Caring for a team who are working from home

If your team has shifted to remote work or working from home as we all respond to the global virus and the way it’s impacting our lives, you’re going to have to make some adjustments. Technology can provide some busineses with the option to have staff work offsite and still collaborate; but there’s a human element to all of this too. You have to be taking steps to look after your employees.

You have to actually audit whether or not your staff are able to work from home with the right conditions. There are guidelines around working from home that cover OH&S. You want to make sure your employees are safe at home, and there are laws that you need to follow that are designed to look after workers.

Staff need access to a first aid kit, a working fire alarm, and a secure workspace or home office, making sure there are no cables tangled anywhere. It’s important to have ergonomic chairs and a setup that won’t be harmful.

We’ve learned how to do this from past experience because we've had people working remotely before. But if you’re new to this – look to the workplace safety laws first, and make sure you’re sticking to the right path as best as possible during these uncertain times.

The biggest challenge? It’s not technology. It’s mental health and wellbeing.

One of the biggest challenges is your team’s mental and physical health, around boundaries and isolation. When you’re working from home, you can get into a habit where you wake up in the morning and you just go straight to the laptop and you start working nonstop.

Because you don't have that travel time, and you don't have to worry about getting ready, putting your makeup on, getting dressed, picking your outfit, what you find is you just get up, you sit down, and you just keep pounding away for the rest of the day.

The problem with that is that you're human. You can't just grind all day without boundaries. You're not a machine. Over time you learn that it will have a negative effect. My advice would be to actually encourage your staff to get up and get into a routine of some sort. Have a shower, get changed, and find a dedicated place where it's quiet, where you can relax and you can focus. And do the same for yourself as a manager and a founder.

Take time out to actually get out of the house if you can, to go for a bit of a walk (where you have space and can maintain a healthy distance from others) and to break that cycle. Sticking to your laptop will work for probably a week or so, and then you start to burn out and you find that you actually are isolating yourself a lot. Social distancing is crucial right now with this crisis, but total isolation, where you don’t have a strict medical directive can cause issues such as depression.

If you’re not in a position where you can be getting out there and talking to people and communicating with friends or family, it's important to be mindful of that and take time out for Skype or phone calls to stay in touch too.

Your body matters too. Working from home doesn’t mean ignoring that.

When you’re working from home, you can find yourself suddenly thinking - it’s five o'clock. I haven't taken a moment to stand and have a break since I sat down. Because you're working away and you don’t have the office routine around you, it’s easy to forget your needs, and you don't even stop to have lunch. You start missing your food and your health suffers for that. Eating regular meals and sticking to them is crucial. You can’t let your body become a low priority, or you’ll feel the effects in the long term.

People who have started working from home should take the time out to do even a 10 or 15-minute exercise routine. It allows the blood to flow again. It allows you to move around a little bit because you're getting up and walking around and moving. It releases some endorphins and keeps you fresh, clear and clean.

You don't have to go to a gym. You don't have to be Iron Man. But we need to do the things that will help us take care of ourselves, no matter what environment we’re working in. I think especially with these times, it's important to have the right balance. We all want to get through this together. 

One of the first things we did as the situation developed was to have a management meeting, where we agreed that we wanted to be on the front foot and make sure our staff’s health came first, and we’ve taken the steps to make that a reality.

I hope you do too.