We’re in the midst of a major cultural shift to working from home. Tech companies like Twitter and Square are giving their employees the options to work from home permanently and many industries are being forced to adapt. 

Working from home can be a great option to extend to your employees (if you haven’t already). It has even been proven that there is a correlation between flexible working arrangements, improved productivity and profit generation.

While there is a lot of cool productivity and collaboration software you can use to support your employees when they’re working from home, it’s also important to make sure you have the right legal setup. 

As an employer, it is important to know that wherever your employees are (whether it be working from home or the office), you still have the responsibility to make sure they are healthy, safe and fit for work. This is not only for the employee themselves: health and safety rules also apply to those affected by their working at home. 

In this article, we’ll run through the key legal issues you need to be aware of when your employees are working from home. 

Safety And Equipment 

Generally speaking, before you instate a work from home arrangement, an employer should make sure that their employees’ home work areas meet industry standards. 

This could involve a safety assessment of their work area before they work from home. 

Depending on the nature of their work, it is also important to make sure your employees are appropriately set up. This means making sure that they have the technological capabilities and equipment necessary to complete their tasks. 

In fact, employers providing their employees with the tools to carry out their work is one of the considerations taken into account when distinguishing between employees and contractors. This could include things such as computers, phones, internet access, software and monitors. 

Before working from home arrangements begin, you should have these sorts of discussions with your employee. However, if you’ve had to make a quick transition to remote working, your business may not have had the chance to do this. In this case, if your employee has to supply any of their own equipment to carry out their work, there may be tax implications.  

What Legal Agreements Do I Need When Employees Are Working From Home? 

As a business owner, if you’re moving to a flexible workplace and allowing your employees to work from home, it is important to reflect this in writing. 

There are many options you can instate to make both you and your employees’ obligations clear. This will be useful to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings down the track. 

A comprehensive Work From Home Policy is a particularly good way of maintaining home office compliance. 

This policy can include an annual examination of their office space, where employees can use a checklist to ensure their workstation is sound. The policy should also mandate that employees report any health and safety concerns if they arise during the course of home working. 

Do I Need To Make Any Changes To My Existing Employment Agreements?  

When working from home, it is important to make sure that you and your employees are acting in good faith regarding their working arrangements.

If you do not have employment agreements with your employees, now is the time to make sure you get one in place. This will ensure that both parties are aware of their rights and obligations.

If you have existing employment agreements in place, it is important that any changes to the employees job description, rate of pay or hours of work are reflected in writing. 

How Can I Make Sure My Confidential Information Is Protected?

Encryption 

It is good practice to ensure that any confidential information is encrypted and as secure as possible, especially if your employee is working from home in the presence of other people (like a partner or housemates). 

It can also be a good idea to set up your employee with adequate safety measures to log on privately and access two factor authentication. This will ensure that if their device ends up in the wrong hands, your business’ data will be inaccessible. 

Information Security Policies

If your business deals with sensitive data, having an information security policy may also be useful. 

These policies ensure that all users within the business’ domain are bound to abide by rules regarding the security of data. This can cover software, hardware and information access, data or access control. 

In some cases, if the information includes extremely sensitive and private client information, then your client’s service agreement might mandate that clients sign waivers to allow companies to work remotely. 

Other Things To Consider 

While the legal considerations of allowing employees to work from home are important, there are also a number of other things to think about. These include: 

  • Work/life Balance: Having a work/life balance is crucial as it not only impacts the quality of work, but also reduces staff turnover.
  • Insurance Policy: While employees are working from home, employers are still responsible for any injury that occurs during the course of their work. It is important to make sure that insurance policies are up to date for businesses.
  • Collaboration and Communication: Managing a remote workforce can be a big challenge for businesses. To combat this, there are some useful collaboration tools such as Monday, Asana or Slack, to name a few. 

Need Help?

While working from home may be a new area to navigate, particularly for more traditional industries, it is important to make sure that you’re still meeting your legal obligations as an employer. 

If you’re looking for help to ensure your policies and agreements are up to date feel free to get in touch! Our friendly team can be reached at [email protected].

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