hese days many people are working from home. This means that as an employer, you have to make sure that your employees are performing their work in a healthy manner. In this blog post we will give you 5 tips for a healthy and safe work environment for your employees.

1. Let them create a separate workplace at home

When an employee is working from home for days on end, it is crucial that their health and safety is taken into consideration. It is therefore wise that your employees set up a separate workplace at home, so that work and private life can be somewhat separated. Employees should try to keep their environment stress free. So, this means (if possible) no children or clutter around and as little distraction as possible. For example, have your employees lightly transform a separate room as a workplace. If this is not available, there may be a separate corner in the house where the employee can work with less distraction. A window seat overlooking nature can also help take away stress and restore focus.

2. Ensure correct posture while working from home

In the office, most workplaces are set up in such a way that the employees automatically adopt a good work posture. But now that many people are working from home, the workspace at home should also be well set up.

Make sure, or let your employees ensure, that their screen is at the correct height. For example, provide them with laptop stands or let them use their office monitor at home. Here are some office ergonomics to look into.

If your employees are using laptops, make sure that they have a separate keyboard and a separate mouse. In addition, ask them if they have a good chair at their disposal to adopt the correct working posture. If not, try to find a solution together to solve this problem. For example, offer that a chair can be picked up from the office, or offer compensation so that the employee can purchase an office chair themselves. Perhaps the employee has a fitness ball or stool with the correct height. Be creative, but keep in mind that a correct working posture is essential for a healthy and effective employee.

3. Provide your employees with fruit packages

Most offices have a fruit basket, where everyone can take fruit from during the day. Some companies even use organizations such as ‘Fruit op je werk’ (fruit at work) to deliver the most delicious and fresh fruit to the workplace at a fixed frequency. To ensure that your employees continue to eat healthy at home, you can send a fruit package to your employees’ every week. This way you know that your employees are healthy and motivated to work.

4. Let your employees exercise enough

We all know that sitting still all day is not beneficial to your health. At home you are mostly stationary. That is why it is extra important that you ensure that there are enough moments during the week to exercise and that your employees stay fit.

For example, you can organize a mini home workout daily via Zoom. Have a nice 15 minutes exercise before the start of the work day. There are also certain apps, such as the 1 Minute Desk Workout app, that can send your employees a reminder to move every hour. The app also immediately shows a number of exercises that can then be performed.

During lunch a walk can be a form of ‘exercise’ your employees can pick up to stay active.

5. Stay in touch through video calling

In addition to staying physically healthy, it is also important to stay mentally healthy. Having no colleagues around for such a long period, especially if someone lives alone, can increase the feeling of loneliness. Therefore, make sure that there is regular contact through video calling. And replace normal telephone calls with video calls. Also read our previous blog posts ‘Expats working from home: how to keep them happy and motivaded‘ and ‘The 5 best tools for online (team) meetings’.

We all want to stay healthy and as an employer you want the best for your employees. When everyone works from home it is difficult to check whether they adhere to the above advice. Therefore, please contact your employees regularly to see how they are doing and if there is anything you can do to help them.

For now: stay healthy!