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• Responsibility for additional costs related to starting the telecommuting operation
(such as installing a broadband Internet connection, a second telephone line, and so
forth) needs to be established up front. The organization and employee need to be
clear about who is paying for what.
• The employee should have homeowner’s insurance general liability coverage and
provide a designated person at the agency with evidence of this insurance.
• The employer should conduct regular face-to-face meetings with the staff to bring
people together. This could vary from once a week to once a month. For example,
you might select to conduct a monthly status meeting at non–rush hour times.
• You also want to be sure employees do not become islands out there. Arm them
with instant messaging and possibly videoconferencing capabilities. The technology
is there, and costs are very low for a basic system.
• The company should notify the employee that it is their responsibility to notify their
insurer about working from home. If there is an additional charge for that coverage,
payment needs to be negotiated between the worker and the business.
• The organization needs to have written documentation of what business property is
being located at the employee’s home.
• If the telecommuter is working on a computer, a plan needs to be in place that spells
out what will happen if the computer is down.
Monitoring
Let’s say you’ve got your telecommuters in place and business is moving along nicely. You
can’t rest on your laurels, however. You have to do some regular monitoring to make sure
things are going as you planned.
Some monitoring ideas include:

• Review each telecommuting arrangement at least once a year to make sure the
criteria originally established continue to be met.
• Conduct periodic site visits (at least once per year) to evaluate and ensure minimum
safety requirements are being met. If there are problems, the telecommuter should
correct them per your agreement.
• If site visits are conducted, they should be performed by a qualified safety/ergonomic
specialist who can conduct an ergonomic assessment.
• Get annual certificates of insurance coverage from each telecommuting employee.
• In the event of an injury, the business should gather as much specific information as
possible. This information will help the worker’s compensation adjuster determine
whether the injury was work related.
• If a third party experiences damage, the business should gather as much information
as possible to determine whether the damage is work related.

Outsourcing
Whereas telecommuting keeps the work in-house—it’s just performed by employees at
home—outsourcing takes the work out of the company’s hands completely and sends it to