Remote working

Manging Stress at Work

ISME’s HR Advisor Cait Lynch poses questions And discuss Work-Related Stress, Conflict In The Workplace And Employer Stress with Patricia Murray, Senior Work & Organisational Psychologist With The Health And Safety Authority. Take a look here

HSA Guidelines

Remote working allows employees and the self-employed to work remotely from their main place of work on a full- or part-time basis and to set up a dedicated full-time workspace at their home.

Working from home, if planned, can provide significant benefits such as:

• Better work-life balance
• Less impact on the environment
• Recruitment does not necessarily need to be based in a particular geographical location
• A customised work environment for the home worker
• Savings on office space and other facilities

However, homeworking does require management and coordination to ensure employees and the self-employed are not put at risk from longer-term health and safety hazards or other issues that can emerge. Employers and the self-employed need to look at how best to prepare for this type of working arrangement.

The following list highlights some of the challenges that may be encountered working from home:

• difficulty adjusting to new homeworking environment,
• staying focused and avoiding home distractions,
• difficulty monitoring performance,
• motivating employees,
• difficulty in building effective teams, team working relationships
  and team communications,
• over-working,
•  stress and isolation from co-workers leading to reduced staff morale
  and a decrease in productivity,
•  providing and maintaining equipment such as computers, desks,
  monitors, chairs and other equipment,
• carrying out and recording adequate homeworking risk assessments,
• training – continuous professional development and upskilling,
• catering for sensitive risk groups who may have particular needs.

Read the full HSA Guidelines here this includes a homeworking checklist.

Watch back our latest Q&A on workplace Health & Safety with the HSA HERE

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Working from home resources for employers

We have some resources available from ISME Members at the links below:

• Flexible Working Policy Template
• Checklist for working from home
• Tánaiste Publishes Remote Working Strategy
• Remote Working FAQs

Blogs on remote working

A selection of blogs from ISME and our members who are experts in the area on  homeworking:

• Is your company ready for e working? 
• Will working remotely become the norm?
• Technical Top Tips on e-working 
• Managing conference calls while working remotely

Insurance and Staff working remotely

In relation to your insurance you would need to ensure that you have informed your insurers that remote working is taking place and discuss your policy with them to ensure that it covers remote workers as well

Tax Relief

People remote working can claim tax relief for lighting, heat and broadband.

• Information on how to claim this relief is available from Revenue here 
• Learn more from this article in the Irish Times here</a