Working from home – the pros, cons, and risks

Tom Smyth from Tom Smyth & Associates advises readers on the key considerations they should keep in mind when offering remote working options to their employees.

The Health & Safety Authority say on their website, www.hsa.ie/eng/Topics/Hazards/Lone_Workers/, that the responsibility for the safety and health of employees who work from home covers the provision of supervision, education and training and the implementation of sufficient control measures to protect the homeworker.

Also that the employer should accept liability for accident or injury of a homeworker as for any other employee.

We ask our HR advisor and regular contributor, Tom Smyth, www.tsaconsultants.ie, to give you some points to consider.

With the economy steadily edging towards full employment and with the modern workforce dealing with the demands of living in Ireland in 2020, employers are exploring ways of retaining talent and offering attractive conditions to their team. Whether it’s avoiding the morning and evening tailbacks or affording more quality time with family, working from home can often be beneficial to both employer and employee in terms of increased productivity and work-life balance. The concept of working from home isn’t for every company, however, and this article challenges employers to fully stress test the concept of home working before simply agreeing to it.

Key points to consider include;

Health & Safety:

The area you allow an employee work in from home becomes an extension of the workplace and is therefore subject to workplace controls and policies. In the litigious world we live in, the onus will always be on the employer to ensure that they protect the employee. The employer should visit the workspace being considered and assess risks such as heat, light,
noise, manual handling, power, security etc.

In our experience the main areas of concern are as follows:

• Ergonomics – is the space and its design suitable for the work being carried out?
• Safety – If something happens whilst working from home how will anyone know? Do you have a check in system? Does the employee have any medical condition that would increase the danger of working from home (epilepsy, heart condition, diabetes, etc.)?

Overall, manual handling and slips, trips & falls remain the top two offenders, regardless of work location, so be mindful of this when assessing risk.

HR:

Working from home is still work, so all the legalities surrounding it remain the same. An employee’s working and break times will need to be tracked. There are confidentiality and GDPR considerations for both remote access to the business IT systems and any hard copy files that are taken home. Is there adequate mobile phone and internet coverage to ensure connectivity to their team from the domestic setting? Can the employer be sure that work is not being done while pets and children are being minded or while domestic chores are being completed? A distracted employee is more likely to make mistakes or produce work of a lesser quality.

Policy:

We would recommend that any employer considering allowing ‘working from home’ first prepares a clear policy around this. This should be used as the benchmark for any agreement with an employee. By doing this, and by addressing the queries and points raised in this article, the employer avoids individual, ‘loose’ agreements which can give rise to claims of discrimination or ‘custom and practice’.

Should any HAI members have any follow up queries, we at Tom Smyth & Associates are happy to discuss.