Working From Home - Compliance Self Assessment
With COVID-19 having forced many workers to begin working from home, both employers and their workers (employees and contractors, full time and part time) are exploring the longer term potential of this ‘new norm’. As compelling as many of the benefits are, employers must consider that their obligations to their worker’s health and safety also extend to their ‘working from home’ environment.
As a specialist online platform for the capture and management of Workforce Compliance, Seera has identified this as a major ongoing compliance risk for businesses, of all sizes. This is because failure to comply with the relevant Work Health and Safety statutory obligations, can result in significant penalties for employers, officers, and workers. In some jurisdictions, a breach of the statutory obligations may lead to an executive member of the company being sentenced to a term of imprisonment (this may be applicable in incidents that may have resulted in the death of an employee/worker). Equally, workers also have health and safety obligations to minimise risks when working from home.
As you can imagine, meeting these mutual obligations can be an onerous task, especially when employers have minimal control of the worker’s home environment. This is further compounded by issues of employee mental health and well being which can easily be exacerbated, yet harder to detect, when working remotely. The recommended starting point is to request each worker to complete a self-assessment of their ‘working from home’ environment and suitability, but how to manage this and what to include in the assessment?
To help, Seera has compiled our ‘Working from Home - Compliance Self Assessment’ based on best practice guidance provided by leading authorities on Work Health and Safety, including mental health.
We offer this self assessment as an integrated online tool (part of our broader SeeraCloud Workforce Alignment platform incorporating advanced workflows and reporting), or as a free PDF download (suitable smaller workforces only).
The assessment is the same in both offerings so, regardless of which solution you choose, having all your workers complete the ‘Working From Home - Compliance Self Assessment’ should provide the baseline insights you need for remediating (alleviate, eliminate, or reduce) any issues identified, and or determine the appropriateness of your worker’s work from home arrangements.
The ‘Working From Home - Compliance Self Assessment’ is provided by Seera Pty Ltd on an ‘as is’ basis, for use as you see fit. It is not intended to be used as a formal work from home agreement. Beyond providing the Self-Assessment document, Seera Pty Ltd makes no warranties as to the completeness or effectiveness of the assessment, and is in no way responsible for any issues, regulatory or otherwise, that may arise from the assessment and or your work from home arrangements.
