Does an employer have liability for injuries that telecommuters incur while in their home office? How can you keep your company culture if you allow people to work from home? Who should pay for equipment for telecommuting employees’ home offices? In a recent BLR webinar, Dayna Fellows answered these questions and more. Here’s a sample of the questions and answers during that session.
Q. Do you have any specific recommendations related to workers’ compensation issues and alternative work sites?
A.You do want to have a statement in your teleworking policy about liability. You should be prepared to extend the workers’ compensation coverage to teleworkers. This is another reason that you want to be very clear about what constitutes the successful or appropriate alternate work site. (For example, the company cannot allow Starbucks as a work site for a telecommuter because they could not possibly cover liability in that situation). Express that telecommuters are covered as long as they are in their designated work site. Some companies also require teleworkers to complete site-safety checklists. This makes everyone take it seriously.
Be clear about what work sites will be approved. Many organizations ask the person to even provide a picture or description of the space. They should have evidence it’s a safe, healthy, ergonomically sound space. Also make it clear that they’re expected to manage their own safety just as they would at work. If something happens while they’re at work, they need to follow the same procedures – immediately notify the supervisor, HR, etc. Go to your policy people. Don’t reinvent the wheel, but do have language in your policy about the work site. Some even reserve the right to visit the alternate work site.
Q. What about the impact on culture? Why did Best Buy and Yahoo! reconsider their decisions to have telecommuting programs?
A.Those are two really different situations. Culture matters, and you have to work very hard – even when people are in the office – to build it and sustain it and make it what you want it to be. It’s very easy for people to show up and go to their cube and never talk to anyone all day. We all send emails to the person sitting next to us rather than having a conversation. As far as culture goes, you want to be as explicit, active, and proactive as you can possibly be. From the telecommuting standpoint, think about maximizing face time, engaging the telecommuters, assessing whether they feel isolated or apart. Look at engagement factors (whether teleworking or not), and figure out how you want to keep your employees engaged with each other. How do you keep work attached to the business drivers?
Q. Do you think there should be a balance of in-house employees and telecommuters in a contact center environment?
A.A balance of in-office and telecommuters is purely dependent on the nature of the work. For example, if you have in-person client interactions, you’ll need good coverage in the office. This needs to be balanced according to business needs. Call centers without in-person contact have often gone to full-time telework for all employees. (Bear in mind that this choice involves a completely different employment status with different requirements—it can’t just be started on a whim.) For this to work, it takes absolute clarity of the job and the metrics, great training, assurance of high quality work spaces and equipment, and more.
Q. What is the trend for employee reimbursement for remote workers? For example, is travel covered? Telephone? Internet?
A.It’s a moving target. Here you have some choices as an organization. Whether or not you pay for travel will depend in part on what the primary office space is. It would be beneficial to determine in advance how you will compensate employees for travel to alternative spaces. In short, it depends on the circumstances, but usually travel to the primary work space is not compensated.
When it comes to equipment, that consideration should be business-based as well. Look at the type of equipment that is needed to perform well and whether or not that should be provided by the employer. Also consider security. If you want them to only use employer-provided equipment for security purposes, you’ll have to provide it.
For more information on the basics of setting up a telecommuting program, order the webinar recording of “Flexible Work Scheduling and Telecommuting: Practical Strategies for a Productive Workforce.” To register for a future webinar, visit http://store.blr.com/events/webinars.
As founder and president of WorkLife Performance, Inc., Dayna Fellows offers more than 30 years of experience in professional development, performance management, and work/life programs and policies, with particular focus on managing telework and virtual teams. She is a national spokesperson on the challenges and rewards of a flexible workplace.