There are a handful of steps your organization must take to ensure the safety of its people who are working from home. An effective work-from-home safety program should clearly identify the safety hazards and cover techniques to eliminate or mitigate the risks. Good safety programs should also be regularly evaluated and monitored to ensure integrity and effectiveness. Once you have created a Hazard Assessment Guide Checklist, Emergency Communications Plan, and defined your Emergency Response Procedures, it’s time to implement your protocols. Thus, part four of our Home Hazard Assessment Guide will cover the step-by-step implementation of your safety guide for employees working from home.
Conduct a thorough hazard assessment of the unique safety hazards found in your at-home work environment. Employees should be aware of and educated on the presence and severity of these hazards. Download our home hazard identification checklist below::
Ensure that employees are not only aware of the risks but are also trained on how to mitigate or avoid them in order to work safely and securely from home.
Make sure that instructions and protocols are in writing and are readily available to all members of your organization.
Emphasize the importance of open and continuous lines of communication, particularly with a remote workforce. Make sure that all employees have access to and are trained to comply with your company’s emergency communication plan.
Implement your check-in procedure. A check-in procedure can be manual or automated. If your company decides to develop its own check-in procedure, an employee or team must be designated to track which members of the organization have checked in. This step is essential – if your company does not know who has checked-in, you will also be unaware of who has missed a check-in. Employees who have missed a check-in may be in danger and could require immediate assistance.
If your company decides to invest in an automated worker monitoring solution, you will not have to worry about any inconsistencies or human error. The implementation of an automated check-in system is straightforward and easy to follow. Employees simply need to be aware of when they are required to check in and do so at the predetermined intervals.
Hold regular safety meetings via teleconference or video meeting platform to assess what is working, what isn’t working, what employees feel good about, and what needs to be addressed. This is important because direct feedback about current systems is the best way to make meaningful improvements to your company’s safety program.
If a member of your organization has experienced an emergency or incident while working from home, make sure that a thorough investigation is completed. Understanding the factors that caused the incident is essential. Evaluate how the incident was handled in order to learn from past mistakes and plan for the future.
One hazard assessment is not enough. Regularly carry out hazard assessments and update your safety guide. At-home work environments may be subject to change and with each new environment comes a new set of safety risks to consider.
This step-by-step guide will ensure the security and safety of your employees who are working from home. Our last segment will cover special considerations regarding COVID-19 while on quarantine. Download our complementary implementation checklist below:
