Analysis of Ergonomic Risk Factors on Workspace Design for Work from Home (WFH) Initiative

Abstract

There has been an introduction of working from home concept all over the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2019.  Many companies were forced by the government to close their premises during the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO). Consequently, IT companies had to implement work from home concept among their IT employees(Nurhamiza, 2020). Even after MCO ended, this work from home concept was still retained as it helped the management to save electricity and rental cost(Anderson, 2009). At the same time, IT companies were required to maintain their employees’ safety and health in terms of ergonomic risk factors even when they work from home. Data collection for this research was carried out by conducting interviews and adapted self-administered questionnaires. Then, the data were used to propose the most significant ergonomic factors which affected workspace design at home. This helped to achieve all three main objectives in this research. Findings of this research showed that an employee must consider the main ergonomic factors such as furniture, interaction between supervisor and employee, and motivation factors when designing a workspace at home, whereas the rest five factors were optional. Finally, this research findings can help to contribute in designing a workspace with minimal ergonomic effects at home among IT or software employees without affecting employee’s safety and healthcare.