Long-Term Home Working Guide
As the world comes to terms with living under the shadow of COVID-19, many organisations are deciding to invest in home-working for the long term.
COVID-19: Longer-term homeworking: tips for employers
As the world comes to terms with living under the shadow of COVID-19, many organisations are deciding to invest in home-working for the long term. Employers no longer see this as a ‘temporary measure’. The following outlines a guide for employers to consider:
Employee Review
Continued home-working opportunities is a great time to review team feedback and gain perspective for the business through your remote working employees:
- What worked? What didn’t work?
- Were there roles that couldn’t be moved to homeworking? With more planning could this be achieved in the event of a second lockdown.
- How did you communicate with your homeworkers? What technology or equipment could help you in the long-term?
- Have people been willing to work differently, more flexibly, more efficiently?
- Have your people picked up any new ways of working at home that you would like to embed into business as usual?
- Did home-working lead to cost savings?
Risk Assessments
When home-working is only a short-term measure, comprehensive risk assessments of the working environment are not always carried out. Points to consider (but not limited to):
- Your employee’s ability to work safely. Do they have a suitable workstation and equipment?
- The environment each individual is working in – are temperature, lighting and noise levels satisfactory?
- A Display Screen Equipment: DSE risk assessment – computer, laptop, mobile devices – must be completed.
- A thorough cyber review of home working practises is required with suitable and relevant mitigation measures in place.
Updated Paperwork
Update employment contracts, amending clauses such as ‘place of work’ if home-working becomes a permanent change. Points to consider:
- Are you prepared for an influx of flexible working requests or requests to work from home permanently as a result of home-working measures?
- Ensure a clear home working / remote worker policy is available detailing company rules whilst at home, IT policy, communication strategy, reviews, risk assessments, HSE considerations and data security etc?
- Temporary home-working changes can be addressed in a letter to the relevant employees.
Wellbeing and Communication
As an employer, you have a duty of care to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of your employees.
- Have you been communicating regularly with your team to make sure they are not experiencing any challenges arising from home-working?
- How are you communicating with people? Do you need to schedule regular catchups using video software? Do weekly team meetings need to be put in place?
- What support do you have in place for employees who have a query – such as IT problems?
- Are there any health issues – including mental health issues – that might be impacted by homeworking and do you know how to make adjustments for them?
- Consider regular wellbeing checks or virtual activities to boost communication and engagement.
If you are looking for ways to support your employees, whilst aiding your organisation’s ability to conduct business remotely visit www.locate.global.