Remote Work Policy: The Pro’s and Con’s

By Ryan Benharris, Esq.

The American dream of a 40-hour work week long ago abandoned the notion that work has to be a fixated place of employment. The ever-changing face of the workforce in the U.S. sees millions of people working from home or some remote location. Though the benefits to working remotely are high, a very important question is: What happens if I am injured while working remotely?

A recent report from the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) investigated the increasing issues with respect to employees who work remotely and the correlation it has to workplace safety.

The RIMS Executive Report; “Risk Management & Remote Work Policies,” explores the risk professional’s role in being part of the development of remote work policies as well as the identification of potential difficulties that may arise with respect to employees who work remotely

The report identified the obviousness of a need for remote work policies based on the significant increase in remote work opportunities. However, though the policies are necessary, the report indicated that employers should not ignore the fact that remote work opportunities, such as the opportunity to work from home, are to be interpreted as a benefit to the employee.

“Remote work policies are an employee benefit—a privilege—that is offered by the organization on a case by case basis,” the report says. “In many organizations, that opportunity to work remotely is granted for a defined period of time before the policy is revisited.”

The report cites uniformity and accountability as two of the most important elements of a well-crafted remote work policy. These elements help employers moderate the ground rules on a consistent basis.

RIMS found significant advantages to creating a remote work environment for employees. Numerous studies found increased productivity as well as increased employee morale were linked to the opportunity to work remotely. It also found that employers and employees share in financial advantages to working remotely. RIMS indicated that employers benefit through reduced rented space, parking amenities, furniture, equipment and meetings paces. Employee financial benefits include a reduction in commuting costs as well as savings in money spent on “work appropriate clothes.”

The intangible benefits to the employer, in addition to higher employee morale, involve the employer’s opportunity to select from a higher grade of applicants who may be more willing to work if they are granted the ability to work remotely.

Though the benefits are high, RIMS also identified the common risks associated with remote work opportunities. RIMS indicates that remote work vastly increases the potential for confidentiality breaches as employer work leaves the office and travels through the open space; either physically or through the internet.

Other problems that RIMS identified with remote work include the difficulty in ensuring that employees are behaving productively with many at-home distractions available to them, and the loss of valuable social interaction when employees are not forced to work together in a traditional office setting. RIMS cites the example of Yahoo! which is discontinuing the remote work benefits for its employees, arguing the need for better communication and collaboration among its employees.

Most significantly in the RIMS’ report is its evaluation of how remote work affects workers’ compensation claims. The report says, “For remote workers, risk professionals and human resource executives face the challenge of determining whether a medical incident is a result of business activities and might require a workers’ compensation claim to be filed, or if the incident was unrelated to the employee’s professional responsibilities.”

The obvious difficulty in workers’ compensation claims that are filed as a result of an injury sustained in a remote work environment is that it is nearly impossible to identify a witness to the claim. Carolyn Snow, a RIMS Board Director was quoted in the report as saying, “There is a good deal of trust bestowed upon work from home employees, and fortunately we have not experienced a higher frequency of workers’ compensation claims from remote workers.”

The report cited the overwhelming number of workers’ compensation claims in typical work settings such as carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive use back injuries that are also frequently unwitnessed as examples of how reliance on accident witnesses are becoming increasingly more irrelevant, anyway. It indicated that as long as the employers create policies that define procedures for reporting health issues and getting them resolved it will typically lead to a reasonably reliable system of trust worthy employee claim reporting practices.

RIMS recommends establishing a collaborative, cross-functional team responsible for setting up the remote work policy. The team should ensure that the policy’s ability to encompass all employees, that the policy is properly communicated through the organization and that the policy is immune from amendments unless they are approved by the appropriate channels.

The report concludes by identifying the differences in the type of remote work settings. The reality is that depending on the type of work (e.g., can work productivity be measured and evaluated?) and the nature of the business, every remote work setting will be entirely different. RIMS recommends that each company determines what works best for them by considering both their needs and the needs of the employees.

Most importantly, RIMS maintains that having a well-defined remote work policy, “will set expectations and provide guidelines for employers and employees to successfully implement this work arrangement.”

Technology has made it so much easier for employers to create remote work environments that have benefits which very clearly outweigh the potential risks. It is quite obvious that both employers and employees need to be cognizant of their rights as well as the risks of potentially new types of workers’ compensation claims when the remote work environment is expanded.

Lori A. Severson, CSP, Vice President, Senior Loss Control Consultant at Lockton Companies, agreed with the RIMS report that there are “many positive and possible negative outcomes for employers and employees” when it comes to the remote work setting.

Severson explained, “The occupational safety perspective of the remote work setting typically categorizes these as, ‘uncontrolled work environments’. If the employer doesn’t own or lease the work space, then it’s a safety unknown and contains uncontrolled exposures due to walking, working surfaces that may be cluttered or damaged, driveways, sidewalks, with winter ice and snow not being cleared so getting the work related mail can be a hazard in and of itself, the office equipment or the lack thereof for ergonomic office equipment.”

“Therefore, safety professionals agree, the focus needs to be on the many benefits of establishing a remote workforce and keeping the team engaged on the creation of the written safety and HR protocol to help control these ‘uncontrolled’ elements of a home and provide the safety and control that the brick and mortar office work environment offers to a limited degree,” says Severson. “Through effective policy and procedure we can establish safe work performance expectations to ensure quality and safety for all involved. Safety in the home can be managed easily for the eligible employee base who is usually very self-motivated for the perks it offers, such as no commute time or stress, less distractions, and break times that can benefit the family. Working in concert with HR and legal team, the safety of the remote workforce can be accomplished.”

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