Health and Safety Documents for Remote Workers and Home Office Workers

Working from home - whether self employed or employed - does not remove health and safety obligations. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 both apply to home working environments in the same way they apply to office-based ones. Risk assessment, fire safety, workstation assessment, electrical equipment safety, and accident recording are all requirements that apply to your home office setup. || For self employed remote workers, you are responsible for managing your own compliance. For employed remote workers, your employer is technically responsible for your home working environment - but most employers do not fulfil this obligation, and many employees are unaware that any obligation exists. || The Home Working Health and Safety guidance from the HSE is clear that home workers must have their working environment assessed, their display screen equipment use considered, and their fire safety addressed. Most home workers have never had any of these things formally done.

The rapid normalisation of remote working over recent years has not been matched by a corresponding increase in compliance. The majority of people now working from home - whether full time or on a hybrid basis - are doing so in an environment that has never been formally assessed for risk. Kitchen tables, spare bedrooms, and garden offices are being used as workplaces without any formal consideration of the hazards they present. || Poor screen positioning, inadequate lighting, chairs that were not designed for an eight-hour working day, trailing cables, overloaded extension leads - these are the real risks of home working, and they have been identified as causes of workplace injury and ill health in remote working research. Without documentation, there is no evidence that these risks have been considered or managed. || CompliantDocs generates five completed documents from your answers about your home working environment. Specific to your setup. Ready to use.