Working from home: employer’s health and safety obligations

Working from home creates health and safety obligations for employers much in the same as when employees are based in an office. This insight will outline some of the risks and obligations employers must consider in relation to home-based working for its employees.

This note takes into consideration the most up to date guidance published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). 

Working from Home

The ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic have been wide-ranging, impacting our day to day lives in a multitude of ways. This impact has also particularly been felt across most sectors in forcing companies to enable their workforce to set-up and work remotely from home. While there are obvious advantages to remote working for employer and employee alike in the current pandemic, it also raises significant health and safety challenges for employers. Policies and procedures must be implemented to ensure employers do not fall foul of health and safety laws and end up on the wrong side of enforcement or voided employee liability insurance arrangements  

Risk Assessments

It is incumbent on employers to consider risks for employees and this includes when they are working from home. The IOSH states that the main risk assessment areas for home working should include:

• Work-environment;
• Work equipment;
• Mental wellbeing;
• Travelling;
• Working alone; and 
• Fire.

This is of course only an indicative list; the full range of risks and therefore risk assessments will depend on the nature of the business and any other relevant circumstances. 

Key actions an employer can take

• Create simplified employee-friendly checklists (that can be circulated and easily accessed);
• Where there are concerns about an employee’s home-workstation, suggest obtaining a plan/photo of it in order to make a fully informed evaluation;
• Consult the specialised advice which is available on the HSE and IOSH websites (links to both are at the bottom of this Insight).

Mental Health

Home-life and work-life colliding in the same environment can introduce new avenues of stress that are uncommon for large parts of the workforce. Homeschooling in the Coronavirus pandemic will create tensions that are not ordinarily there, as well as other household members working from home at the same time. Some employees may struggle not to conflate their personal and professional time, while others may find it difficult to work without the opportunity to socialise and collaborate with colleagues. 

Key actions an employer can take

• Provide employees with training and advice on how to maintain a healthy balance between home working and personal relaxation time;
• Organise regular department/one-to-one meetings as appropriate to ensure employees feel supported and are not left isolated;
• Ensure any intranet (or an equivalent hub) is easily accessible and kept up to date with regular information notes on mental health awareness and support;
• Offer and encourage non-work social interactions, such as virtual coffee meetups, to keep morale high and keep colleagues socially connected to one another.