Working from home, whether fully remote or as part of a hybrid working policy, is a recognised form of lone working. Whilst home working has many benefits and means lone workers are in a comfortable and familiar environment, it still carries potential risks & challenges for you and your lone workers. Here we discuss the most common challenges your home workers may face and the steps you can take to mitigate them.
Don't forget, if you have home workers or hybrid workers in your organisation you must ensure that your risk assessment covers these roles. For more information about how to conduct a risk assessment for your home workers click here.
Those that don't have social contact through work can feel lonely or isolated. This can lead to feelings of stress or further exacerbate mental health issues such as depression. Your home workers may also be feeling stressed or worried about something else in their life, such as a caring responsibility. This can build up over time and without co-workers or a manager to talk to, it may feel even more difficult to cope with.
To reduce isolation & loneliness amongst your lone workers you should:
As a manager, you must protect your workers from health and safety risks when working on a computer or laptop (often referred to as display screen equipment or DSE) at home. These risks include;
To mitigate the risks posed by using computers or laptops you should carry out a DSE assessment for individual workers. For those that work from both their home and an office, an assessment should be carried out for both. As part of this you will need to consider:
Whilst a home worker's risk of a slip, trip or fall is relatively low, there is always a chance that this could happen. Hybrid workers who travel to another place of work, attend external meetings or visit sites, clients or customers are also at risk of an accident such as these. A slip, trip or fall could happen when a worker moves around or goes up and down stairs. Without anyone with them at home an incident like this is even more serious as there is no one there to help them.
To lessen the risk of a slip, trip or fall it is important to remind your home workers to keep the area they are working in free from clutter and trailing wires or cables. You could also consider investing in a lone worker solution, such as an SOS fob, to ensure your home workers could alert someone if they have fallen and need help.
Many people thrive when working from home, but for some it can leave them feeling disconnected and demotivated. This can be due to one or more of the below:
To avoid your home workers becoming disconnected it is vital that you:
Home working can result in increased work intensity and working longer hours, which may cause feelings of pressure and stress. For some, it also blurs the boundaries between their home life and work life.
To ensure your home workers get a good overall work-life balance, you should;
While working from home offers numerous advantages, it is important to acknowledge and address the potential risks associated with this type of work. By understanding the challenges including isolation, physical strain, accidents, disconnection, and poor work-life balance, you can take proactive steps to mitigate these risks and support your home workers.