As an employer managing remote working arrangements, you need to understand the key legal considerations that protect both your business and your employees. Working from home policies involve important requirements around employment contracts, health and safety, data protection, and performance management. Without proper consideration, you could face compliance issues or employee disputes. Getting the legal framework right is essential, whether you're implementing flexible working for the first time or reviewing existing policies.
This guide covers the essential employment law considerations for managing homeworkers, from contract modifications and GDPR compliance to health and safety assessments. We've helped many businesses establish compliant remote working arrangements that work for everyone. If you'd like some guidance on your remote working policies, our employment law team is here to help.
Jump to:
- Advantages of your employees working from home
- Disadvantages of employees working from home
- What are the contractual considerations when employees work from home?
- What policies are important for hybrid or homeworking?
- Requests to work flexibly: considerations now and in the future
- How do you appraise and monitor performance of an employee working from home?
- What are the data protection considerations of working from home?
- What are the health and safety considerations of working from home?
- What technology is important when employees work from home?
- What equipment should be provided to employees working from home?
- What are the insurance considerations for employees working from home?
Advantages of your employees working from home
Provided that you have carefully considered homeworking and put the correct arrangements and processes in place there are many potential benefits to be had by employees working from home.
Reduced office expenses
There will be lower office expenses if an office is not required at all or a smaller office if you implement hybrid working.
Greater work/life balance
Introducing the flexibility to work from home can help employees manage their work/life balance, and for employees with children, this may mean they can still do the school run and be ready to start work on time without the stress of a commute, which can motivate employees to work harder. Various surveys have shown that remote working can significantly boost employee satisfaction, leading to greater job satisfaction and increased retention rates.
Retain and recruit talent from further afield
Offering homeworking as an option enables you to recruit employees from a much broader geographical pool. Employees who may need more flexibility due to caring responsibilities or temporary or permanent disability may be able to work or continue to work for you.
Offering remote work can also make your business more attractive to those who prioritise flexibility and a better work-life balance. Recent studies have shown that the ability to work from home is now more important to most employees than pay giving you a competitive edge when recruiting.
Disaster management planning and environmental impact
Thinking about and being set up so that your employees are able to work from home is a useful part of disaster management planning as it can reduce your business’ vulnerability to disruptions outside of your control such as transport problems, adverse weather conditions, terrorist threats and pandemics. Remote working can also help businesses to reduce their environmental impact and meet sustainability goals by reducing or eliminating daily travel to the office and reducing energy consumption in the office.
Disadvantages of employees working from home
There are, however, potential disadvantages to homeworking, which are best to try to avoid.
Loss of visibility
Top of the list of concerns for employers about remote working is usually the loss of control over employees, whether this is in terms of the security of data or confidential information employees are using, managing and supervising employees or trusting employees to work productively when not being present at work.
Working from home has led to a rise in side hustles and ‘Polygamous working’, where employees secretly hold down more than one full-time job, as it can be more difficult for employers to monitor a remote workforce.
Equipment expenses and data security concerns
When employees are outside the controlled environment of the office, they may unintentionally expose the business to risks such as data breaches, hacking attempts, or malware attacks. Devices connected to unsecured home networks or public Wi-Fi are more vulnerable to cyberattacks, so it's crucial that strong security processes are implemented.
It’s also important to ensure that employees have the correct equipment and training and can work safely at home, which will likely lead to extra costs and if operating hybrid working, a duplication of equipment.
Managing your team’s well-being
Whilst some homeworkers find it easier to get a work/life balance, others may become lonely and isolated and suffer from mental health issues by not having a close-knit team nearby and may miss workplace facilities.
Far from the perception of some employers that employees are likely to become distracted and work less from home, there is evidence to suggest that in reality, employees are likely to work longer hours as there is less separation between home and work. This can cause employees to become stressed and overworked. As an employer responsible for an employee’s health and safety, this can be more challenging to recognise signs of mental health struggles early on if they are working remotely.
What are the contractual considerations when employees work from home?
You will need to consider what should physically be in place, whether in terms of documentation, equipment or processes, before an employee is able to work from home. For example, their employment contract must reflect their place of work, whether that is solely working from home or a hybrid of working from home and the office. As the request for home working will usually come from the employee, there is unlikely to be any issues with amending the contractual terms, however if the move to homeworking has come from the business, you may need the employee’s consent to the change.
Contracts should also specify whether remote working is mandatory or optional, as well as detail any expectations for on-site presence when required. For hybrid working arrangements, the contract should clearly set out the requirements for when the employee is expected to work from the office.
Working hours will also need to be made clear in an employee’s contract of employment. Specific or core hours should be stated when the employee must work and the level of flexibility within any working hours should also be set out in writing and be clear to both parties. As no one will oversee whether homeworkers take their breaks, the contract should make it clear that homeworkers are responsible for regulating their own working time and taking breaks as appropriate and in accordance with the Working Time Regulations.
If you are unsure about making changes to an employee’s terms and conditions, please contact our specialist employment law solicitors.
What policies are important for hybrid or homeworking?
You may need to review your existing expenses policy or create a new one. You should be clear about what expenses will be paid by the business when employees work from home, such as internet connection, a computer, office furniture or stationery, as well as reasonable household expenses including additional gas or electricity used whilst working from home.
A clearly and precisely written remote working policy can assist in setting out expectations and responsibilities when working from home, and an IT and communications policy will address how employees can safely access business information from home and set out expectations for handling confidential information and storing this safely.
If you would like one of our expert employment solicitors to draft or review your policies, please contact us.
Requests to work flexibly: considerations now and in the future
Following a change in the law in 2024, all employees are entitled to request flexible working from their first day of employment, which may include a request for hybrid or remote working. While the law does not compel the business to approve these requests, you must follow a set process to consider them and can only refuse on specific grounds and follow a fair process.
If a request for hybrid or homeworking is made as a formal flexible working request, you could agree to this on a trial basis. A trial period for hybrid or homeworking might be a good idea where you are unsure whether it will work in practice, and can demonstrate that you have tried to accommodate the request rather than dismiss it out of hand.
If homeworking is likely to be a temporary measure you should seek to make clear in writing from the start that you have a right to revert to office working. This might be useful if a trial period of homeworking is unsuccessful, where homeworking was to overcome a temporary hurdle, or if changes have been made to the operation of the business which now makes homeworking less effective or not feasible at all.
Even with this contractual right though, you will need to be cautious as there is still some legal risk of discrimination claims when refusing to allow hybrid or homeworking and there will need to be an objective reason.
When it comes into force, the Employment Rights Bill is set to make some changes to the law on flexible working. An employer will only be able to refuse a flexible working request if it is reasonable for them to do so and must specify the ground and reason for refusal.
Whilst these are not significant changes, the need to demonstrate the “reasonableness” of any refusal will perhaps make it harder for employers to refuse requests outright. Any changes are unlikely to come into force until 2026.
How do you appraise and monitor performance of an employee working from home?
Employees working remotely from home, like any other employees will also need to have their work monitored and appraised, this will just need to be done a little differently. Appraisals are used to reward performance and motivate workers by looking at what training and development needs they have and setting performance targets. Where a worker is in the office everyday informal appraisals can be provided by giving feedback on work in real time and allowing undesirable performance to be dealt with quickly and face to face. Formal appraisals are less regular and may happen six monthly or annually.
Homeworkers will require a different matrix for performance and a different method of being appraised, which it is helpful to discuss and agree in writing before homeworking begins. It should be made clear how work progress, involvement in projects, performance and expectations of both parties will be dealt with. It is likely that informal appraisals will happen remotely by video call as well as email and by telephone on an ongoing basis and formal appraisals may still be able to be held infrequently, in person.
Homeworkers should not be denied promotional prospects open to comparable workers merely because they work at home all or part of the time. There may be good reasons why such employees cannot be promoted to a particular position, but employers will have to show that a decision can be objectively justified if, for example, a discrimination claim is brought.
What are the data protection considerations of working from home?
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) organisations are required to take appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised or unlawful processing of data that identifies individuals and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. To ensure that your business is complying you will need to give specific training to homeworkers on their obligations and the procedures which they must follow.
Data which would usually be well protected in an office environment, may require new processes or software to be put in place to protect, for example, personal data covered under UK GDPR. It’s crucial that your employees use secure company networks to access your business’s systems and the use of multi-factor authentication is recommended to prevent unauthorised access to your business’s confidential information.
Before allowing a homeworker to have access to personal or sensitive data it may be necessary to carry out a data privacy impact assessment of the data protection implications of employees working from home.
You will need to ask questions about who will have access to the employee’s computer and the data stored on it and security of the computer when it is left alone. You will need to consider what measures will need to be taken against accidental loss, destruction, or damage of data. It is important to know whether equipment is password protected and passwords frequently changed and that there is safe transit physically and electronically of data between home and office and wherever else it may be required to be sent.
If there are paper files, it is critical to look at how securely they are stored and how they will be safely be disposed of when the data should no longer be stored. If you do not have evidence that you have made best efforts to protect data and put systems in place to keep it safe you could be heavily fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office and so if you have any questions about data protection, you should seek specific advice from an expert. Our Data Protection solicitors can help.
What are the health and safety considerations of working from home?
As an employer, you are still legally responsible for an employee’s health and safety regardless of whether they work in the office or from home and so a health and safety risk assessment should be carried out to identify any potential hazzards.
It’s unlikely to be appropriate to attend all employees’ homes to carry this out, but a video conference or other call to ask questions about the working environment at home and possible required adaptations to make this safe, might be prudent. In addition, you should ask employees to complete a Display Screen Equipment (DSE) workstation checklist to ensure their workstation is set up correctly to prevent possible injuries due to poor set up.
An employer is responsible for the equipment it supplies to homeworkers, but workers are responsible for their domestic supply, including electrical sockets and employers should make employees aware of this to ensure that nothing is missed when making the home work space safe. This includes the employer’s obligation to provide appropriate first aid kit and supplies - depending on their role, this can be basic. If a homeworker already has a basic first aid kit and this is all that is required, an employer could simply reimburse them or top up their supplies. If an employee does have an accident whilst working (even if this is at home) you should have a clear policy and reporting procedure in place for homeworkers, as all such accidents need to be reported to the employer.
Employers are not only obliged to provide employees with the correct equipment for them to carry out their work when they are working from home, but they must also ensure that the equipment is safe, well maintained and inspected regularly so that it is in good working order. Employers must also ensure suitable and sufficient lighting is provided in the workspace, which may just mean buying an extra lamp or replacement higher voltage light bulbs in the case of home workers, upon carrying out a risk assessment.
It's also important to encourage your employees to take regular breaks and ensure that anyone working more than 6 hours takes at least a 30-minute break.
For homeworkers in particular, stress, isolation and loneliness may be issues that employers will want to address. Ensuring that the team remain in close contact together even if they are not physically in the same workplace, and putting measures in place to ensure this, is important.
What technology is important when employees work from home?
Where you have remote workers, it will be necessary to find digital solutions to enable teams to stay connected and efficient. This is not only to complete work-related tasks, but to keep people mindful that they are part of a team. This can be used to incentivise working together and helping to prevent isolation whilst working home alone. Communication platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom and GoogleMeet are now used widely to enable employees to message in real-time and hold video meetings. Cloud-storage solutions such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox ensure that all employees have access to documents whether they are working in the office or from home.
What equipment should be provided to employees working from home?
An employer will also need to ensure that employees have what they require to be able to work effectively from home. This may mean that specialist equipment or other home office equipment is provided.
Whilst there is no legal obligation on an employer to provide equipment to enable homeworking, aside for in certain circumstances such as if a homeworker has a disability and the provision of or reimbursement for equipment may be required as a reasonable adjustment, employers may wish to provide equipment.
If employees use their own equipment, they may want you to agree that as their employer you will pay the cost of maintenance, repair and fair wear and tear on their equipment. If you agree to this, you are advised to ensure that the employee agrees in writing that they shall maintain the equipment properly, enter into any appropriate service contracts and replace it when necessary.
There are many reasons why employers will look past the initial costs of providing equipment to employees and will want to supply this. For example, you can ensure that your computer equipment and software is compatible if you supply it and you can install the proper virus protection, specialist software and ensure security measures are in place.
If there are structural changes to the house required, or if the employee’s house is used for wider business purposes requiring business visitors, planning permission may be required. Unless agreed specifically in the employee’s terms and conditions of employment there would not generally be an obligation on the employer to fund this and in the vast majority of homeworking cases, planning permission would not be necessary.
What are the insurance considerations for employees working from home?
You will need to ensure that any equipment used for the employee’s work at home is covered by appropriate insurance. Employers should first try and cover the equipment under their insurance policy. If this is not a possibility, you should ask your employee to make arrangements to insure the equipment and provide evidence that they have done this, and if required reimburse them for any additional costs in doing so.
