Left-handed employees face practical problems at work suggests research ⁰

The days of forcing left handed children to write with their right hand may be long over but according to new research launched today to mark the UK’s ‘National Left-Handers Day’, a large proportion of UK employees experience problems at work because they are left-handed. According to a survey by CV-Library 12 percent of the working population is left-handed, which equates to over 4.5 million staff. Of those, 1 in 5 (over 852,000 people) face practical problems at work including conducting simple tasks, such as having to use right-handed scissors that don’t cut, to persevering with entire workstations being laid out incorrectly, making them difficult and uncomfortable to use. Yet the majority of UK employers (96.7 percent) don’t ask new employees if they are left-handed and only a quarter of businesses (25.4 percent) provide left-handed staff with specialist office equipment and stationery.

The survey, which was conducted amongst over 2,400 UK employees found that 82.4 percent of staff believe that employers have a duty of care to ensure left-handed staff have adequate tools in the workplace such as supplying especially designed left-handed stationery, keyboards, scissors and other computer accessories.

Lee Biggins, founder and Managing Director of CV-Library, said: “Businesses need to provide staff with the right tools to do the job. Most professional organisations should already be conducting work station assessments for all of their employees and this should form a simple part of that process.

“It is within a company’s interest to quickly identify an employee’s needs and provide suitable equipment so they are able to work effectively. This will not only improve productivity, but also makes each team member feel valued and cared for, which is important in the workplace.”