Creating a Healthy Hybrid Workplace

When the world was forced into a work-from-home model during the Covid-19 pandemic, we all had to adapt to new working conditions.

Gone was the luxury of an ergonomic desk that was the perfect height for each of us as individuals, the chair that was adjusted perfectly to fit under our ergonomic desk and a computer screen that was also set at the right height for us.

For many, the luxury was stripped away and we were either slouched on the sofa with a laptop precariously balanced on the arm, or resting on the smallest side table in the house. Or, we had to try and fit a computer monitor, a desktop computer, a keyboard and mouse mat onto the kitchen table or a temporary desk nestled in the corner of the utility room.?

It wasn’t the most comfortable way to work and demonstrated how important the right home office set-up is, even without your own office.

Now that the world is opening back up and organisations are giving employees a hybrid working option, it’s time to take our home working environment more seriously, to ensure we’re productive and staying healthy too.

Here are our top four tips on how to create a healthy, relaxing and productive home office:

Choose the right desk:

When the average working day is eight hours, that’s a long time to be sitting at a desk that doesn’t give you the support that you need. We all know how easy it is to slump over a laptop or a computer when we’re tired, or so engrossed in work that we forget to engage our core muscles.

An ergonomic desk that adjusts to your natural sitting position, depending on your height is an ideal solution. Or, a sit-stand desk, that way you can choose the position that best supports you throughout the day, so when you’re tired of sitting you can stand and vice versa.

Similarly, investing in the right chair for you is just as essential as choosing the right desk.

Healthy Air Quality:

According to the EPA, indoor office environments can often have higher pollutants than outside air, so you’ll want the air quality in your home office to be as healthy as possible.

Sitting near a window that can be opened throughout the day will automatically improve the freshness and overall air quality in your office.?

Being connected to nature also improves air quality, as well as reducing stress and boosting productivity. Working in a forest may not be possible, but placing plants around your desk or in your office will bring a slice of the outside, inside.

Move every 30mins:

When working from home it’s all too easy to stay stuck to your desk all day as you haven’t got the option to get up and visit Bob in accounts, meet the team in the boardroom or even pop out for lunch.

We know how important it is for the body to stretch and the mind to switch off, which is why we’ve added a movement prompt to the Wurkr platform. Every 30mins a message will pop up to encourage you to stop, stretch, talk a short walk and come back feeling refreshed.?

It’s also important to continue to take lunch and tea breaks when working from home, and even if you sit in the garden for 15mins, at least you’re getting even more fresh air and a dose of Vitamin D.

Create workspace boundaries:

If you can, set up your home office in a separate room to where all the action takes place at home to avoid being distracted by the hustle and bustle of family life. If you have a spare bedroom or garage space - great!

If not, at least use a screen or a curtain to block your office space away from the rest of the room. That way you’re creating healthy working boundaries for yourself but also for the family too.?

Earlier this year, The Guardian reported that since the pandemic hit, there’s been a rise in popularity for ‘shoffice’ spaces that people are erecting in their back gardens. According to the DIY and building supplies retailer, Toolstation, sales of garden buildings rocketed by 500% between January and May this year, compared to the previous year. While sales of sheds soared by more than 460%.??

While individuals are investing in a home office environment that works for them, it would be great for employers to support the staff who are working from home; perhaps an allowance to set up the right office environment, or a contribution to changes they’ve already made.?

Employers could arrange for morning coffee to be delivered every other day to those working from home, or lunch delivered to their door once a month.?

You never know - we could even see an increase in away days and team bonding sessions that were all the rage in the corporate world a few years ago - now it could be a quarterly social event to bring the entire team together, or a virtual pub quiz every month. Arranging events that will help to keep all employees engaged, visible and connected.

For many people, being able to return to the office means that their home working experience has now expired and they’re glad to be back in a routine with set boundaries in a fixed environment.

For those remote workers who have always worked remotely, now that the world is opening back up, freedom of choice is back on the menu, with the ability to choose whether they work from home, from a co-working space or from a cafe.

And others are being given the choice to create a new hybrid working solution, choosing to work from home a few days a week and the rest in the office, or vice versa. This option seems to be making headlines at the moment and is sparking some interesting debates on LinkedIn.?

The key to hybrid working relies on communication and connection, two areas that we wanted to focus on predominantly when creating Wurkr. As remote workers ourselves, we had experienced the highs and the lows, the positives and the negatives of working this way, hence why we put so much research and development into the Wurkr platform before launching the beta version.

We all heavily relied on other platforms such as Zoom, GoogleMeet and Teams during the lockdown, to keep us connected and able to work on documents collaboratively, but Wurkr creates a bridge between the physical office and the virtual world, offering the ideal customer solution - a virtual office space that actually replicates a physical workspace, wherever you choose to work from.