The number of people working from home has been rising steadily over the last five years. It’s estimated the UK has over 4 million home workers, representing ~12% of the UK’s 32.6 million workforce; a third of home workers being employees.

The benefits of homeworking are well documented, including increased productivity, lower travel costs and reduced overheads. However, as homeworking is expected to become a long-term or permanent arrangement for many more employees post Coronavirus (Covid-19), this brings new challenges for employers, particularly when managing health and safety.

What do I need to do?

Employers have a legal duty to protect the health and safety of all workers, including those working from home and they need to ensure they stay on the right side of the law. Employers are required to consider the type of work activities carried out, whether they can be done safely and what, if any, control measures are needed to protect their employees. Carrying out a homeworking risk assessment for each home worker will provide employers with the information needed to identify any health and safety risks. It’s the responsibility of employers to ensure this is done where homeworking is intended to be a long-term or permanent arrangement.

What is a homeworking risk assessment?

A homeworking risk assessment is designed to assess whether the home workplace is suitable and to enable the employer and the home worker to identify and address, as far as is reasonably practicable, any health and safety risks identified.

What should a homeworking risk assessment include?

A homeworking risk assessment should consider the following:

Employers should ensure that homeworking risk assessments are reviewed periodically.

Employees are responsible for informing their employer if any of the homeworking measures implemented are inadequate and/or they have any concerns in relation to their health and safety in the home.

Further information & support
IOSH have produced a handy guidance document with a useful homeworking checklist which can be found here.

Our team of experienced consultants can also offer further guidance and support on your legal duties. If you have a question about managing health & safety compliance, contact us.