The Future of Teleworking: Risks and Prevention Strategies

The sudden increase in teleworking from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has put workers at greater risk of musculoskeletal disorders and mental health problems, according to a new international report.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work’s (EU-OSHA) report looks at these risks, the benefits and problems arising from teleworking, and the EU regulations in place to protect workers.

It is also illustrated with examples from different sectors in several countries of good teleworking practices adopted during the pandemic and highlights the importance of employers conducting risk assessments.

Telework is defined as the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers, for work that is performed outside the employer’s premises.

In 2020, telework exploded to an estimate of almost 40% of people employed in the European Union who started teleworking full-time as a result of the pandemic.

This gave a substantial boost to the already upward trend of teleworking in the past years. The share of employees in the European Union who works at least sometimes from home increased from 8.1% in 2011 to 18.7% in 2020.

EU-OSHA says that when mass teleworking because the norm, employers will need to make strategic choices about reorganising work to maximise productivity, job quality, work-life balance and psychological safety.

Employers will likely need to be convinced to offer up the financial resources required to manage home workstations and psychological concerns.

“Tackling the OSH risks of teleworkers is a significant challenge and one that is likely to become even more pressing in the post-pandemic future, in the context of sustained increased levels of full-time teleworking,” the report says.

“Although this is not an easy task, it will be important to set out the business case in terms of the financial losses arising from absence due to musculoskeletal disorders or stress, and the reduced productivity or higher turnover of employees who are experiencing physical or psychosocial strain.”

“One step towards dealing with ongoing telework-related OSH challenges is to ensure that a comprehensive policy is in place that clearly sets out the rights and responsibilities of all those involved, such as the teleworkers themselves, the company, managers – and particularly line managers – and employee representatives.”

EU-OSHA has also produced a new OSHwiki article with easy-to-follow guidance on how to protect workers.- with extensive information on teleworking and the associated physical and psychological risks.