overall health.

Working from home leaves you without access to the ergonomic features and support available in the office. This can lead to poor postures, musculoskeletal injuries, eye strain, fatigue, stress, and reduced productivity. Working from home can be challenging for many reasons, but for a lot of us, not having a proper workstation work from home ergonomics set up can lead to discomfort and pain.

It may be helpful to set an alarm to ring every hour to remind you to sit up properly while working. The slouch-overcorrect exercise is also a great maneuver to do to remind yourself to sit with proper posture. Research comparing standing and sitting while working at a computer is varied.

If your entire computer system is on one laptop, there are risers and stands for those too. Some risers can be bolted directly on the wall while others just sit on your desktop. Research shows that working in a consistent space that you’ve identified as your actual office space allows you to tie memories and agendas to that one area. Start with what you know and what has already been working for you at the office.

Though you can use any of these, the general safety rule is to ensure that you obtain the correct posture when using it. Mindfulness and stress management techniques can be particularly beneficial for remote workers. These practices can help manage work-related stress and improve focus and productivity. A well-designed ergonomic workspace can significantly reduce the risk of work-related injuries and boost productivity.

• You can adjust to your current equipment or even buy new ones to get a perfect setup.
• Mind you, this is a correlative observation but it does help reveal that the potential ups AND downs of prolonged standing.
• As you increase your standing duration, look into incorporating the use of an anti-fatigue mat under your feet.
• Working from home leaves you without access to the ergonomic features and support available in the office.
• Our team of experts create guides based on the latest ergonomic research and best practices.

Saddles stools allow your hip and knee angles to open up as if you were straddling a horse, this promotes healthy blood circulation. The sooner you address the small pain, the quicker you can avoid intolerable pain that just gets more difficult to fix. You could also go get a glass of water that you purposefully left in another room or take phone calls while standing. The app allows you to create training sessions and schedules throughout the day. If you would like to further your posture training, you can also download an app that’s set up to communicate with the trainer. Posture correctors are worn around your shoulders and upper/middle back, they are usually made from comfortable, padded material.

A report by the Edge Foundation (2024) highlights that the UK is facing a skills shortage and a productivity problem. In such a competitive recruitment environment, a business has to be an attractive proposition if it wants to recruit the best. This transformation demands that organisations rethink their approach to employee wellbeing, ergonomics and workplace culture. The Targus 16-inch Geolite EcoSmart® Advanced Backpack is ideal for hybrid professionals who need a lightweight, protective backpack for carrying work essentials. It features multiple compartments for organization, padded laptop storage, and an ergonomic back panel for comfort.