Video tutorial: Dr Ben Kelly of Nuffield Health on remote working, stress, wellbeing & productivity
Speaking at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2019, he said there had been around a 75% increase in remote working in the past ten years, with about four million people currently working from home.
He said there were a number of reasons for the increase including better technology that enables remote working, stresses on space and overheads and an ability for employees to better manage their work and home life.
Dr Kelly said Nuffield Health had looked at a number of studies on remote working to understand its overall impact on wellbeing. “We found the effect on wellbeing was pretty much positive,” he said.
However he said remote workers wanted autonomy and to feel they could be trusted to work in their own environment rather than be micro-managed, which tended to reduce wellbeing.
“Where we see a negative effect of remote working is in circumstances where the home starts to become a place of demand rather than a place of restoration and recovery,” he said.
He said remote working needed to be carefully managed to avoid overload since people lose track of what people’s true roles are if they aren’t in the office.
Organisational support is vital to ensure individuals have a sense of purpose and defined roles and responsibilities, he said. “It has to be very clear what that individual does across the whole organisation.”
This video was recorded at the REBA Employee Wellbeing Congress 2019, held in London on 20 June.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Nuffield Health
Nuffield Health are the UK's largest healthcare charity & the market leader in corporate healthcare.
