POLICIES & RECORDS - 31.01.2005

Creating some safeguards

Home sweet home?

You may allow some staff to work from home. If so, you’ll need to ensure that certain health and safety standards are met. Failure to do so could lead to a claim against you in the event of an accident. In order to reduce these risks, you should introduce some ground rules for your employees. So why not use our homeworking policy to help you?

Homeworking overview

The first two sections provide a suggested stance to take on homeworking requests. It begins with a general statement which says that all requests will be dealt with by completing a questionnaire first. This allows you to determine if an employee’s home can meet minimum health and safety standards. If not, it sets out your right to refuse any request. The second section sets out the legal position; not only in terms of health and safety, but in relation to employment law-related flexible working rights.

Note. You may be able to use health and safety issues as an excuse to fend off any awkward flexible working requests from those with small children.

What’s a homeworker?

The third section defines a homeworker. It’s included so as to distinguish between someone with a formal agreement to work from home, as opposed to an employee who may only do so occasionally, e.g. to meet a deadline. It’s not worth making home assessments for ad hoc homeworking, so the policy clearly differentiates between the two.

Homeworking criteria

A homeworking criteria is suggested in the fourth section. As well as helping you comply with your legal duties, it acts as a filter to help you restrict the number of homeworkers to a level that suits you. The easiest way of doing this is to use a checklist to cover key areas. These include requiring sufficient space to work in safely and the maintenance of basic fire safety precautions, e.g. a smoke alarm and ensuring that there’s a safe means of escape - so no use of unconverted attics with poor access!

Tip. Issue the checklist to all those wanting to work from home. Also ensure that each employee signs it to confirm that their home meets your health and safety criteria.

For a copy of our homeworking checklist, visithttp://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk(HS 03.09.05).

Employees’ duties

The fifth section concerns employees’ duties whilst working from home. These include agreeing to work in a suitable and safe area and to take care of any equipment provided, e.g. legally compliant chairs. It also refers to related issues of security and the need to maintain adequate insurance cover.

Tip. In order to minimise your risks even further, use the policy to require employees to continually maintain their homes to the previously agreed health and safety standards.

See the free model policy included with this adviceletter for more detail.