Many businesses began utilizing remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. If your business is one of them, there are many additional issues to take into consideration.
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Prior to COVID-19, some businesses allowed employees to work from home. This expanded greatly during the pandemic.
Many offices transitioned quickly to remote work for all or many of their staff. Now is a good time for those businesses to reevaluate their practices and policies and make sure that their documents are up to date.
If your business switched to remote work, you may want to ask the following questions:
- Was your employee handbook updated to reflect the change?
- Did your policies and procedures get updated?
- Do you have any sensitive information that is being accessed by remote employees? And if so, are there adequate protections in place?
- Do employees have adequate resources to perform their duties at home?
- Are employees utilizing employer property to perform their duties?
The best course of action for employers is to double check the laws that apply to them, as different laws apply depending on their location, type of business, size of business, etc.
Employers should make sure that they have a remote work policy and potentially, a remote work determination analysis for each job classification or position.
Employers may also want to consider a Remote Work Agreement acknowledging potential issues, such as employer property and reporting of hours worked.
Finally, employers should look to the future. What is the employers plan long-term? Do you want to continue remote work or encourage in-office work to resume?
Your goals can shape the changes made to the policies and procedures.
We help our business clients ensure that they are compliant with laws and effectively navigating remote work and guidance changes.
And as always, communication to your employees is key. Make sure to let your employees know when policies are revised and new procedures are in place.
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