With many employees having worked from home for the past few months, employers are now reassessing the long-term feasibility of remote working. As homeworking was first adopted as an emergency measure out of necessity, not all of the implications were fully considered and we set out below a checklist of the issues to take into account.
Where employers encourage or permit homeworking, it is important to remember that their duties to provide a safe system of work and to safeguard third parties personal data and confidential information apply equally to employees who work remotely. The lack of uniformity in the facilities that employees have at home also presents practical difficulties.
Once employees no longer need to attend a place of work regularly it may be attractive for employees to relocate to or work from abroad or a significant distance from the office. However working overseas presents some unique challenges and risks to the employer.
As a firm, we have offered unlimited homeworking for a number of years as a part of the way that we have attracted and retained talented lawyers to our team. Based on that experience, we set out below some of the “soft” issues which are as important as, if not more important than, the legal issues.
Healthy and Safety
Technology and Information Security
Even where employees work using the employer’s devices which are fully encrypted and have appropriate security protocols, there are a number of issues to consider:
Expenses and Tax
Working Time
Super Remote Working
Overseas Working
Practicalities
Based on our experience the following principles emerged:
- Choice - Not all employees want to or are able to work from home. It is especially difficult for those who do not have a dedicated workspace.
- Equipment - Office quality IT is essential - that means dual monitors, office quality printers, full size keyboards, VOIP phones, fast broadband and the like.
- Exercise - Commuting to the office is often one of the main sources of daily exercise. If this is removed from the daily routine it is important to get out of the house on a daily basis and employers may wish to offer “healthy living” advice/sessions.
- Team - Some way of replicating watercooler moments, team dynamics and mentoring of work are vitally important.
The significant advantages of homeworking in terms of the reduction of real estate cost and commuting expenses also beg the question who should benefit from those savings? We have yet to see employers reduce salaries for those who do not face commuting costs or who are able to benefit from reduced living costs away from the main urban centres but we envisage that that these tensions will drive many of the disputes of tomorrow.
Homeworking may not be a long-term sustainable solution for some employers, teams and individuals. There is certainly some empirical evidence that early adopters of homeworking have rolled back on their approach. Employers should ideally adopt a formal homeworking policy to set out their approach to the issues set out above.