So your company has decided that over the course of the Olympics period, it will allow staff to work from home.
Great news – the business carries on as normal and employees don’t have to suffer the hassle of commuting.
But it’s not just a simple case of plugging in a laptop. There are things that must be taken care of before this scenario can take place, even on a temporary basis.
Under employment legislation, working from home is a practical option and neither employment rights nor individual terms and conditions – other than location – should be affected.
This means that employers must afford the same rights to homeworkers as to any other employee and treat them in the same way. But there are also additional operational and health and safety considerations that have to be taken into account:
Health and safety at home
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 places duties on employers to protect the health, safety and welfare of all of their employees, regardless of where they work.
As a result, if your staff members are allowed to work from home during the Olympics, you will not be responsible for the upkeep of the fabric of those workplaces. You will be responsible for ensuring that it is suitable for such work to be carried out safely, however. Therefore, it is important to:
- Undertake a risk assessment. There are two options here – you can choose to have a qualified person visit employees’ homes to inspect them before they start working there or simply issue employees with a basic “self-assessment” form to complete themselves. But if any of your personnel are pregnant, a specific assessment of the risks that they may face should also be carried out. This assessment will normally only cover the work area rather than the entire premises
- Ensure that homeworkers know that they should take regular breaks and must adhere to the Working Time Regulations
- Assess any equipment that will be used for work purposes, including electrical kit, in order to ensure that it is safe and suitable for use. Portable electrical equipment should be subject to portable appliance testing unless it is new.
- Provide adequate first aid arrangements and a means of reporting any work-related accidents in each individual’s home. Accidents should be investigated by a competent person
- Ensure that employees understand that they have a responsibility both for their own health and safety as well as anyone else who may be affected by their work. This includes a duty to report all faults or hazards that may put them, or others, at risk.
It is really important that these steps are followed as health and safety inspectors have the right to visit homeworkers on site and investigate any complaints about working conditions or arrangements – even if homeworking is only a temporary measure.
Also ensure that the company’s liability insurance is extended to cover employees’ homes for the entire period that they work from there.
2. Facilities and equipment
Because homeworkers experience significantly reduced face-to face contact with their line managers, IT becomes key to communication and in managing and delivering work.
As a result, not only must people be able to access internal documents easily for reference purposes, but consideration must also be given to how equipment will be fixed if it breaks down and how accessible help and technical support will be.
Arrangements likewise need to be made to ensure that suitable facilities and equipment are installed and thought should be given to how they are to be paid for.
But employees should also check with their landlord or mortgage lender as to whether they are permitted to use their home for work purposes. They should likewise ensure that they do not become liable to pay business rates or that their domestic insurance policies will not become invalidated.
By the same token, it is important to establish that the company employers’ liability insurance policy covers incidents that occur in homeworkers’ place of residence.
3. Security matters
If staff members are alone at home, it may be necessary to consider their security. For example, you could install a chain on their front door, if required. Although most people keep their own homes secure, it is a good idea to check the situation out as employers are responsible for employees’ safety while they are working.
But security should also be taken into consideration when workers are not at home as insurance claims may be rejected if safety precautions are deemed to be inadequate.
Moreover, because homeworkers are likely to use information that belongs to their employer, it must be made clear that family members are not allowed to access that data. Information held on computers should be subject to protection by passwords that are changed regularly, while confidential documents should be shredded.
4. Remote management
The introduction of homeworking, even for short periods such as during the Olympics, will present new challenges for line managers. Of particular concern will be how to supervise homeworkers and ensure that productivity remains high.
However, a planned and methodical approach can make the process simpler for both parties. Therefore, it is important for HR professionals to encourage managers to:
Come up with measurable, time-defined objectives and set up regular opportunities for feedback. For example, make it clear that homeworkers are expected to complete a certain number of tasks each week and set aside a specific time on a Monday morning, for example, to discuss the previous week’s workload and plan the coming week’s activity.
Not take communication for granted. Ensure that homeworkers are on email distribution lists for all of the projects that they are working on. Regular team meetings should still take place on a regular basis, but can be undertaken via conference or video calls rather than face-to-face.
Remember that homeworking may be a new experience for some employees and they may feel isolated. So try to tune in to how they are feeling in order to ensure that the change does not have an adverse impact.
After the Games have finished, you could find that working from home is a real winner for your staff and the business and you may even consider making it a permanent arrangement. However, this may not be the case and steps should be taken in advance in order to avoid contractual problems later.
As a result, employers should ensure from the outset that their documentation stipulates the temporary nature of the arrangement for a defined reason or period of time, at the end of which things revert to previous contractual terms. It should also be signed by both parties.
Carol Smith is a senior employment consultant at HR and legal services provider, Croner.
One Response
Homeworking = business as usual or not?
A lot of good advice in this article – however, pretty much the same considerations apply for all staff who who work off site, whether at home or not.
There is a danger of coming up with a series of policies and guidelines that are way over the top, though. That tends to happen when – as the article seems to envisage – homeworking is seen as something a tad bizarre while working in the office is the default norm. Should it be?
With modern technologies, flexible working practices and modern management techniques the default position ought to be that people should work wherever and whenever is best to get the work done – and have the autonomy to make the choice, subject to the needs of the business.
When people start to work on a ‘flexibility as normal ‘basis, the discussions around homeworking, H&S, team communications etc become framed in a different way altogether.
There’s more on this in the Smart Working Handbook – http://www.flexibility.co.uk/smartworkhandbook