Homeworkers - general

Employees who regularly work from home should be treated the same way as other employees. Their work activities will need to be assessed and any hazards highlighted addressed so that the level of risk is reduced as much as possible. Failure to do so may lead to homeworkers being injured or suffering from ill-health.

Managing the risks

To help you to identify the hazards associated with working from home and the appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Homeworkers - General. It covers the generic hazards associated with this type of activity and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. You should ensure that your document only addresses “significant” hazards, i.e. any that could, and more importantly are likely to, cause an accident or injury.

Make your instructions clear

Don’t include activities in your document that simply don’t need to be there. Work to the principle that if there is any chance of your staff being unaware of the safe way of doing something, then you will need to make it clear in your document. Finally, always ensure that any control measures you identify and follow are decided upon the principle of “so far as is reasonably practicable”.

Note. The list of potential hazards is not exhaustive. However, for your risk assessment to be considered suitable and sufficient in the eyes of the law it must accurately reflect the “significant” hazards found when your staff work from home.

Note. This risk assessment only deals with the generic risks associated with homeworking. Your assessment should take into consideration the actual tasks that your homeworkers carry out on your behalf. It is recommended that these risk assessments are carried out in conjunction with the individual homeworker so that the requirements are fully understood.