Homeworking - assess the risks?
Directors’ duties. You and a couple of your director colleagues often work from home for a couple of mornings or afternoons every week (to say nothing of the weekend and evening phone calls too!). You’ve heard that as employees, you’re supposed to carry out risk assessments on the work areas in your home, e.g. your study, the kitchen table etc. Are they really necessary? The legally correct answer is that each workstation should be risk assessed - just in case one of your colleagues ever tripped over a computer cable, suffered an injury and tried to make a claim. In the absence of a written assessment, your insurers might well deny cover. If you allow your general staff to work from home, then it’s a must.
Do the deed. In reality, if it’s just you working from home, we wouldn’t suggest you lose any sleep over this - the chance of there being any comeback on you is minute. However, if you really want to play it safe, concentrate on the obvious risks such as the workstation, electrical appliances (is your supply able to cope with the load from a PC, printer, etc.) and whether you have children running around.
The next step
For a free homeworking checklist visit http://companydirector.indicator.co.uk (CD 08.02.08).
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