During lockdown businesses with employees who are able to work from home have had little choice but to adapt to the new way of working. As companies consider how they will emerge from lockdown (again) there will inevitably be an acceptance of a larger contingent of ‘Work from Home’ and a hybrid workforce approach. But to maintain this practice there are a number of things owners and managers need to actively consider and address and many have failed to do so. Here are just 5 of the key areas to consider.
Cybersecurity posture
What impact does all or a large portion of your workforce working from home have on your cyber risk profile? Inevitably there are more BYO devices and insecure internet connections to consider and less control of malware protection and proactive threat scanning. Have your IT team or outsourced provider adapted policy and process to counter these increased risk areas?
Workplace Safety Obligations
How does your obligation to provide or ensure a safe working environment for your employees translate to a work from home arrangement? To what extent are you responsible for an employee’s at home work set up (chair, desk, lighting)? Specifically, how are you addressing the critical issue of mental health? Isolation of workers and the health and economic consequences of the pandemic have exacerbated the rising mental health issues in the community. While proximity and interaction at a common workplace may have provided both a reduction and a monitoring role in the past this may no longer be possible. Have you considered how the way you interact with teams and manage needs to change to help address this growing concern?
Privacy and Personal Information
Over the last 3 years we have seen laws around the world tightening around the use and control of personal information and the consequences for when it’s breached. A dispersed workforce adds to the number of potential leakage points for information both confidential and personal. Have you had to adapt policies and access to information to deal with this shift in exposure?
Electronic onramps for your business
The dispersed world has put a focus on businesses points of interaction with customers and suppliers, demanding seamless electronic handoffs. Is there tracking and automation for internal and external approvals that don’t require manual or physical transfer of documents? Do your contracts expressly allow for electronic signature and execution in of agreements in counterparts? These things that can be fairly easily put in place with today’s software and some pragmatic legal advice but delay may be costly with a disaggregated workforce with limited visibility of bottlenecks.
Tricky COVID protocols
When you do open up the office will it be on a shift basis and for how long? Will you allow non-vaccinated staff into the office? Can you legally stop them or require them to be vaccinated? Are you liable if staff (or customers) contract COVID at your workplace? If a staff member has to isolate for 14 days with COVID or having had an exposure are they able to keep working from home? Do they have to use up sick leave – if they are asymptomatic and willing to work?
These are difficult questions and some require very specialist advice. Large companies, let alone SMBs, are yet to grapple with many of these topics and while there might not be definitive answers, as an owner or senior manager it’s important to consider them as part of embracing a new way of working. Being pro-active in at least acknowledging the issues and having a plan to deal with them as they arise will help set your business apart.
PLEASE NOTE: Nothing in any post on this website constitutes legal advice. All articles are opinion pieces that are subject to change and should not be relied upon. Please contact us for advice specific to your situation.