Employers Should Spell Out Telecommuting Policy to Control Exposure
More and more employers are offering various levels of telecommuting in order to retain existing staff and attract future qualified employees. What many employers haven’t considered is that even without a formal telecommuting policy in place, odds are they already have employees who are telecommuting.
Do a firm’s employees ever work nights or weekends from home and communicate via e-mail? Do they take their laptops or blackberries on vacation and work remotely, or call work from their cell phones during the day?
All of these activities qualify as telecommuting according to a commonly recognized definition: “Working at home or at an alternate location and communicating with the usual place of work using electronic or other means instead of physically traveling to a more distant work site.”
An employer could be liable
While the law does not currently address how workers’ compensation should apply to the millions of workers who telecommute, it is safe to assume that an employer could be liable for a telecommuting employee’s death or injury during working hours.
Here’s an example from 1953 involving a work-at-home bookkeeper where this proved to be the case:
The insurer stipulated that the bookkeeper’s home office was her living room couch and coffee table. One day her husband left his loaded gun in the middle of the couch, and while removing the gun, the bookkeeper accidentally shot her thumb off. The Supreme Court of Mississippi deemed the injury compensable based on the fact that the bookkeeper had to remove the gun in order to use the couch.
To keep telecommuting workers’ compensation exposures as low as possible, employers should take three important steps: (1) Carefully select employees who are allowed to telecommute; (2) Redefine the job description for work-at-home; and (3) Create a telecommuting policy.
Employee selection
The best way to avoid an unwanted workers’ compensation claim is to carefully select the employees who are offered the benefit of telecommuting. This option should be offered only to the best employees, those who have proven themselves to be trustworthy, self-managed, organized and disciplined to handle the open parameters of working at home. Since there will be no witnesses in the event an injury occurs, this employee must be someone who can be trusted to operate safely and not take advantage of the firm just because they are “out-of-sight.”
Redefine the job
The guidelines that are applicable to an internal office situation need to be transferred to the home office arrangement, such as work hours, breaks, lunches, etc. In addition, it should be stipulated what off-premises activities are approved (such as post office trips) and make it clear that any other trips are not considered work-related. To afford the greatest protection, an employer might consider having the telecommuter contact him or her prior to and after any sanctioned company trip has been performed.
In addition, the home office should be as safe as the company’s office with respect to such things as air quality, viable emergency exits, fire-suppression equipment, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, first aid kits, dead-bolt locks, ground fault interrupters and surge protectors.
Telecommuting policy
Any telecommuting opportunity should be documented in writing with employee and employer agreeing to the terms and conditions of the arrangement. In addition to work hours, breaks, etc., there are a few other points that it might be important to address in the policy: What exactly the employee is expected to do; how the employer and employee will communicate; what measurables will be used to ensure productivity; is there a time frame for notice to the employee if there is a change in the arrangement; acknowledgment that this arrangement can be altered or terminated at any time; child care stipulations; monitoring controls (should be the same that are used for internal employees).
For a sample telecommuting policy visit: www.employmentlawadvisors.com/resources/policies/telecommutingpolicy.html.
Obvious benefits
Telecommuting has benefits to the employer and employee, such as reducing costs through using less office space, access to a larger group of potential employees, ability to retain quality staff, and improved productivity. In order to ensure that telecommuting is successful, the at-home office needs the same managerial considerations extended to the formal office staff — including workers’ compensation assessment.
Provide detailed expectations of the employee’s responsibilities including work product quantity and quality, reporting requirements, deadlines, and communication expectations with management, co-workers and clients.
Establish systems that ensure the employee is working the intended hours while telecommuting.
Provide the employee with the appropriate home office equipment, software, supplies and technical support to ensure the work can be done effectively and efficiently.
Provide the employee with the same health and safety information that is shared with nontelecommuting employees.
Establish standards for the home office setup that allow the employee to work safely.