Recently we surveyed our customers to see how happy they were working from home and how their workplace was set up for them to carry out their work each day. We also asked what challenges they were facing. The results were not surprising and more or less the same problems we face ourselves!
Several people reported that their actual workspace was not suitable, with the main problem being incorrect desk, chair and computer screen. We have a service where we can carry out an assessment of the facilities and report back to you with our recommendations. This has proved very popular as we all know – Working from home is here to stay!

First lets look at why we conducted the survey –

At GROW Training, we help our clients establish a risk-free working environment. We asked a range of clients and people working from how a few simple questions to find out what their workspace is like and to see does it meet requirements as set out in
• Visual Display Unit (VDU) or Display Screen Assessments (DSE) Assessments are required under the 2007 General Application Regulations. Read more HERE
• VDU / DSE Assessments must be undertaken on all computer workstations where an employee will spend longer than 1 continuous hour per day on average or are basically habitual users of VDU / DSE equipment.

GROW Training provides a VDU / DSE Assessment service to assess the ergonomic suitability of the workstation, work equipment and surrounding environment and its compliance with the 2007 General Application Regulations. The VDU / DSE User should be put first as every person is different and different adjustments may be required at each workstation due to the comfort and preferences of each user.

Here are the results of our workplace questionnaire –

Question 1 – Have you had a Workplace review of your workstation at home?

A Workstation review is recommended by HSA but it was upsetting to learn that 85.7% of respondents have not had any review. This concerned us and the results of this were shown in the fact that so many people are having problems with the Chair and Desk they are working from every day.

Question 2 – How happy are you with your Home Workplace?

The majority of people are happy working from home with 57% Very happy with the current arrangement and less that 20% unhappy with the arrangement.

Question 3 – How do you rate the workspace when using the following –

Room                    Majority are happy with the room they work from 95%
Screen                   Majority are very happy with screen and just 5% unhappy
Keyboard              75% of people are very happy with their keyboard
Chair                     The replies were spread quite equally, 40% said Ok but needs improving
Desk                      Replies are spread with the majority Very happy but 50% needs improving
Lighting                Majority happy with Lighting.

Question 4 – What improvements are needed in your workspace?

The most common comment was about the Desk with 25% of respondents commenting on this item, many are working from desks that are too small. The Chair was the next item with 20% of people having issues with the chair they are sitting on. People are using kitchen chairs or stools which are not ergonomically correct. Lighting, screen size and the size of the actual room they are working in was an issue for 10% of people. 35% of people were happy with their environment.

Question 5 – Would you rather be back in your company’s office?

It is very clear that the majority of people would like to continue to work from home with 62% stating that they would like to continue with the current arrangement.
•14.3% – Yes, Totally
•23.8% – I’m not sure,
•61.9% – No, I really like working from home

Question 6 – What is the Best or Worst thing about working from home?

– The Best things included
•Flexibility.
•No Commute some saving 3-4 hours a day.
•Peace and quite and lack of distraction in the workplace.
•Convince
•The ability to do day to day tasks during 9-5

– The Worst things included
• Isolation (45%)
• Lack of human interaction (45%)
• Work day bleeding into personal time
• No switching off
• Kids difficult and a distraction

Huge Thank You to everyone who responded to our survey. Your answers have helped us so much. We hope you found the results interesting. If you would like us to provide an Assessment of your Teams workspace please contact Deborah at info@growtraining.ie

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