Working From Home Checklist
Empower work-from-home employees to be safe and efficient using digital checklists
Empower work-from-home employees to be safe and efficient using digital checklists
Published 7 Sep 2021
A working from home checklist is a tool primarily used by employers to assess the safety of a home office, and determine the suitability for employees to work from home. Work-from-home, or WFH employees use a working from home checklist to personally evaluate their work environment, identify areas of improvement, and implement efficient work practices.
This work from home safety checklist is specially designed for home-based workers to perform self-assessments and take steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Use this checklist to assess personal health and hygiene, workspace, workstation, display screen, fire and electrical safety, stress and welfare, slip, trip, and fall hazards, and lone working conditions.
The search term “working from home” hit a record high on March 17, 2020—when employees around the world were either encouraged or forced to work from home to help contain the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. Utilizing working from home checklists is crucial for employers to fulfill their responsibilities despite the situation and for employees to keep themselves and their homes safe.
Is there an OSHA regulation for working from home?
No. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration currently does not enforce federal regulations for employers to follow when their employees work from home, but an OSHA Compliance Directive exists for home-based worksites or areas of an employee’s personal residence where the employee performs work for the employer.
Does OSHA conduct inspections of all home-based worksites?
No. OSHA will only conduct inspections of other home-based worksites such as home manufacturing operations when they receive a complaint or referral that indicates a violation of a safety or health standard. The scope of the inspection in an employee’s home will be limited to the employee’s work activities such as the assembly of electronics or handling adhesives without protective gloves.
What are employers responsible for when their employees work from home?
Even when U.S. employers are not expected to inspect the home offices of their employees, they are responsible for hazards caused by materials, equipment, or work processes they provide or require their employees to use in home-based worksites.
Meanwhile, the Health and Safety Executive, or HSE, states that U.K. employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for home workers like any other workers, especially for lone workers without supervision, using display screen equipment, or DSE, and work-related stress.
Work from home is the concept and practice of accomplishing tasks to earn income from one’s private residence. As a policy, top companies allow their employees to temporarily or permanently work from home under certain conditions. As an opportunity, different types of work and businesses can be done and managed from home. Working from home poses various pros and cons, but when the need or option arises, it is crucial to know how to work from home effectively.
The concept of working from home already existed before the industrial revolution, and it is not just a growing trend in the past couple of decades. As managing the home also meant managing resources, a work-home environment seems practical and cost-efficient for most families and communities.
However, the benefits of working from home come with some drawbacks, and understanding both of the advantages and disadvantages can help people to decide if working from home is the right work style for them.
According to an annual survey conducted since 2013, work-life balance continues to be the top reason people seek flexible work or being able to work from home and have control over their schedule. Take a look at these advantages and disadvantages of working from home in terms of time management:
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Set your own work hours | Tendency to overwork |
More time for yourself and your family | More prone to procrastination |
No need to commute | Difficulty sticking to a routine |
Last year, annual remote work research showed that those who work from home are twice more likely to earn salaries higher than $100,000 a year than on-site workers. The possibility of making more money while staying at home attracts a growing number of people, but consider the following financial advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Same or more pay than an in-office counterpart | Potential ebb and flow nature of income |
No planned or unexpected eat-out expenses, commute fares, and parking fees | Increased groceries, food deliveries, and home utility bills |
Tax breaks for freelancers and self-employed | Miss out on corporate office perks e.g. company-issued car or phone |
A global workspace study recently found out that 54% of people think having a choice of work location is more important than working for a prestigious company and having an increase in holiday allowance. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of work from home when it comes to the workspace:
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Freedom to work in any location | Struggle to set home-work boundaries |
Environment-friendly, personalized workstations | Inadequate or unreliable office equipment and data security issues |
More comfortable working conditions, including attire | Personal privacy and ergonomic problems |
Global respondents of The Workplace Revolution confirm that working from home puts productivity at risk—45% find it hard to concentrate. The report also revealed that 77% of millennials claim that flexible work would make them more productive. Is working from home good or bad in getting the job done? Here are the advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Fewer interruptions from colleagues | Distractions from family, pets, and chores |
Working independently and under minimal supervision | Risk of unrecognized efforts and mediocre performance or poor quality of work |
Less frequent and more efficient meetings | Delayed access to or approval for tools, documents, and other requests |
Based on another annual remote work survey in 2019, the biggest struggle with working from home is unplugging after work, or disconnecting from work-related matters and relax. Social isolation is also associated with sleeping problems, depression, and early mortality. Think about the following relational advantages and disadvantages when working from home:
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Working while taking care of parents, children, or pets | Challenging to collaborate with and get feedback from peers |
Minimal office politics and drama | Higher likelihood for miscommunication and misunderstanding |
Remotely maintain built relationships within the company or among clients | Prone to boredom, lack of motivation, and feelings of isolation or loneliness |
OSHA specifies that injuries or illnesses incurred while the employee is performing work for pay or compensation at home are work-related cases and recordable on the OSHA 300 log if it meets recording criteria such as a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed healthcare professional, even if it does not result in death, or loss of consciousness among others. Here are common safety and health risks when working from home, so once they are identified, action can be taken to minimize them:
If you believe that you have what it takes to be self-employed, then venture into the world of freelance or business. You can be your own boss, working anywhere and anytime you want, but these privileges also come with the risk of volatility and idleness. Take advantage of free work from home apps to increase productivity, and practice the following tips to help you become successful as a freelancer or home business owner:
Self-motivate, do not procrastinate
Delaying to do the job does not actually make it go away, but only prolonging the time it usually takes to complete it. Refrain from making yourself believe that you will accomplish more when you multitask. Focus your energy on working on one project at a time, and you will have more time to take on more projects.
Runaway from the email rabbit hole
Casually scrolling through emails can lead to spending too much time on unimportant or non-urgent matters. It might take a lot of effort to clean up your inbox or unsubscribe to spammy emails, but it will be worth your while to be successful working from home freelancer in the long run.
Assert and increase project-based rates
Work from home freelancers can earn more by naming their price for every project, not for every hour to be spent on achieving it. Clearly specifying the quality of work to be poured into the project can encourage your clients to pay more rather than settling for a standard hourly rate.
Take a break, deep breaths, and long walks
Practicing the Pomodoro technique, or segmenting your work hours into chunks with short breaks in between, can help improve your productivity, and learn to destress when things seem to spiral out of control such as expediting deadlines, adding workload, or changing details.
Develop your skillset, grow in your niche
While choosing and targeting the right niche for your experience or expertise can make or break your work-from-home freelance career, improving your skills can elevate you to success. Upskilling allows you to earn more per project, ask more from existing clients, and reach more potential clients.
Plan, but just do it
Many home-based business wannabes usually have good ideas and some do their research, but only a few make it happen. To be a successful home business owner, one should make plans, but more importantly, have the courage to execute those plans against all odds.
Get the fundamentals right
Know about the legal requirements for setting up a home-based business such as tax or zoning laws. Consult with your accountant as you might actually qualify for certain tax deductions. You can also outsource administrative services to allocate more of your time for other more important matters.
Sustainability over profitability
You probably wanted to manage your own business with the hope of making more money, but it is better to focus on long-term goals, than short-term gains. With sustainability in mind, you can make wiser business decisions and protect yourself from falling for the false promise of shortcuts.
Master the social component
Expanding your network and marketing your product or service, especially online, are crucial elements of successful home-based business management. Upsell and cross-sell to your current clients, having built strong relationships with them. Gaining social proof for your business means spreading credible word-of-mouth recommendations for free.
Experiment, fail, and improve
If being a home business owner was easy, then everyone would have done it. Perseverance is key to success, so don’t be afraid to try new things like implementing new processes or changing marketing tactics. You can always learn from failures and improve yourself, the way you work, and your business.
With the different types of work that can be done from home, you probably want to try pursuing a part-time or full-time home-based career and know exactly what steps to take to be productive in this work style. After remote teams assess and control safety and health risks in their respective home offices, here is how they can function more effectively when working from home:
Build self-discipline
Setting a dedicated workspace can help you avoid distractions such as social media, TV, or chores, and sticking to your routine as if you still went to an office building like getting up early, taking a shower, and changing your clothes, can help establish boundaries between your place and time for work and for yourself.
Be proactive
Planning ahead allows you to foresee any changes or unnecessary downtime so you can respond accordingly, making the most out of your time. Since you might feel guilty for being unproductive as a side effect of having more time spent at home, you can choose to go the extra mile and initiate to do more.
Boost communication
Clarifying work-related tasks lets you set your and your manager’s expectations about exactly what should be done during this period of working from home. Collaborate more often with your teammates to prevent avoidable misunderstanding and stay connected with actual human beings other than your family.
The concept and practice of work from home are not new. Working from home is no longer viewed as a company benefit, but a legitimate style of work with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Whether you choose to work as a remote employee, a work-from-home freelancer, or a home business owner, knowing the way that works for you is key to success.
Staying safe and efficient while working from home can be challenging for employees. Empower frontline workers with an inspection and corrective action tool that can be learned in minutes so you can easily manage your team from wherever you are. With iAuditor by SafetyCulture, you can take advantage of the following benefits when you sign up for free today:
A working from home health and safety checklist is a digital tool used to make sure that work-from-home employees have a safe home office that promotes their general well-being. This checklist is built according to the State Government of Victoria, Australia, and includes evaluation items for the designated work area, work surface, physical demands of tasks, work practices, emergency procedures, and more. Failed items should be corrected before employees can work from home.
This working from home checklist is used by the Charters Towers Regional Council in Queensland, Australia to assess a private residence and determine the suitability for employees to work from home. Use this checklist to inspect environmental conditions such as ergonomics, security, and first aid and work practices such as hazard and incident reporting, communication methods, and fitness for work or any other current medical conditions.
A home healthcare worker safety checklist is a tool used by in-home care service providers to conduct a self-assessment of their personal safety prior to commencing work. This checklist is built according to NIOSH Hazard Review: Occupational Hazards in Home Healthcare, and it covers areas such as safe patient handling, infection control, and more. Use this checklist to ensure that healthcare workers are safe to perform their duties in their patients’ homes.
A telecommuting safety checklist is used by teleworkers, or employees who work from an alternative worksite and use telecommunication equipment such as telephones or fax machines, to assess the overall safety of their work environment and maintain safe working conditions. This checklist is designed based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management standards, and covers inspection checks for fire safety, electrical safety, computer workstation, and other safety measures.