Solve your employees’ number one source of stress

Any reader is familiar with the hit TV series The Office (English version, please) would notice people crouched over computer screens, doing who knows what, but all very engaged.

In fact, if you walk into almost any city office today, you will find precisely the same scene: people privately engaged in their work while crouched over a computer. So prevalent is this activity that we are being warned about the perils of continuous close-focused vision, teamed with keyboard-caused RSI and a lack of exercise, just to mention a few.

Given this is working life for so many these days, let’s turn that into an opportunity.

“Innovate” at work to reap multiple benefits

Many ‘birds can be killed’ with one stone if we embrace change:

1. Productivity improvement
2. Traffic congestion and the huge expense of building new road infrastructure
3. A real use for the NBN – more than just home movies
4. Greenhouse emission reductions
5. Cost of living in travel time and cost

Can you foresee these huge gains if most people did not have to travel to an office every day to do their jobs?

Do we need to have staff present?

Social interaction in the workplace has huge benefits, both for the wellbeing of workers, the cross-pollination of ideas and the building of a team environment.

However, in most cases there is absolutely no need for people to attend an office every day. Perhaps one day per week would be sufficient to allow for social interaction and general catch up.

Numerous studies have been undertaken on the subject of home workers, or so-called ‘telecommuters’. Most show the cost benefits in productivity and reduced cost of employment in many ways, including office space, energy, consumables and many other almost-hidden on-costs. For the worker there are also huge benefits.