As organisations and businesses tilt towards the remote work model, the need for employers to have a duty of care towards their workers and put in place reasonable adjustments for disabled employees has been emphasised.
Employment experts argued that since working from home is seen as an extension of the workplace, employees’ health and safety implications should be considered.
An Associate Director of Legal, Croner, Andrew Willis, said employers should also consider whether working from home could be a reasonable adjustment for an employee with a disability.
He said employers also needed to consider how they could ensure that employees working from home remain part of the team so that communication and working practices would need to be carefully thought through.
He advised that employers should listen to their workers’ concerns and ensure that any wellbeing strategy reflects their requirements, alleging that businesses are ill-equipped to deal with supporting those with physical or mental ill health.
Another HR expert, Pat Davies, said whether employees are working remotely or not, their line managers should intentionally seek out opportunities to build trust and rapport.
Davies, who acknowledged that people with disabilities often face “unique challenges” in the workplace and that while working from home could be a “great reasonable adjustment,” she said wellbeing should be a top priority.
According to her, organisations needed to consider various factors to prevent isolation, including individual preferences, the nature of disabilities, company policies and support systems.
“They should also provide accessible tools, encourage social interaction, offer flexibility, support mental health and promote disability awareness and inclusion.
“Working from home can be helpful but is not suitable for all jobs and more holistic support is needed including the confidence to manage people with a disability or health condition, good people management and an effective reasonable adjustments process,” she said.
She added that support may involve “improving infrastructure, ensuring that workplaces comply with disability accessibility standards and offering training programmes to create a more inclusive and accommodating work environment”, alongside partnerships with advocacy groups and agencies, which will create an inclusive job market in the future.
Following the post-pandemic influx in home and remote working, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), an association for human resource management professionals, announced a consultation to reform the welfare system to achieve more accessible, inclusive and diverse workplaces.
The plans are expected to explore updates to the work capability assessment’s categories, to better “reflect” the modern world of work and the opportunities available to those who currently cannot access it.
A Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, Williams Jiménez, said: “Such work needs to be good work – meaning it’s safe, healthy, sustainable and accommodates people’s needs – and should be implemented through improved access to flexible working, occupational health services and occupational safety and health advice.”
He added that this would make the labour force more diverse and that government reforms to improve occupational health provision would also cater to the needs of the workers, through an occupational health equity strategy that seeks to address historical health inequities.
