Homeworking – Practical Guidance for Managers and Employees
Plymouth University
HOMEWORKING - PRACTICAL GUIDANCE FOR MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES
CONTENTS
1 What is homeworking 3
2 Formal & Intermediate Homeworking
Is the work suitable? 3
Costs 4
Training & Support 4
Employee requests 4
Organisational decisions 5
3 Implementing Formal & Intermediate Homeworking
Expenses 5
ICT 5
Office Equipment 5
Health and Safety 5
Insurance 6
Security & Confidentiality 6
Mortgage & Lease Arrangements 6
Business Meetings 6
Travel 7
Business Telephone Calls 7
Telephone/e-mail contact and customer service 7
Work base 8
Monitoring 8
Reviewing 8
Moving House 8
Termination 8
4 Occasional Homeworking
Definition 9
Employee Requests 9
Monitoring 9
Telephone / e-mail contact and customer service 10
Security & Confidentiality 10
ICT 10
Health & Safety 10
Appendices
A Checklist for Managers – Formal and Intermediate Homeworking
B Plymouth University – Generic Risk Assessment for Homeworking
GUIDANCE
1. What is Homeworking?
Homeworking can apply to full time and part time employees and falls into three categories:
· Formal Homeworking is where work is carried out at home for the entire employee’s contracted hours with the home designated in the contract of employment as the employee’s work base for tax purposes. The employee does not have any designated desk space within any of the University buildings.
· Intermediate Homeworking is where work is carried out at home for proportion of the employee’s contracted hours of work per week. Both the home and the office are designated for the requisite number of days or hours as the employee’s work base for tax purposes in the contract of employment. Home is the employee’s work base when working at home. When working in the office, the employee will have access to desk space.
· Occasional Homeworking is where with the agreement of the manager, part of the total working hours may be worked at home on an ad hoc and irregular basis to suit the employer or the employee. The employee’s work base remains the office or establishment.
2. Formal and Intermediate Homeworking
Note: All employees working from home must comply with all Plymouth University policies.
As a general rule jobs consisting of self contained tasks and producing discrete pieces of work will be more suited to homeworking than jobs which require high levels of interpersonal contact with colleagues at the work base. Decisions on the appropriateness of homeworking will always be made on an individual basis as not all roles, individuals or homes will be suitable for homeworking. One of the potential drawbacks of homeworking is the loss of social contacts that normal working arrangements provide; the significance if this will depend on individual circumstances but should not be overlooked. Neither should the need to ensure effective management of the work.
Is the work suitable to be performed from a home base?
It is essential that the manager and employee consider the suitability of the job for homeworking together and take into account the following:
· A suitable work area at home is needed
· The effect on the service must be positive or at least neutral
· Unless other specified arrangements apply, contractual policies and procedures will continue to apply to formal and intermediate homeworkers
· How much discretion does the employee have in performing their responsibilities?
· Is the function performed primarily on site or off site?
· Is the work relatively autonomous or closely integrated with the work of other employees?
· Could the duties be performed off site using office technology?
· What reporting and communication systems are involved?
· What contact with service users is involved and how/where does this take place?
Costs of Introducing Homeworking
Depending on the nature of the job these may include:
· The cost of installing equipment such as office furniture or computer and telephone equipment
· The cost of delivery and collection of work
· The cost of training and communication
· Running costs e.g. business telephone calls
· Possible additional general business expenses or extra business travel expenses
Training and Support needs for employees and managers
As with all other types of working arrangements training and support needs should be identified and may include:
· Skills training to operate new kinds of machinery or equipment
· Self management i.e. the need to work to defined targets, identified objectives and set deadlines
· Distance learning packages
· Receipt of newsletters and information updates
· Performance managing remote workers
Employee Requests to work from home
A request to work at home formally or on an intermediate level should be made through the Flexible Working Procedure.
Organisational decisions to introduce homeworking for individual jobs or categories of employees
When considering recruiting to a new post or filling a current vacancy, this provides an opportunity to assess the requirement for some or all of the work to be done from home and whether it would be cost effective. Managers are advised to discuss potential cases for homeworking with their HR Advisor before any decision is made.
3. Implementing Formal or Intermediate Homeworking
Expenses*
* (only applicable to employees who are contractually required to work at home by the University and for whom there is no alternative)
Prior to implementing any contractual requirement for formal or intermediate homeworking the manager must seek advice from Human Resources in order to ascertain the eligibility for payment of expenses incurred as a result of homeworking and any associated tax relief.
ICT
All ICT policies apply to staff whether working at home or in an office.
Appropriate technology may need to be installed to enable successful formal or intermediate homeworking:
The procurement process for ICT equipment is the same whether it is to be used at home or in the office. It is necessary to note on the order that the equipment will be used at home so that it can be configured appropriately.
Provision of office equipment
Office equipment required by the employee to enable formal or intermediate working from home will be obtained through the University.
Health and Safety issues
The requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 apply to employees working at home as well as to employees working at University accommodation. Many of the health and safety issues around home-working are no different from those of conventional office working, including issues around the workstation, seating, display screen equipment (DSE), electrical wiring, lighting, heating, ventilation and slipping or tripping hazards.
It is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that work can be undertaken safely without compromising the health or safety of the worker or other persons at their home.
The home worker is responsible for day-to-day health and safety issues and for reporting any concerns to the manager.
Formal and Intermediate homeworkers must complete a VDU Workstation Checklist and a Generic Risk Assessment for Homeworking (see Appendix B).
Guidance is also available in Plymouth University Code of Practice - Display Screen Equipment, Laptops, Homeworking and Teleworking .
For further information, advice and guidance please contact your Health and Safety Co-ordinator.
Insurance
Where equipment is either regularly or permanently used by employees at home the employee must arrange cover under their existing Household insurance policy, this is usually at no cost, however any additional costs may be reimbursed on the production of receipts by way of an expenses claim. Employees must notify their home contents and buildings insurer(s) that they will be working from home to ensure that their house and contents insurance cover is not affected
Security and Confidentiality
Employees working from home are responsible for ensuring the security of University property and confidentiality of all University information, files, documents etc within their possession in accordance with Data Protection Guidance.
Mortgage and Lease Arrangements
Working from home sometimes has implications for an employee’s mortgage or lease agreement, although in most cases there is no difficulty. It is the employee’s responsibility to inform the mortgage provider or landlord that they are homeworking.
Business meetings
For the purposes of insurance, security and personal safety employees must not hold business meetings with service users in their own homes. All such meetings should take place at Plymouth University or other agreed locations.
Travel
Travelling expenses will be claimable for all business journeys from the employee’s home EXCEPT journeys to their current / previous administrative base. Such journeys will be regarded as home-to-work journeys. This will also apply to intermediate homeworkers on the days that they are contracted to work at home. Travel and taxation guidance is available from Human Resources.
Note: There is a distinction between home based employment and treating the employee’s home as a base for travelling to places of work. In the former case the employee is required to perform the duties at their home. The latter usually occurs for site based or peripatetic employees who do not regularly visit a base. It is also possible under Inland Revenue regulations for an employee to be classed as having more than one base for tax purposes. Further information can be sought from Human Resources.
Business Telephone calls and mail
If the employee is provided with a business telephone line at home this telephone number will be ex-directory and should not be identified to anyone as being at the employee’s home. This telephone must only be used for business calls otherwise telephone line rental reimbursement will attract tax and NIC. The cost of these calls and line rental will be paid for by the employing Faculty/Directorate. Another option is to provide the employee with a mobile phone for business purposes.
If an agreement is reached that a personal telephone line will be used for business purposes the cost of business calls will be met by the employing Faculty/Directorate on receipt of a telephone bill identifying the business calls and cost.
If using a private telephone line for business calls then arrangements should be made for colleagues not to divulge the telephone number but to pass a message to the homeworking employee if a response is required. Employees should not divulge their private telephone number to clients or business contacts.
An employee’s home address must not be used for business mail. Employees should use their administrative centre’s address and arrange for any business mail to be forwarded from there.
Telephone/e-mail contact and customer service
There is a need to ensure that the levels of contact with colleagues and customers remain the same when an employee is working from home. All employees must maintain and update Calendar and Voicemail frequently with their whereabouts and contact details or those of a colleague or team in cases of leave, sickness or attendance at meetings.
It is the individual employee’s responsibility to ensure that the staff directory contains correct information relating to telephone and e-mail contact. Any mobile or home phone line paid for by University should appear on the staff directory. These numbers are the ones considered to be available to the public and are used for contact by colleagues and other employees. Private telephone numbers must not be placed on the Staff Directory.
Work Base
Employees who will be working from their home on a formal or intermediate basis will receive a letter identifying their work base as home (or dual work base in the case of intermediate homeworkers) for tax purposes. This is required if homeworkers are to receive any allowances as agreed with the Inland Revenue. New recruits will receive the letter in addition to the appointment letter and statement of particulars in accordance with the normal recruitment procedures. Managers will need to notify Human Resources of homeworking arrangements to ensure correct documentation is issued.
Monitoring of Homeworking arrangements
The performance of homeworking employees will be monitored in the same ways as non-homeworking employee’s i.e. regular communication and supervision meetings between manager and employee, the setting of clear deadlines for completion of work and the normal appraisal and review meetings.
Review of Homeworking Arrangements
Any move to homeworking will be reviewed after the first 6 month period to give both the manager and the employee the opportunity to establish whether home based working will be a suitable arrangement.
Moving Address
If during the course of a homeworking arrangement the employee moves address, both the manager and employee will need to consider the effect and review the working arrangements. If it is agreed that the homeworking arrangement will continue then the employee will be responsible for ensuring adequate insurance cover in the event of loss or damage for the items of equipment being moved. Connections to the new home will be paid for by the employing Faculty/Directorate. If the employee moves again within three years, then the University would not normally pay again.
Termination of Homeworking Arrangement
Where it is not a contractual requirement to work from home, either the University or the employee can terminate the arrangement. The normal requirement will be for either side to give the other one month’s notice of termination.
In both cases discussions must take place between the manager and the employee to explore the reasons for the termination of the arrangement and to agree arrangements for returning to work at their previous base. If circumstances do not permit this then the employee will be based at another agreed University location.
At the end of a homeworking arrangement any equipment supplied to the employee shall be returned to the University in good condition.
Occasional Homeworking
Definition: Occasional Homeworking is where part of the total working hours may be worked at home on an ad-hoc/irregular basis with the agreement of the manager. The employee’s work base remains the office or establishment.
No expenses are payable for occasional homeworking.
All employees working from home must comply with all existing University policies.
There may be occasions when employees who do not normally work from home request permission to do so. Circumstances when homeworking may be useful include:
· The need to complete a report or piece of research that requires quiet concentration
· Where the employee has a temporary domestic crisis but is willing to take work home to complete