H1N1 Swine Flu- Telecommuting/Telework answer to many employers
Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano has come out and just advised companies whose children’s schools have been affected to allow employees to work from home. It is generally recommended that any company whose employees have been near infected persons, traveled to infected countries, or feel they may be sick or have been exposed should have employees work from home for a minimum of 3 days. For instance, Monsanto a St. Louis based company, has advised its employees who have traveled to Mexico to work from home 5-7 days, before returning to work.
When allowing employees to work remotely consider what equipment, resources, and information they will need to complete their work. Managers should be informed immediately of the situation and advised in how to manage their remote employees. Employees should then be instructed in how they will obtain their work and/or submit it back to the office. Consider mapping out a process flow chart of how an employee’s work input and output flows through the organization. This will help if more become infected and critical positions need to be shifted to different workers.
Remote Work does not have to cost any additional money for the employer. Many employees are most likely willing to help defray the costs of them working remotely. Most corporate phone systems have the ability to forward calls to employee’s home lines, or cell phones. Additionally, employees could be asked to increase the bandwidth of their high speed internet connection or reformat their home computers to clean out all viruses and potential threats to work documents and information.
If you allow employees to work at home, you should have them complete a safety and security checklist to be certain that their workspace is compliant and not hazardous to their health. Additionally, employees should be taught how to avoid various technology invasions and breaches of security. A solid Human Resources’ policy accompanied with legal requirements and performance metrics will go a long way to ensure compliance and protect the company from frivolous lawsuits.
Got a unique question? Feel free to contact me directly.
Brandon Dempsey
SuiteCommute, LLC.
1-888-878-4832
Brandon@suitecommute.com
