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As a compliance leader, you’re probably well-versed in workplace safety guidelines for traditional work environments. You understand best practices for training programs, and have likely educated your team on everything from bloodborne pathogen awareness to electrical safety. Under your guidance, employees at all levels of your organization, across any location, are trained and prepared to meet the hazards relevant to their work environment.
But over the past couple of years, the global pandemic has pushed many workers out of a traditional office setting and into a hybrid or remote work environment. As a result, compliance leaders have been required to reassess common workplace hazards and rethink how to communicate potential risks and control measures to employees.
To help navigate this challenge, Skillsoft created a group of pandemic compliance training courses to help organizations navigate these new challenges. Here are just a few:
These resources are meant to provide ongoing guidance and support to organizations looking to do the right thing in a time marked by rapid change.
With more employees working from home offices than ever before, injuries and illnesses that occur may be considered work-related if the injury or illness occurs while the employee is performing work for pay or compensation in the home.
This is important to note, as many workers are finding out the potential hazards of working from home only after an injury occurs. For example, did you know that 41% of Americans have had new or increased back, neck, or shoulder pain since they began working at home?
It is the responsibility of every organization to:
It is important for employers to ensure that employees have a safe work environment, even at home. While OSHA won’t “hold employers liable for employees’ home offices and does not expect employers to inspect the home offices of their employees,” there are steps that you can take to protect employees who are working from home.
Especially since – globally – 16% of companies are now fully remote.
According to a study from Stanford Graduate School of Business, performance is boosted by 22% when employees are allowed to work from home. And as more organizations move in this direction, it is important to check in with your employees often to ensure that their work from home setups are actually … working.
Foremost, you will need to consider how employees evaluate their work environments. You may also have to provide employees with necessary additional equipment, revise existing policies to accommodate home-office work, and provide relevant tools and training for employees.
Think about the following home office hazards:
Employers need to be aware of hazards in the employees’ work area and provide training based on common hazards related to emergency and disaster preparedness, electrical safety, fire safety, ergonomics, back safety, and slips, trips, and falls. In developing materials to support home office safety, consider flexible tools, such as online training, checklists, and safety bulletins, to drive adoption and reinforcement across the workforce.
Skillsoft has a library of home office training materials, including:
It comes down to this: Six out of ten people agree that “their employer bears some responsibility for ensuring their overall health.” So, whether your employees are working from the office or from their own home office, it is important to ensure that they are compliant with all relevant safety guidelines.
And you can take this one step further.
In honor of Global Employee Health & Fitness Month (GEHFM), this May, many employers are making an extra effort to promote the importance of health and safety in the workplace. Here are three suggestions for employers to share with their remote workforce during GEHFM:
Organizations with highly successful wellness initiatives report the following outcomes:
Maybe that’s why so many organizations are incorporating comprehensive workplace wellness programs into their overall employee benefits packages.
No matter how you decide to support employees’ health and well-being this month (and every month, for that matter), know that Skillsoft is here for you as a trusted partner in compliance.