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- Annual leave (holiday)
- Attendance during severe weather
- Compassionate leave and Emergency leave
- Flexible working
- Flu pandemic
- Homeworking
- Circumstances in which homeworking may be approved
- Suitability for homeworking
- Employee requirements and effective homeworking
- Working arrangements
- Guidance for managing staff working from home
- Equipment
- Accessing IT facilities and support from home
- Long term/extended homeworking
- Business continuity
- Security and confidentiality
- Health and safety
- Compensation for expenses
- Mortgage, landlord, council tax and insurance issues
- Changing job
- Jury service
- Parents and Carers
- Right to request training
- Sickness absence
- Study leave
- Travel policy
- Forms and templates
Employee requirements
The employee must satisfy their manager that they can:
- provide a suitable home computer, unless a University laptop is provided;
- provide at home a Broadband connection with minimum speed of 1MB which supports VPN;
- provide a home or mobile telephone (unless a University mobile or VOIP telephone is provided) where they can receive and make calls in accordance with agreed contact arrangements;
- provide a working environment which complies with the health and safety, data security and confidentiality standards detailed below.
Dependant care while homeworking
It is not appropriate to combine home-based working with dependant care: home working should not be viewed as an alternative to paid dependant care. Staff who are homeworking should not have sole responsibility for a child or other dependant during hours when they are working.
Guidance for effective homeworking
Homeworkers may find the following ‘top ten tips for effective homeworking’ useful for working from home effectively and creating the right work/life balance.
- Physically separate ‘work’ and ‘home’ where possible. If you can, create a dedicated and functional workspace that contains all of the necessary equipment that you need. When you are not working, shut the door. This will help you to focus on your work, and not be distracted by the television or housework or DIY etc, while you are working and, similarly, when you are not working, you will be more able to switch off from work and relax.
- Establish a daily work schedule including regular breaks (away from your computer if possible). Having regularly scheduled hours when you work will help you to be more efficient during these times. Be sure to schedule work time as well as break times so that you will not become overwhelmed. One of the pitfalls that some work from home employees fall into is working too many hours. In an office there is a clear signal to the end of the day as other employees start to leave the office for the day but homeworkers may find it difficult to end their day.
- Make sure that you manage your homeworking time effectively. Be organised and plan your working time effectively.
- Motivate yourself eg set yourself targets each day and push yourself to meet them. Being able to motivate yourself is critical for the work at home employee. In an office situation, you have a supervisor and co-workers who motivate you to complete your work but when you are working at home, you only have yourself to push you to succeed.
- Maintain a professional attitude. A home office may be an informal environment that affords you the luxury of dressing casually but you should always keeping your interactions with customers and colleagues businesslike by being careful to answer the phone or respond to their emails in a professional manner at all times.
- Stay in touch with colleagues. Don’t become isolated. Make yourself available to colleagues and ensure they know how they can contact you.
- Keep distractions to a minimum.
- Avoid household chores until after work.
- Do not try to mix caring duties with your work while working at home. Homeworkers should not be solely responsible for young children while they are working from home as it is not possible to be to attend to the needs of their children while fulfilling their job obligations.
- Ensure that your family, friends and neighbours know when you are working. Don’t allow your partner or children to distract you from completing your work. People may assume that because you work at home you are free to chat or to help them run errands (eg pick up their children from school or be an emergency babysitter if their child has a cold). While you may want to help your family and friends, it is important to make it clear that your work is just as important as theirs and that you have obligations to take care of each day.
