How HR Teams Can Support Employee Wellness While Working Remote

Top 4 steps to follow

While many employers were forced to adopt a remote work model due to the pandemic, they now realize the benefits it can bring in terms of productivity, efficiency, and cost savings. In fact, top tech CEOs including Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg have announced that their workforces will be able to do their jobs remotely from now on.

However, a transition to distributed work policies must be accompanied by a fresh approach to employee wellbeing. While working from home, team members often find themselves overworking and missing the usual social contact that they had in the office. A recent survey found that employee burnout doubled from March to April this year, and those who find it difficult to balance their home life with work are 4.4 times more likely to show signs of burnout.

HR teams that now handle a remote workforce must ensure they take extra steps to help maintain employee wellness and levels of social connectedness. Here’s how they can.

Our daily, in-person interactions are fundamental to feelings of belonging and wellbeing, so when those are missing while working from home, there’s a risk that team members could feel increasingly isolated. In fact, studies on remote work have shown that home workers experience more feelings of loneliness than those that commute to their workplace.

This means that HR managers should take steps to be aware of employees’ mental wellbeing by conducting frequent check-in meetings where a conversation is open and confidential. They, and other team leaders, should also keep an eye out for tell-tale signs that someone isn’t dealing well with working from home, such as a dip in productivity or being more withdrawn than usual. 

It’s not just mental health that should be a priority while teams are working from home. Employees’ physical environment can hugely impact their day-to-day wellness, and uncomfortable set-ups can have negative long-term health effects.

HR teams should consider investing in active sitting solutions or ergonomic chairs for team members to alleviate the stress that sitting with bad posture can impose on the body. In addition, ergonomic hardware items like keyboards and mice, as well as using a desk monitor, can help prevent neck and wrist strain.

Homeworkers have proven to take shorter and fewer breaks to those that work in offices, which is likely due to the fewer chances for social interaction throughout the day and the lack of a commute. This can easily lead to overworking and burnout as the boundaries between work and home become more blurred.

By encouraging employees to stick to usual workday habits and providing the opportunities to do so, HR teams can help workers strike a healthy work-life balance. This study shows that boundary-crossing activities, such as putting on work clothes before you start the day, help to stop work spilling over into time for relaxation or leisure.

While working from home, employees should be encouraged to clock in and out at the same time they usually would and take a full lunch hour away from their work. HR departments can facilitate this by setting up virtual group lunches where team members talk about non-work related topics or create other virtual social events during non-work hours. Not only helping to prevent burnout, integrating social activities like this will also add to the team’s feelings of connection with one another.

In addition to taking mental breaks away from their desks, it’s also vital that teams integrate some physical activity into their day, especially as the usual walk to the train station or trip to grab lunch disappears once working from home.

HR teams can encourage active breaks that include anything from stretching, going for a walk outside, or even some quick push-ups or jumping jacks, by setting aside time for people to take collective breaks or creating challenges. Team leaders can lead by example and establish calendar slots for their own active breaks, showcasing when they are taking them and demonstrating that staying active throughout the day is important, even if it means time away from your desk.

Apps such as Pomodoro Tracker are great to remind people to take breaks while working at a computer, while My Virtual Mission motivates team members to stay active by letting them create their own challenges. Sharing resources like this will give employees the tools to make active breaks a habit.

While many businesses are beginning to reopen and invite their teams back to the workplace, there’s little doubt that the move towards remote work has accelerated considerably as a result of the pandemic. This transition should be embraced, especially given the number of employees that prefer flexible work policies. However, this doesn’t mean business as usual for HR departments and wellbeing programs. By applying the above tips and tailoring them to the needs of the workforce on both a collective and individual level, HR teams can help maintain home workers’ mental and physical wellbeing.

Chen Raizman is the CEO of TheActiveSeat Co. Connect Chen Raizman