Workers Comp Risks for At Home Workers

Employers must be very careful with the transition involved in moving employees home to work. Remote employees raise significantly more challenges with Workers’ Compensation, particularly since the employer has little to no control over the home premises of the employee.

Here are some best practices to ensure your company’s work from home policy benefits the employee AND the employer:

• Physically inspect the employee’s home office to make sure it is safe.
• Clearly define the physical boundaries of the home office. If the boundaries are not well-established, an employer might be liable for an injury that happens anywhere on the employee’s property.
• Set specific work hours. Otherwise, an employee could argue that an injury occurring at any time of day or night is work-related.
• Specifically describe the scope of the employee’s activities. This reduces the possibility a clerical employee could successfully present a claim for doing a physical activity while in the home. The policy should make it clear that activities falling outside the employee’s job description are not the employer’s responsibility.
• Teach employees about injury prevention. The largest injury exposure for employees working from home is ergonomic type injuries.

Questions? Contact Us:  800-846-5902