WORKING FROM HOME: PRACTICAL THING TO CONSIDER
- Have you a room at home you can work in without disturbance?
- Have you arranged childcare so that you have time enough to work from home undisturbed or distracted?
- Have you access to a PC? A phone/fax? The Internet? These will probably be part of the deal you negotiate to work from home – and your employer is not likely to be legal obliged to supply any of it or indeed the costs for setting it all up for you. If you do not have this equipment available to you for working from home, you will need to prove to the employer the cost for setting you up at home is not dissimilar to the costs for setting you up in the office. (Not an easy one to negotiate!)
- One of the first problems raised about working from home is the security of documents taken out of the office. Check with other part-time colleagues to see if there is any protocol (signing out) you should follow. Invest in a brief case or bag specifically for the carrying of office documentation. Make it work like a portable office.
- Can your work actually be done at home? Do you need to use certain machines in the office or access informaiton stored at the office which is not accessible off-site?
- Does your work need to be done within fixed agreed hours or will it be flexible? Can you cater to both methods?
- Will your employer cover the cost of your phone calls and Internet access? Perhaps you will need to work at least a day in the office to cover this aspect of the job – making calls from the office.
- Is it safe to work from home? Here you would need to check with HR about carrying out a risk assessment but below is the five steps you will need to take:
There are five steps that employers need to take to make sure that a proper risk assessment is done:
- Identify any hazards
- Decide who might be harmed and how
- Assess the risks and take appropriate action to remove them or reduce them as far as possible
- Record the findings
- Check the risks from time to time and take further steps if needed
See the HSE guidance for employers and employees on health and safety issues involved in homework, including the need for a risk assessment (116kb)) for further information)
If you get the GREEN light on all the above, happy Home Working!