Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems

It doesn’t matter if your employees work from home all of the time, some of the time or just occasionally, you have the same Health and Safety Responsibilities for Home Workers as you do Office Workers.

We naturally assume that the risks while working at home are lower, and in most cases that proves true but that does not reduce your responsibility to assess those risks and act accordingly under your duty of care.

There are some key areas you should consider as part of your Risk Assessment for Home Workers.

• Display Screen Equipment Risk Assessments – the requirements are still the same, you would not allow an employee in your office to sit in a casual chair working with a laptop ‘on their lap’ for hours on end as it would cause all sorts of postural issues, the same applies to home working. A suitable working location with screen at the correct level, a separate keyboard & mouse and an appropriate work chair are just the basics. Have the employee complete a DSE RA and submit it with a photograph of their workstation to complete your due diligence.
• The Working Environment. As with the office, Electrical Safety, Slips & Trips, Emergencies and Lone Working etc are still Risks and appropriate controls need to be put in place. A simple questionnaire can form the basis of a Risk Assessment.
• Mental Health & Stress. Home Workers can become lonely and miss the interaction with their colleagues, not only can this lead to feeling of depression and the exacerbation of existing conditions but also it can cause Stress with the loss of their ‘sounding board’ or support network. Talk openly with your employees about these issues, keep them updated with what’s going on with the business as a whole and keep in touch regularly with calls or better still a regular full team video meeting.

If you would like help setting up Display Screen Equipment Risk Assessments (DSERA’s) which can be used for Home Workers,  providing Training Courses covering Mental Health Awareness and Mental Health First Aid or for any advice regarding Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems then contact us on 07563 492268 or marc@anzensafety.co.uk

Safety is not expensive, its priceless.