Homeworking

Homeworking presents a major shift in working practices and has become much more common in the last 5-10 years, due in part to Covid but also the availability of technical platforms and solutions to enable team collaboration at a distance.

Some employees are hired as fully “remote” workers whereas, for others, homeworking is an option extended informally under the employer’s agile working policy. It can also be an agreed contractual variation (e.g. pursuant to a flexible working request) and/or a reasonable adjustment in the case of an employee with a disability where the impact of that disability can be relieved by allowing them to work from home part or all of the time.

Except where the job role is not suitable, most organisations now permit a degree of homeworking, which comes with both benefits and challenges for employers. On the plus side, it can allow employees to get into deeper focus work that a busier office environment may not lend itself to. Flexibility is also a much-valued benefit to employees as it generally enables them to achieve a better work/life balance by saving time spent on the daily commute.

Is it a right or a discretionary benefit?

It is essential to be clear with an employee about the basis on which working from home is allowed. Is it a contractual right or, alternatively, a discretionary policy that can be amended or withdrawn? Are you trialling a working from home arrangement before it is considered a benefit “hardwired” into the employee’s terms and conditions of employment? The requirements relating to written particulars of employment include the need to state the place of work, so any home working agreed as part of the employee’s regular arrangements needs to be acknowledged and recorded to the extent it is, or becomes, part of their contractual terms.

Besides the above, there are a number of other considerations when it comes to homeworking.

Health & safety

Employers owe duties from a health & safety perspective even where an employee works from home. These include the need to carry out risks assessments (i.e. check some basic information about the employee’s working set up and conditions) and ensure that they have suitable equipment to carry out their tasks. Potentially, this may involve the employer supplying some of the working “kit” or covering the costs of the employee sourcing items. Particular care should be taken when it comes to electrical safety. Ergonomics assessments are also routine and advisable for desk-based roles. In addition, some of the usual checks and recommendations including eye tests, taking regular breaks from the screen and moving around at intervals can be emphasised to address the more typical risks associated with spending extended periods sat down in front of a computer.

 Wellbeing and communication challenges

At its best, working from home can allow greater flexibility and enable employees to manage their time optimally. However, extended periods of working from home can affect team dynamics and may even be isolating for the employee(s) in question. Homeworking can also lead to communication challenges that would not be so obvious (or significant) when working in an office. To address this, employers can instigate a regular contact “protocol” e.g. daily or weekly team check-ins. They can also stipulate a minimum number of office-based days (i.e. hybrid working, to try and achieve the best of both options). Additionally, the use of virtual workspaces and collaboration platforms can help keep productivity on track and the communication flowing.

Performance management

Having employees who work from home also requires a potential shift in performance management focus and approach. Instead of perception of effort based on attendance, outcome led assessment criteria comprise the more logical metrics and enable a fairer valuation of an employee’s contribution and productivity. Sometimes, this may require a new policy (for consistency across the business) and/or training for line managers. In any event, expectations need to be set and revisited periodically to ensure that the needs of the business and the way targets and KPIs are communicated to employees are aligned.

Confidentiality

A further practical impact of having (to any extent) a home-based workforce is how data protection and confidentiality aspects are managed. Just because employees work in a less formal setting at home (often occupied by other family members) does not mean that employers are held to any lesser standards of confidentiality in terms of clients’ affairs, nor that any record keeping protocols can be relaxed. In this regard, it would be as well for the employer to check whether, for instance, telephone calls can be overheard and to provide some means of secure destruction of documents, if needed (the level of measures required will depend on the sensitivity of the business/client information handled).

Checklist

Overall, homeworking can have a number of benefits and advantages, but it is not as simple as “just” a change in working location. Things to think about include:

• Considering and documenting the basis of the “permission”/right to work from home – are changes to the written particulars required? Is a homeworking policy needed?
• Conducting health & safety audits and ergonomic assessments of the home work station and providing any necessary equipment to enable the employee to work healthily/effectively.
• Putting in place contact protocols and leveraging the use of office systems and online collaboration tools to make home working as effective as possible.
• Carrying out wellbeing checks on employees periodically and making extra efforts to keep teams working and communicating well where the default is home working (e.g. this might involve arranging team socials and/or organising regular “town hall” meetings).
• Ensuring managers are equipped and “bought in” to assessing performance based on outputs and providing training where needed to support this approach.
• Considering privacy and confidentiality aspects of home working and whether any related policies (e.g. IT security) or reminders need to be bolstered or refreshed.