Remote or isolated work
How to reduce and manage risks associated with working alone or in isolation.
Practical step by step ideas, tips and suggestions to help employers of different sizes prevent mental injury and create a safe and mentally healthy workplace. Use tools, templates and resources to focus on work-related factors that impact mental health and learn good practice. Check out the full range of topics on the Toolkit.
Step 1: Learn about working alone, remotely or in isolation
What does it mean to work alone, remotely or in isolation?
Remote work is work at locations where access to resources and communications is difficult and travel times may be lengthy. Isolated work is where there are no or few other people around and access to help from others, especially in an emergency, may be difficult.
An employee can be considered to be working alone or in isolation even if other people are close by, whether for a short amount of time or even weeks on end. Which is why employees working in larger institutions and cities can also still be working alone or in isolation.
Some examples of working alone or in isolation:
- employees working in remote areas
- employees working night-shift
- employees who travel alone.
- working unsupervised – public transport, taxi and limousine drivers
How does working alone, remotely or in isolation affect your business?
People who work alone or in isolation face different levels of risk compared to other employees. They may be unable to access immediate assistance from team members, other people or emergency services due to the location, time and type of work they are doing. In fact, exposure to violence and poor access to emergency assistance are among the common hazards associated with remote or isolated work.
Not only are these employees potentially at an increased risk of physical harm, but working alone or in isolation can have a negative effect on their mental health. A lack of social contact, particularly over an extended period, may lead to anxiety, lack of motivation and loss of involvement in decision-making within the organisation.
What are your rights and responsibilities at work?
Employers must provide and maintain a workplace that is safe and free from risks to health, including psychological health, so far as is reasonably practicable.
Employees have a responsibility to take reasonable care of their own health and safety in the workplace, and the health and safety of others. They must also cooperate with employers to create a safe environment.
Step 2: Consult your employees
Consultation can be done in a number of ways. Depending on your workplace, it can be as simple as casually walking around your workplace having a conversation, or as formal as setting up a health and safety committee.
Good consultation has lots of benefits – it leads to better decision making and greater cooperation and trust between employers and employees, who get a better understanding of each other's views.
Consultation isn't just good practice though, it's actually a legal requirement for employers. Employers must consult with employees including health and safety representatives (if any), so far as is reasonably practicable, about matters that directly affect, or are likely to directly affect, their health and safety. This includes identifying whether remote or isolated work may be a hazard at the workplace, and working out how to eliminate or reduce the risks associated with it. At a minimum, it must involve sharing information about an issue, giving employees reasonable opportunity to share their views on that issue, and taking those views into consideration.
Learn about your rights and responsibilities, as well as how best to consult
Step 3: Identify hazards and risks
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm to a person. Think of hazards like 'situations' or 'things' in the workplace that can hurt someone, either physically or mentally. The risk is the potential of the harm actually happening.
For example, a cable on the floor is a physical hazard. The risk is being physically injured from tripping on that cable. The same applies to hazards that affect our mental health – these are known as psychosocial hazards.
Remote or isolated work is an example of a hazard. The risk is that working alone or in isolation could lead to an injury.
Roles which can involve remote or isolated work include:
- real estate agents
- a community nurse conducting visits at night
- school principal or doctor in a rural area
- offshore mining
- fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) employees / when travelling for work
- those who work from home some or all of their week
- working alone physically – unpacking in a warehouse
- out of hours work – outside of standard working hours such as shift work (e.g. night shift operators in petrol stations or convenience stores)
- long distance travelling – freight transport drivers
- working in isolation with the public – public transport drivers
Often multiple hazards can be present at the same time and can combine to increase the risk of harm occurring. Identifying remote or isolated work as a hazard and understanding factors that contribute to the risks associated with it occurring is the best way to prevent these from happening.
Step 4: Assess the risks
Assess the risk of remote or isolated work occurring
A risk assessment will help you understand the risks to your employees' health, and how to prioritise your efforts to manage them.
It is good practice to identify hazards, both individually and together, that are creating risks to health and safety. Once you have identified the hazards, you can assess the risk of them occurring.
Risk assessment tips
- Identify the who is more at risk of working alone
Working in isolation may apply to specific employees or groups of employees, or specific work tasks. It may be experienced in individuals or groups in a specific location.
- Consider if hazards are occurring in isolation or together
Remote or isolated work may co-occur with another hazard. For example, poor workplace relationships may increase the risk or contributing to remote or isolated work. Look at the root cause of the problem, rather than just the remote or isolated work itself.
- Consider the seriousness of the risk
Consider how often and for how long employees are exposed to remote or isolated work. Think about the potential impacts on mental and physical health if the risk is not managed.
Step 5: Control the risks
A control simply means 'ways to manage' an issue. Controls are things you put in place to eliminate or reduce risks. The list could be endless, but it's really just about taking action, so far as reasonably practicable, to manage the risks associated with remote or isolated work in your workplace.
Here are some ways that employers can take action (or 'implement a control') to create a safe workplace.
- Strategies for those working from home
If working from home, consider a number of the below strategies you can employ to ensure employees continue to collaborate effectively and maintain momentum.
- regularly checking in to make sure employees feel supported and are coping with working from home, for example by setting up daily phone or video conference meetings
- creating opportunities for team communications, for example by using online tools or apps to establish team-wide chat groups
- being available, accessible and willing to listen
- adjusting traditional management styles for focus on employee performance rather than attendance
- providing employees with appropriate control and flexibility over how they do their work
- providing practical tools to support positive mental health, such as access to an employee assistance program
- encouraging employees to stay physically active, eat well and regularly go outside
- making sure employees are effectively disengaging from their work and logging off at the end of the day
- ensuring realistic workloads so that employees do not feel obligated to work overtime and can disengage from their work at home
- having a written plan for how and when work will be done
- Provide regular communication and create check-in procedures
- Develop a communication plan so managers and employees know when and how to contact each other.
- Establish check in procedures such as texts or phone calls before and after travelling or meeting customers and clients.
- Develop a buddy system, whether in person or via communication.
- Put in place security measures
Where appropriate, employers should develop emergency procedures and ensure everyone knows what they are and where to find them. Other security measures could include:
- Escorts to vehicles if working alone after hours.
- Security guards or patrols.
- Personal duress alarms.
- Automatic warning devices that raise the alarm in an emergency.
- Provide inductions and training
During onboarding, employers should discuss acceptable behaviours and refer to relevant OHS policies and procedures. Employees should also receive regular training on how to prevent and respond to remote or isolated work
- Consider the other hazards occurring
If remote or isolated work is occurring in the workplace due to other unmanaged psychosocial hazards, make a considered effort to understand these hazards and how they may be increasing the risk or contributing to it.
- Develop a policy
A policy is not legally required but it is best practice. A policy could define remote or isolated work and outline how everyone is expected to manage the risks associated with it. It should also include:
- steps on how to report an incident
- what actions will be taken to protect employees
- what support services and referral pathways are available
This can be a standalone document, or part of your general occupational health and safety (OHS) policy.
Working alone, remotely or in isolation work policy template
Remember to measure the effectiveness of existing controls to see if they’re working and if not, look for new ways to control the risks.
Step 6: Share, review and improve
A safe and mentally healthy workplace needs ongoing commitment and engagement.
If you have an OHS policy, review it every year or when new information about working in isolation becomes available. You want to check whether the controls you've implemented are still relevant and effective (i.e. training, reporting).
By sharing the outcomes of these reviews, as well as suggestions and recommendations for improvements, you can keep the conversation going. This will continue to build trust and cooperation between you and your employees. Consultation must be undertaken before making any changes to, the workplace, things used at the workplace, or the conduct of work at the workplace, which may affect employee health and safety, and these changes should be communicated to your employees.
Here's an idea! Set a calendar appointment now to review your policy in 12 months.
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