The world of work is a very different place. Since the arrival of Coronavirus on UK shores, how and where we work has changed beyond all recognition.
In March, the UK government urged those who could to work from home in an attempt to suppress the spread of the virus in offices across the country. Seven months on as we enter a second lockdown in England, that advice hasn’t wavered and looks likely to last well into the New Year, if not longer.
The shift to home working has been met with an equal measure of enthusiasm and scepticism by both workers and the business community. For some, it offers a much better work life balance, boosts productivity and eradicates the stress inducing daily commute, yet for others it can have a negative impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.
Despite the split in opinion, it looks like home working will now become a permanent fixture. A recent survey of 1,000 firms by the Institute of Directors (IoD) showed that 74% plan on maintaining the increase in home working. More than half those surveyed also planned on reducing their long-term use of traditional workplaces.
The challenge then is how organisations and their HR teams respond to these changes.
How do you navigate these uncertain times and reflect them in your HR policies and what are your responsibilities to those working from home?
Philip Richardson, partner and head of employment law at Stephensons Solicitors LLP, answers some common questions:
- Do we need to amend our HR policies and employment contracts?
This is a question we’ve had a lot of enquiries about, particularly from companies who are thinking longer term and realising that flexible working or agile working will work for them beyond the lifespan of this pandemic.
The answer to the question is yes. The traditional clause in the employment contract which stipulates the office as the place of work may need to be changed. It is also sensible to create a robust policy on homeworking to ensure there is flexibility around where employees work, particularly if you’d still like your teams to come into the office for meetings, albeit more infrequently.
It’s also important to consider health and safety, particularly who has responsibility for ensuring the employees have the correct tools to do their jobs effectively and safely from home and they aren’t working excessive hours. Also consider who will bear the responsibility for any associated costs, such as insurance for example. This is a completely new way of working for many which in the longer term will need robust policies to ensure the obligations and expectations of both the employer and employee are clearly set out.
- We have new starters, how should we ‘on-board’ them when they are working remotely?
Starting a new job and not being able to physically meet colleagues is a significant challenge both for the new employee and the organisation.
If you’re hiring at the moment, think about mapping out a clear onboarding process. This should be done via written policies and guides that can be viewed online. It would still be recommended that any new starter meets with their line manager in person on their first day. This would be helpful to explain what’s expected of them in their first weeks or months in the role, establish points of contact and their working hours for instance.
Your new starter should also have a direct link with a senior team member who they can discuss matters and concerns with online. The same should be done with other key departments within your business, for instance making sure that the employee has meetings with the IT team, HR team and anyone else that would benefit their role and understanding of the business.
- How should we manage a drop in staff productivity?
Not everyone thrives when working from home. Many people struggle to immerse themselves into their work when they have a myriad of distractions around them. If you feel some team members have experienced a drop in productivity, it’s important that you work with that colleague and address any issues that may be holding them back.
Do you have regular meetings via tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams? If so, perhaps look to use those meetings to talk through the colleague’s workload and establish the priorities for that day or week. Don’t assume that your team are all happy to be working from home, you could use these regular online meetings to ask how they are feeling.
If productivity has been severely impacted and you’ve done everything possible to support the employee, it may be necessary to look at disciplinary proceedings. Serious disciplinary issues can still be dealt with face to face provided social distancing measures are respected. With minor matters and informal discussions about performance, there is no reason why video conferencing facilities cannot be used and a clear written record of what is discussed is retained and agreed between the parties.
- Could an employee make a claim against their employer if they aren’t happy working from home?
The circumstances we all find ourselves in have dictated our patterns of working over the past year and therefore a claim against an employer simply on the grounds that they don’t enjoy home working might be difficult to pursue, particularly if the employee had performance issues previously.
However, if a colleague who never had issues previously is suddenly struggling then they may be able to raise legitimate concerns given that their performance may have been affected, for instance, by a lack of supervision or due to an increased workload.
