Can you guess the biggest challenge for an employer? It’s protecting their employees against potential health and safety hazards.

Work from home initiated after the global pandemic paced and soon became the ‘new normal.’ It’s likely to continue for an indefinite period, with the Occupational Health and Safety Act of Ontario obligating employers to take risk assessment measures to safeguard their employees’ safety in work from home.

Here’s a compilation of the top health and safety issues for remote employees and how workplace safety training/courses can help employers.

1. Fire and Electrical Hazards

While a workplace has fire and electrocution alarms, ensure your employees also have safety precautions for fire and electrical hazards. These hazards are the most significant threats for remote employees. They might be living in an old home with outdated wiring that might break out into massive fires, injuring them.

If the fire erupts due to laptop/PC connectivity, the employer will be held responsible.

What Can Employers Do?

Employers should always provide necessary safety precautions to their employees in such regard.

  • Provide evacuation plan to their employees
  • Guide them to install at least a fire extinguisher
  • Ensure their electrical system is in sound condition
  • Educate them on necessary workplace safety courses

Image Filename: Woman-working-laptop

Image Alt Text: Sitting beside the window enhances workplace safety

2. Ergonomics Issues

While employees walk in their workplaces to visit their colleagues or to attend conferences, their body posture and movement remain restricted in work from home. This causes muscular pain, backaches, and bent-body pose in the long run. These issues sometimes demotivate employees.

What Can Employers Do?

To constantly motivate and satisfy employees, employers can:

  • Encourage employees for frequent short breaks
  • Guide them about the correct position to work
  • Provide them with a flexible and back-supportive working chair

3. Mental Health Issues

Not all remote employees’ issues are physical, sometimes work from home leads to loneliness, anxiety, and burnout. While an office social setting allows employees to interact, work from home restricts the employees from friendly chit-chats, causing anxiety in workers.

What Can Employers Do?

Here’s what employers can do.

  • Promote technology and social media networks for communication and interaction
  • Provide flexible working hours
  • Appreciate workers on good work

4. Physical Health Emergencies

Physical health emergencies are common in work from home and include everything (but not limited to):

  • Sinus and breathing problems due to poor ventilation
  • Headaches due to eye strain and stress
  • Earaches due to distractions and loud noises
  • Cardiovascular diseases and obesity
  • Physical injuries by working in an unstable environment

What Can Employers Do?

Employers can reduce the likelihood of physical health emergencies by:

  • Sharing a remote work health and safety policy with employees
  • Teaching them relevant workplace safety and first aid courses

How Can Metro Safety Training Assist Employers in British Columbia?

Does your organization want to address employees’ health and safety issues?

Metro Safety Training offers Red Cross first training courses and workplace safety courses in BC, Canada. Our training school educates workers against workplace hazards and dangers. We’ve courses catering to all the issues mentioned above.

For registration details, contact us today at 604-521-4227 or info@metrosafety.ca.