Protecting your company if you use telework
OCTOBER 8, 2011 @ 10:39AM | JULIE TAPPERO
The benefits and cost-savings of allowing employees to work from home have received much attention — it cuts down on commuting expenses for staff as well as overhead within your own office, and provides your employees with morale-boosting work-life flexibility. In my own company, we’ve allowed several employees to telecommute for a variety of reasons — physical disability, an ailing spouse who couldn’t be left alone, a new baby, a severe allergy to fragrances. In all of these instances, we were very pleased with the success of our work-from-home arrangements. But telecommuting also comes with risks — chief among them, security issues and liability issues, on top of the issues that naturally crop up when managing someone who isn’t physically in the same location as you.
One recent case, Sandberg v. JC Penny Co., in particular caught my attention. A woman who primarily worked out of her home as a custom decorator and saleswoman of bedding and window treatments claimed that when she went into her garage to retrieve some fabric samples, she tripped over her dog and fractured her wrist. Initially, a Workers’ Compensation Board in Oregon denied her claim for workers’ compensation benefits, but this ruling was reversed by an appeals court. She argued that because she was required by her employer to work out of her home, hazards within her home automatically qualified as work environment hazards. Now that her case has been sent back to the Workers’ Compensation Board, it appears she has a strong chance of winning.
Some of the benefits of allowing employees to telework lose their appeal when weighed against the fact that employers lack the control over employees’ environments and activities that they have when people work in-office. It is clear that risk management is an extremely important element of any successful telework set-up. Telecommuting truly is an excellent option for companies and their employees, but only if a business takes the proper steps to protect itself.
If possible, it’s best to only allow employees you know well and who have an established history at your company to work from home. After all, trust is a huge component of any telecommuting set-up. You must trust your employee to maintain a safe office environment, to complete tasks unsupervised, and to accurately report their hours. While there are obviously measures you can take to ensure that these things happen, you’ll protect yourself from potential fraud or other problems if you only offer this privilege to staff who’ve proven you can rely on them. Additionally, if you allow hourly workers to telecommute, make sure you have a program in place that they can log into while working to track all of their time, to prevent fraudulent overtime and hours claims.
It’s not uncommon for companies to offer a telework option only to long-term or high-performing employees. Keep in mind, though, that if this is the case, due to the Americans with Disabilities Act, you may have to provide this option to workers who do not meet the long-term/high-performing criteria, if they are disabled and request accommodation.
It is critically important that an employee’s home work space is located in a safe, clean, controlled environment. You should be directly involved in selecting the space where a telecommuting employee will work, and in setting up that area so it is as ergonomically correct and safe as your normal office space. It should be well-lit and ventilated, large enough to comfortably accommodate your employee and any equipment they will be using, and free of clutter and physical obstructions. It should have enough electrical outlets to safely power all of the equipment they need to work, and all wires and electrical cords must be kept secured and out of the way. Once the workspace has been set up, thoroughly document it with photos.
As with almost all employment-related issues, clear policies and guidelines are your best protection. You should have a detailed and very clear outline of your expectations for telecommuting employees, and guidelines that address any potential safety issues — all in writing. Employees who work from home should be required to sign these documents to indicate that they understand and will follow your safety and security requirements. This agreement should state that home workers will be covered by workers’ compensation laws only if they are injured during the course of performing their job duties. As an additional step, you should periodically reassess your telecommuting employees’ work spaces (and document your assessments, preferably with photos) to ensure that they continue to meet your safety requirements.
Some companies go so far as to make telecommuting employees sign an agreement that they will not allow children, family members and pets in their home workspace. Creating a policy of this type is a very good idea, as it further reduces risk of injury, as well as security risks — which we’ll address next.
Technological security risks are a major concern when you allow an employee to work outside of your normal office space. Protecting the privacy and integrity of company data and networks is a high priority when employees are working outside of the office.
For starters, you should always have a detailed acceptable use policy regarding the use of computers, company data and online media, whether or not you have employees who work from home. If you do have home workers, this becomes even more important. Your staff needs to sign this policy, and it is important to update it yearly, or whenever you implement new technology, or new ways of using technology.
You should provide telecommuting employees with company-issued equipment, rather than having them use their own computers or personal technology for work. Have an IT expert ensure that their network is properly secured, and their machine is protected by firewalls, antivirus software, failed log-on lockout settings, etc. If your company blocks employees from accessing certain sites from work, block those sites on your telecommuting employees’ work machines too. Additionally, telecommuting employees should not be set up as administrators on their work computers, to prevent them from installing non-work related programs or otherwise harming the machine. Instead, have your IT staff remotely handle updates or changes.
If you’re providing employees with laptops, you may also want your policy to prohibit the use of that equipment in unsecured environments, such as wireless networks available at public locations like coffee shops (unless that interferes with the work they need to perform).
According to data released by the Nemertes Research Group in 2009, as many as 71 percent of U.S. companies offer full-time or part-time telecommuting options to their employees. As the pressure of an uncertain and struggling economy continues to bear down on us for the foreseeable future, the flexibility and cost-savings offered by telecommuting will ensure it remains an appealing option for businesses to pursue. My own experiences with providing work-from-home arrangements in my company were all extremely positive. But part of the reason that was the case is that we made sure to implement all of the measures necessary to protect ourselves and ensure the safety of our employees and data. The chances are high that if you do the same, you’ll enjoy an equally positive experience!
(Editor’s Note: Julie Tappero is the President and owner of West Sound Workforce, a professional staffing and recruiting company based in Poulsbo and Gig Harbor. She can be reached at julie@westsoundworkforce.com. View her LinkedIn profile atwww.linkedin.com/in/jtappero. The recommendations and opinions provided are based on general human resource management fundamentals, practices and principles, and are not legal opinions, advice, or guaranteed outcomes. Consult with your legal counsel when addressing legal concerns related to human resource issues and legal contracts.)
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