Many companies have been forced into homeworking without having time to properly plan or prepare for safe working practices.
This has the potential of putting employees at risk or negatively impacting productivity if this change is not managed effectively.
In the last few months KOS Ergonomics have been inundated with companies looking for guidance on how to manage homeworking and to support our clients in need, I have put together this Employers Guide to Homeworking during Covid-19.
Working from Home
Working from home raises many challenges for both, employers and employees. In your office, employees will have access to an environment that was designed around their requirements and the work performed.For example:
- Space will have been allocated based on task requirements.
- Equipment will have been selected based on compliance with regulations and based on quality and ergonomic standards.
- Environmental hazards relating to light, heat, noise, distraction, will be assessed and managed based on the work, the building and the work population.
All of this will be adapted based on the individual employee requirements. In a home-work environment, we lose control and visibility over many of these factors and hazards. If the change to homeworking is not managed effectively, it increases the risk of negative consequences due to possible additional physical and mental strain put on the employee who is required to work from home. You may have concerns about how best to accommodate colleagues working with pain or prior injuries. Will they be able to manage their discomfort effectively, could their injuries return or worsen, or could their productivity be impacted by their makeshift work surroundings? Do they require further attention when setting up their home workstation and could an ergonomic assessment be done to ease the transition to homeworking for these cases?
With a swift move to a potentially more long-term homeworking scenario these questions are currently being asked by many HR, H&S or Facilities managers around Ireland.
This article wishes to take the employer’s perspective and address the following questions:
How does an employer comply with their legal obligations around managing working from home?
Are there any changes to what is reasonably practicable in light of the Covid-19 pandemic?
What steps can an employer take to manage the homeworking risk while creating a comfortable and productive environment for all employees?
What is the Irish law regarding homeworking?
Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (as amended) an employer has a duty of care to their employees. This includes providing and maintaining a safe workplace, preventing any improper conduct or behaviour likely to put the safety, health and welfare of employees at risk and providing instruction and training to employees on health and safety. The employer needs to:
Carry out a suitable risk assessment of the employee’s homework space when they commence working from home and at periodic intervals throughout their employment.
Provide equipment that is compliant with Schedule 4 Requirements.
Provide training on safe working practice.
The Act is dated and does not give sufficient guidance taking into consideration the increasingly flexible nature of work. Employers require more guidance on how to safely manage the risk. There will not be any change to the Irish Acts or Regulations until there is an updated Directive finalised at a European level. Brexit slowed down progress on this area but there are plans at a European level to address this and a working group has been set up, so hopefully this will be addressed in the near future.
Has there been any changes to the guidance from enforcement bodies in light of the pandemic?
The speed of escalation of the Covid-19 crisis, has required employers to move to home working rapidly. The case can be made that the risk of Covid-19 outbreak to the employee and population is greater than moving staff into a temporary home workspace that has not been fully risk assessed.
The main change is the HSA have issued Covid-19 specific guidance that there will not be the expectation that employers will provide a DSE assessment to every employee during the pandemic. However, this does not reduce the obligation of the employer to appropriately risk assess homeworking on a whole and how employees will be accommodated, with particular attention to vulnerable employees. Within SHWW Act, it boils down to what is reasonably practicable to implement. As time passes, what controls are reasonably practicable increase.
What steps can employers take to manage the homeworking risk?
Risk assess home working as a policy across the organisation and define minimum requirements for a suitable workstation and work environment.
Responsibility for health and safety at work rests with the employer whether or not that work is being done in the employee’s home. In normal circumstances, employers should only open homeworking to employees that have a safe work environment and suitable work equipment prior to the employee starting to work from home. This was not possible for many employers due to the urgency for change with the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this general risk assessment should be done for all employees working from home retrospectively. It is prudent to have a Homeworking Pre-Approval Assessment that is sent to employees as part of the general risk assessment.
The risk assessment will recommend controls and will balance commercial decisions against the health and safety benefits. It will document the rationale of your decision making that demonstrates the thought process in decisions made. The risk assessment must consider safe access to the workspace, suitable light, ventilation and heat, adequate space that allows them to sit/stand without bending or twisting awkwardly and adequate space to accommodate all work materials. The work area should be free of trip hazards and clutter and electrical sockets should be checked for charring, exposed wires and frayed cables. As well as gathering information on the equipment and work environment, it is recommended to ensure all contact details for employees are on file and agree means of contact and emergency contact.
DSE Regulations set out in Schedule 4 a series of specific requirements for the workstation. If your employees only available workstation is sitting on an armchair, or at the dining table with a laptop, notepad in bad lighting, this has now become your workplace and controls should be put in place to reduce the risk.
What steps that need to be taken will depend on what type of work is performed and the demographics of the working population i.e. aging population, young workers, vulnerable employees, employees with health conditions, pregnant employees etc.
Employers also need to ensure that suitable equipment is available to the employee to work from. Note: If the employee already has suitable equipment available in their home, this can be considered for temporary work.
The below guidance should be followed as a minimum requirement when determining suitability of equipment:
- Computer Interface: An employee working on their laptop alone is a breach of the of Regulations under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. A separate mouse and keyboard must be provided, and the working screen should be raised to allow the employee to work with their head naturally balanced over their shoulders.A laptop stand or separate monitor that has been adjusted to a suitable height will help achieve this. Work equipment must be suitable for the work activity. If an employee does design tasks or works on large excel books, a laptop with a small screen alone may not be sufficient for their requirement and a suitable screen would need to be provided.
- Work Desk: There should be a suitable height work surface that allows the employee to work without awkwardly bending. This could be the kitchen table or a homework desk. A kitchen table will generally be 2-4cm higher than a typical office desk, so there is likely to be a requirement for some employees to be provided with a suitable height footrest.
- Work Chair: Under the SHWW Regulations, a suitable work chair must be provided to employees doing prolonged work at display screen equipment. In the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to prioritise and balance life and death decisions against DSE technicalities in the short term. With this in mind, it may be acceptable for employees to temporarily work from a kitchen/dining room chair if the aforementioned suitable environment and equipment are available to the employee. Ergonomic aides like a lumbar support or seat wedge can be added to manage improve comfort and reduce the likelihood of an injury developing. In the short term, employees may be able to cope with a laptop, laptop stand, keyboard and mouse. As the duration increases, employers should work towards providing a workstation that is compliant with Schedule 4 Minimum Requirements by adding a compliant desk and chair set up. However, it would not be acceptable for an employee to do prolonged work on a sofa, bed, coffee table etc. where awkward working positions cannot be avoided.
Training and information on safe working practices.
Employers inform the employee of any specific risks regarding working from home and guide them on how to work safely. A homeworking guidance document should be made available. The employer must provide guidance on safe working practices, how to set up their home workstation and frequency of breaks.
Information should also be provided to employees/managers:
On expectations on means of contact and frequency of contact and reporting expectations. Arranging regular updates via phone, web or email with each employee
How to arrange IT support in the event of technical problems.
It is important to open a feedback loop with employees and it should be detailed when it is important for the employee to contact their employer.
This could be in regard to their health or safety,
Employees must be given regular feedback on their work also.
Encourage employees to maintain contact with colleagues also, as there are psycho-social challenges from working from home. Consider particularly those living alone where their social links have been limited. This has been a particularly challenging time for these employees, and it is important that this is recognised
Provide DSE Assessments to every employee (*exceptions made due to Covid-19 pandemic)
The Act requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment to be performed by a competent person on the home office. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) guide that it is not sufficient to simply do a remote assessment, via phone call or skype call just looking the person’s face, without actually seeing the live environment, how the employee is set up relative to their workstation and how they interact with the workstation and environment. In normal circumstances the assessor would need to travel to the employee’s home. When there are large numbers involved, technology can be used as a tool as part of the assessment to manage this risk. The right technology can be used to provide training, risk rates the employees’ requirements and prioritises high risk employees and streamlines action items to the relevant departments. This training and management system can be used with a specialist ergonomic specialist company like KOS Ergonomics through usage of technology, they can assess the live work environment and view the employee at the workstation.
Note: In normal circumstances, a Homeworking Pre-Approval Assessment (mentioned above) is not in replacement to a DSE assessment, as the employer can’t delegate the responsibility of the risk assessment to the employee. This would not be deemed as appropriate.
The HSA have guided that there will not be the expectation that employers will provide a DSE assessment on every employee who have been forced to homeworking. However, it is important to note, that this does not remove the employer’s obligations to provide suitable equipment.
Managing risk for employees with known physical/medical requirements
With the pandemic, sending a competent assessor to the employee’s home is not appropriate with the current social distancing guidance. However, if there is a foreseeable risk to employees with known medical conditions or other specific requirements, it is recommended that a specific remote risk assessment is performed based on the employee’s requirements
Employees with specific requirements who are not effectively accommodated are putting their health at risk, their ability to work effectively is impacted and their ha
The home-work environment is now going to be the greatest health and safety risk for many of these vulnerable employees. Employers have a duty of care to put in controls to appropriately manage this risk and as time passes, this allows employers to respond, to plan and to risk assess the situation. The argument that it is not reasonably practicable to do so becomes weaker and weaker the more time passes and the longer the potential duration of the exposure to the environment.
Companies should engage with their occupational health advisors to determine the most suitable assessment for the employee’s requirements. Ergonomic specialist companies like KOS Ergonomics can provide remote assessments in these situations using technology to assess the employee requirements, the live work environment and view the employee’s workstation. If an employee has a known physical/medical requirement, (e.g. employees with medical conditions injuries, pregnant employees etc.) and the employer can’t provide them with a suitable workstation and work environment; if this puts the employee at risk, then the employee is unfit to work at this set up.
For employees with specific requirements it is extremely important that there is an efficient feedback loop to accommodate the people who are struggling. There needs to be clear communication channels and these must be communicated to employees and management. Employees should be encouraged to raise any concerns they have around the suitability of their workplace to meet their physical requirements.
Other Employer obligations:
Employers are obliged to record working time information for each employee on a daily basis to include starting and finishing times, rest breaks, daily breaks and weekly breaks.
Managing GDPR data breaches that could arise from a loss of physical data when transporting information between work and home or greater risk due accidental or deliberate leaking personal data. If employees have access to sensitive information, ensuring there are lockable cabinets available to them would be best practice.
Managing performance:
Monitoring employee activities and performance may be more difficult when employees are not in the office. The usage IT systems like web-based phone systems, Customer Relationship Management Systems, computer monitoring systems and online task tracking systems can make this a more transparent and effective system for managing performance.
If homeworking is being considered in the long-term, investing in the right infrastructure is an important factor in its success.
The nature of the current situation is childcare isn’t available for many employees and homes are busier than ever before. Children and pets are not going to be aware or respect working hours, they will be demanding of the employee’s time also. Employer’s should be mindful of these facts of living in crisis and if possible, offer flexibility to employee.
Increase productivity and the bottom line will improve, this most commonly heard saying applies seamlessly to the application of ergonomics to the homework station. It’s important to note, however, that there is more to ergonomics than just improving the physical comfort of employee. Ergonomics is about safely optimising movement. The specifics are that good ergonomic practices improve workplace productivity and employee morale significantly. With the current situation surrounding Covid-19 both productivity and morale have never been at such risk. The fact that ergonomics can reduce costs while improving production is standing evidence of the fact that it can positively impact the bottom line.
Conclusion
Your approach to managing this situation will be based on a number of factors, including the demographics of the working population, the nature of the work, company culture and resources available etc. Different employers will respond differently to these situations and that is their prerogative. Some employers only aim to achieve their bare minimum legal requirements. For those organisations, think of the risks involved and if something goes wrong, the question to ask yourself is; If the judge asked you “Would it have been reasonably practicable to have done more?”, can you honestly answer “No” and can you demonstrate why it was not reasonably practicable to have done more. If this is the case, then you should have nothing to worry about.
For employers, who are more employee focused, have high value employees or perhaps more resources available to them, the focus changes slightly. The goal is about employee performance and satisfaction, as well as protecting their health and looking at legal compliance. For employers luckily enough to be in this situation the question to ask are “Morally, what should we be providing staff who could be working at home for months?” and “How can we make staff comfortable and most productive in this time?”. If you focus your approach on these questions while been mindful of the SHWW Act requirements, you may find many of your staff are more productive from home than in the office.
If you are confused about setting up a home working policy of have questions on working, feel free to get in touch.
What to include in your homeworkers risk assessment?
How to do an effective remote homeworker risk assessment?
How to manage homeworkers with specific requirements?
We’re in a crisis and many of us are facing significant professional and challenges, so need to band together more than ever, so if you need help, drop us an email info@kos.ie, we’re happy to offer free guidance on this to our clients in this time of need. new to you, we’ve been asked 100’s of times before.
Free Expert Homeworkers Guide:
Homeworking unchartered waters, we don’t have a work routine, we have other distractions, we don’t have a dedicated work set up. It’s challenging for all of us., so the KOS Ergonomics team of consultants have put together an Ultimate Homeworkers Guide that addresses how to manage our physical and mental health and performance while working from home.
It includes input from our team, including our performance psychologists, physiotherapists, health scientists, nutritionists and ergonomists, as well as mental health experts. It includes practical advice on how to make DIY home workstations and also guidance that you can share with your staff.
Be safe, from all at KOS Ergonomics!
and then Add to Home Screen.
