Working Alone: Managing Workplace Safety Issues for Remote Employees
Table of Contents
The dangers of working alone
Strategies for managing workplace safety issues
Tips for preventing accidents and injuries
An ongoing risk reduction process
Advancing technology has made it easier than ever before to work remotely. But working from home presents several unique safety challenges. Businesses and employers are tasked with complying with workplace rules and safety standards, even when managing employees working from home rather than on-site.
It’s an ongoing challenge to keep remote employees safe because they are not based in controlled working environments. Many remote workers don’t have designated offices. Even if they do, they are not always ergonomically designed, nor are they fitted with safety features like smoke detectors and security systems.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States has noted that it does not conduct at-home workplace inspections. Plus, it usually won’t hold employees liable for home-based safety problems. On the other hand, the organization still believes that employers are responsible for creating safe working conditions, regardless of the location. The ambiguity between these statements demonstrates just how challenging it is to create airtight safety policies for remote workers.
Employers can mitigate the safety risks that their remote workers face to a degree by creating effective safety reporting protocols and establishing compulsory safety check-ins at regular intervals. Whether these check-ins get conducted after each project, site visit, or workday, digital or verbal check-ins can create an incident history. This can help to predict and avoid future safety risks.
The dangers of working alone
Working remotely or alone increases the safety risk involved in any job. Safety organizations note that issues such as poor access to emergency care and domestic violence are some of the most pressing issues that increase the risks of isolated work. Other risk factors include personal safety issues and irregular working hours. Psychosocial hazards like poor supervision and suboptimal home office environments also play a role, among many others.
Remote workers could have poor access to help either due to the nature of their work or their locations. They may work in locations or when it would be difficult to rescue them, provide medical support, or for emergency services personnel to reach them. Workers could also face additional challenges if they have nobody around to help them with challenging tasks, point out hazards, or provide guidance when they’re fatigued or making errors.
Strategies for managing workplace safety issues
There is no silver bullet that can solve workplace injuries, especially when they happen at home. However, workers’ compensation laws will usually cover accidents in the house while an employee is on the job. However, it may be difficult for employers to enforce workplace conduct rules with remote workers.
Employees could fall while plugging in or misusing equipment and sustain injuries. Yet, they’re still entitled to a compensation claim. In these cases, the employer has to prove misconduct in order to avoid liability, which is highly unlikely. Employees who travel for business face unique challenges too. And they’re covered by workers’ compensation. Even when they are sent to other locations for work purposes.
Employees hoping to claim workers’ compensation need to prove they were acting in their employer’s best interests at the time the injury occurred. If an injury happens at home and the worker making a claim can prove that they were working at the time of the accident or incident, they can claim workers’ compensation to address their injuries.
Another challenge for employers of remote workers can communicate when an incident or injury occurs. One key solution is to implement technological solutions that automatically track and report on a remote worker’s location and safety. Many wearable tools can locate employees on-demand and even function as emergency panic buttons. When a crisis occurs, the worker can simply press the button to speak to responders that can help them, and their employers get notified at the same time.
Other workable solutions include two-way radios or microphones for communication. Or devices that can detect accidents and falls and automatically call emergency services to the location in question.
SafetyLine’s Lone Worker safety solution and other lone worker devices fulfill these functions and more. They provide a streamlined solution to keeping remote employees safe, even in the most challenging circumstances.
Tips for preventing accidents and injuries
These safety procedures and tips are recommended for employers that offer work-from-home arrangements to their employees:
Develop an airtight remote work policy and broadcast it to all of your employees. Clarify the fact that remote workers must still strictly adhere to these policies.
Require each remote employee to create a dedicated workspace at home. Employees must provide you with photographic evidence to ensure that the areas have been set up according to health and safety best practices.
Require every remote employee to provide proof that their homeowner’s or tenant’s insurance adequately covers any potential damage to equipment or liability on your business’s part.
Review your own employer insurance policies. Ensure that you have cover for all contingencies, including business-related travel accidents.
Follow up regularly to ensure compliance.
Clarify that computer security issues get tracked and monitored at all times. Any workers who wish to work using their own devices must have safety software installed and follow strict security standards, such as not sharing passwords or visiting risky websites.
Never lose track of your remote workers. Maintain frequent contact with them during working hours by using a remote communication platform like Slack, Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Skype. Check-in with them daily at the very least to ensure that they are safe and working according to the protocols and standards you have laid out. Encourage them to contact you if they are unsure about any of the stipulations mentioned in your policies.
An ongoing risk reduction process
Remote workers face many unique risks and challenges. This style of working can impact every part of their lives, from the way they perform their duties to the effect it has on their sleep patterns. Employers cannot always fully mitigate these issues, as they’re not in control of their employees’ home situations.
However, following the steps mentioned above will reduce the risk of at-home work-related injuries and incidents and ensure an adequate safety plan is in place when they occur. Plus, it will ensure that your employees know how to work safely and ergonomically, wherever they’re based at any given time.