{"id":4408,"date":"2025-08-13T10:17:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T09:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amtivo.com\/uk\/standards\/\/\/remote-work-expansion-of-risk\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T16:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T16:17:12","slug":"remote-work-expansion-of-risk","status":"publish","type":"standard-post-filter","link":"https:\/\/amtivo.com\/uk\/standards\/iso-45001\/insights\/remote-work-expansion-of-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote Work and the Expansion of Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic changed office-based work forever. Lockdowns led to a rise in remote working. This new way of working promised benefits but also brought new risks. Remote staff often lack proper home workspace assessments, leading to potential health and security issues.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Sarah Holmes, Online Training Product Manager at British Assessment Bureau has written this article to help you understand these risks and what you can do to overcome them.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Ergonomics: Hardware and Furniture<\/h2>\r\n

Working from home can cause Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs), particularly in the neck due to poor ergonomics. This can lead to stiff necks, sprains, strains, carpal tunnel syndrome, and repetitive strain injuries. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Proper risk assessment and ergonomic guidance, including new equipment, are crucial to prevent such issues and ensure employee health and safety.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Chairs<\/h3>\r\n

Chairs can cause problems when working from home because most people don\u2019t have a chair that\u2019s designed for sitting at a desk, so they use sofas, dining room chairs, or stools. This results in bad posture and or strain and a lack of appropriate support, resulting in MSDs.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Your chair should support the lower back as lower back pain can become a problem.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A sofa is comfortable, but they\u2019re not designed for sitting upright and working in. The risk is that people think they\u2019re comfortable, but over long periods they are not as your spine is not in a neutral position.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Desks<\/h3>\r\n

Many people work from a dining room table, kitchen table or desk of some sort, which is fine, as long as the chair and sitting position is appropriate. The problems start when people use their lap, coffee table, breakfast bar, or other surfaces that create a bad posture, which encourage poor neck and back support. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Some people will just sit in bed and work. That’s not a good position because you’re hunched over, which can influence the development of the widow’s hump at the top of your neck. Working from a bed for a short period of time might be fine, but not for the entire day.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Importantly, these things always depend on the individual. It can be difficult for some people to set up a healthy home workstation, but that\u2019s why it\u2019s so important for employers to give their employees guidelines as to what good looks like.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Ergonomics: Technology<\/h2>\r\n

Laptops<\/h3>\r\n

Improper home laptop use poses lots of risks. A laptop generally has a much smaller screen than a desktop monitor so you might be squinting, leaning forwards, or leaning backwards depending on your eyesight.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Bad posture and eye strain can result in headaches. A good warning sign that something\u2019s wrong.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Screens<\/h3>\r\n

Many people have screens at home, which is a step in the right direction, but there are still risks. You need your monitor at eye level so your head is in a neutral position – you’re not looking up or down. It might need to be on a riser.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Keyboard<\/h3>\r\n

Poor keyboard use can result in repetitive strain injury (RSI). The most common behaviour is that people rest their wrists on the edge of the desk and type. You should keep your wrist in line with your elbow and type with your hands – there shouldn’t be any weight going through your hands. This is why a keyboard rest is often valuable, to take the weight of the arm.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mouse<\/h3>\r\n

Laptop trackpads are useful but harder to use than a mouse, however, even the wheel on a mouse can cause RSI. There are various solutions to fit people, including the trackball and the vertical mouse, which have many ergonomic advantages.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mouse mat<\/h3>\r\n

Similar to the wrist support when typing, if your wrist isn\u2019t supported when you\u2019re using the mouse, you\u2019re at risk of RSI.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Behaviours<\/h2>\r\n

Hardware poses many risks, but they\u2019re not the only risks to employee health, happiness and productivity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Even if home workers have perfectly ergonomic workstations, their habits and behaviours may still endanger their mental and physical health. This can range from the risk of burnout due to working longer hours – checking emails into the evening – to physical risks of not moving often enough.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Breaks<\/h3>\r\n

It\u2019s important to take screen breaks because the risk of eye and neck strains and headaches due to a lack of movement increases. <\/span>Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) can be a concern for certain people. Movement and hydration can decrease the risk of DVT.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Activity<\/h3>\r\n

Linked to the last point, it\u2019s all too easy to fall into a very sedentary work life. When working from home, we\u2019re not commuting, or walking around, and we\u2019re not walking as far to the kitchen or toilet. You think, ‘I\u2019ll get up and move around in a moment\u2019, but then you just open one more email or do one more task and suddenly an hour has gone by.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This poses a big risk to physical health as we\u2019re not stretching or moving, and not getting the blood and oxygen flowing – the latter point also affects concentration and productivity. Physical activity is an important part of maintaining good mental health as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Absenteeism, presenteeism and productivity<\/h3>\r\n

One obvious risk of remote working is that people aren\u2019t working, or not working their hours. This is always the fear of business owners and the lockdown proved that, on the whole, people do work their hours.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, it remains a risk, not least because it involves dishonesty, so can be hard to detect through normal check-ins.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The question should be: why are they behaving like that? Have they not got enough work? Is the work not stimulating? Are they in the wrong role?<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Environment\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

Another area of risk is the wider environment. This is much less explored but poses many risks to health and productivity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Light<\/h3>\r\n

Good lighting is important because poor lighting can result in eye strain and headaches. For example, if your screen is bright but your room is dark, or your room is dark except for a big bright window. That difference can cause eye strain and even blurred vision because your eyes are having to work harder to focus.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Temperature<\/h3>\r\n

One risk can be that if people have the temperature too high, they can become lethargic and make mistakes or find it hard to concentrate. Of course, if you have it very warm, you might suffer from dehydration and fatigue. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

If you have it too cold, the blood flow doesn’t get to the fingers and so you lose feeling in your fingers and aren’t as productive, or get frustrated or make more mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Air quality<\/h3>\r\n

Fresh air is important. When it\u2019s cold, people close the windows, and in modern houses, there is little ventilation. This can mean a light build-up of C02 which can affect concentration, make people sleepy and dull the senses.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Noise<\/h3>\r\n

Some office noise can be distracting and many people enjoy the quiet of home. However, a manager may not know the risks of loud noises or noise-based distractions in someone\u2019s home. Are they near an airport, noisy road, or police station? Do people share homes with partners or children? Is that noise stressful and distracting? These are all risks to productivity and stress based solely on noise.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Mental Health\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

The risks to mental health are a key part of home-working risk assessment, not least because the symptoms can be hard to detect and remain a hard topic to discuss for many.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Many people dislike busy offices with the pressure of social interaction – often inducing feelings of anxiety. Many of them therefore loved lockdown.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, many of the extroverts, those who thrive on – often needing – in-person interactions struggled to adjust, suffering from social isolation and the mental health impacts of that.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For those who need in-person interaction or even just company, if you\u2019re working remotely you may have limited options. From a manager’s perspective, you need to encourage people to talk, check in with your team regularly, use video conferencing, and facilitate the social side of workplaces. Just chat. Even arrange in-person meetings when appropriate.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For those who prefer working from home, alone, it can push them further into social isolation. This can then exacerbate existing feelings of anxiety and even depression. Again, managers should communicate regularly and frequently with their teams to see how they\u2019re doing.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Burnout<\/h3>\r\n

Burnout is a real risk for home workers. Many fail to compartmentalise work and home life and continue to work all hours – or at least feel that they\u2019re at work all hours of the day. Watch out for employees who have work email on their personal phones.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Stress<\/h3>\r\n

Another mental health risk is stress. When you\u2019re in the office things like IT, finance and HR – even just your colleagues – are right there. It can be stressful to feel unsupported, as people can perceive they are without access to these people and services. This can be made worse by the fact that people don\u2019t like to \u2018make a fuss\u2019 about something they think is small.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

Data Security<\/h2>\r\n

Home working poses significant data security risks. These include unauthorised access to work laptops and sensitive software, unsecured public Wi-Fi usage, potential exposure of sensitive information in public or shared spaces, and the risk of printed documents being left unattended. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

These risks not only impact employers but also customers and the supply chain. Additionally, there is an increased risk of cybercrime due to unsecured Wi-Fi, personal laptop usage, tethering with personal phones, and limited IT support.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\r\n

Remote working and risk assessment<\/a> is interconnected, with physical and mental aspects influencing each other. Even if one aspect, such as the desk, is suitable, other factors like the chair or improper use of the screen can pose risks. It is crucial for managers to regularly assess their teams’ setup, ensuring they have the appropriate equipment, routine, and support for their well-being, satisfaction, and productivity in their role.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Remote risk assessments and ISO 45001<\/a> are crucial for ensuring workplace well-being and safety, especially in remote work. Assessments help identify hazards and risks, allowing organisations to implement necessary controls and measures. ISO 45001 provides a framework for effective health and safety practices, prioritising employee welfare and promoting a productive and secure .<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COVID-19 transformed office work. 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