Jugal Madaan, EVP – Commercial Lines Underwriting, Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC)
The UAE had one of the lowest remote working participation rates in the world prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. While many in the UAE now carry out their daily duties from the convenience of their home instead of behind office desks, it was – and not so very long ago – far from the case for the vast majority.
According to a 2019 survey by the International Workplace Group, 10 percent of workers in the UAE said that they worked from home one to two days per week. This is in stark comparison to the global average, the survey stated, which reported that some 62 percent had the option of remote working.
Times, however, are indeed changing. While there appears to be no official data on current work-from- home rates, with restrictions remaining in place, the practice remains prevalent for most entities and employees.
In line with countries across the world, it puts into sharp focus the implications of the emerging permanent work-from-home culture for UAE companies. This is also the case for the ones that incorporate a hybrid model. Global giants such as Google, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Amazon and PayPal – and many other companies, regardless of their size or geographies – have extended their work-from-home options with a long-term viewpoint.
For UAE firms following suit, there is a vital need to ensure employee safety and mitigate risk exposures. Maintaining duty-of-care for employees may now extend to anywhere that work is being performed, as opposed to the company’s physical premises of work.
As a result, there are key risks that businesses need to consider when their employees are working from home. Electrical safety hazards, such as the provision and maintenance of electrical equipment for the employee’s make-shift-workstation, are an obvious consideration. So too are fire safety hazards.
Welfare, both physical and mental, is vital. Issues such as the correct design and use of furniture, computer equipment and workstation accessories to avoid musculoskeletal injuries become even more important when employees are working long hours. Work has already been done on how working from bed during the pandemic period has had a negative impact on employee health and performance. This also impacts perhaps the most important issue – employee mental health. Ensuring an employee has interaction, supervision and overall wellbeing can be very challenging for an employer in a work-from-home setting.
Companies must consider whether the employee’s working environment is suitable and conducive to good work. Shared accommodation has its own challenges, which could lead to employees adopting bad practices such as working from their beds. Spouses, children and parents may not necessarily help the employee’s focus on work. Managing with insufficient, cramped accommodation while trying to balance childcare and work-related responsibilities in the new norm seems far from ideal. Consider also junior colleagues who have flatmates – and maybe multiple flatmates – who could work in a variety of industries or sectors that bring potential additional exposure to data breaches or violation of confidentiality.
Ensuring an employee has interaction, supervision and overall wellbeing can be very challenging for an employer in a work-from-home setting.
Technological risks, predominantly around cybersecurity, pose a huge and increasingly frequent issue to companies. Technological risk also extends to connectivity issues. Maintaining seamless and uninterrupted high quality communication at all times is a prerequisite in present-day business. Who wants to be the person or company that misses out on a big business deal, for example, by failing to submit a tender on time because somebody’s home WiFi fails, or communication drops when a video call freezes?
Even in low litigious environments like the UAE and other GCC countries, the employer may face lawsuits and situations liable for compensation. The outcome of these are likely to be a complex process. Structured norms and standard operating procedures for work-from-home can and must continue to develop due to the productivity and cost related benefits the corporate world and society are deriving.
The dimensions and extent of safety-risk assessment of work-from-home will be a matter of debate and action. Should self-assessment be carried out by the employee as per the company’s checklist? Or an in-person or virtual safety risk assessment done by a company occupational health and safety professional? Or an in-person or virtual safety risk assessment done by an external third-party occupational health and safety specialist?
These are all vital and valid questions that companies need to address. The processes of risk assessment and risk mitigation will continue to progress, because the reality is that remote working is very much here to stay.
Jugal Madaan, EVP – Commercial Lines Underwriting, Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC)
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Risks of emerging permanent work-from-home culture for UAE companies
While working from home has become the norm for many during the pandemic, there are associated risks
The UAE had one of the lowest remote working participation rates in the world prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. While many in the UAE now carry out their daily duties from the convenience of their home instead of behind office desks, it was – and not so very long ago – far from the case for the vast majority.
According to a 2019 survey by the International Workplace Group, 10 percent of workers in the UAE said that they worked from home one to two days per week. This is in stark comparison to the global average, the survey stated, which reported that some 62 percent had the option of remote working.
Times, however, are indeed changing. While there appears to be no official data on current work-from- home rates, with restrictions remaining in place, the practice remains prevalent for most entities and employees.
In line with countries across the world, it puts into sharp focus the implications of the emerging permanent work-from-home culture for UAE companies. This is also the case for the ones that incorporate a hybrid model. Global giants such as Google, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Amazon and PayPal – and many other companies, regardless of their size or geographies – have extended their work-from-home options with a long-term viewpoint.
For UAE firms following suit, there is a vital need to ensure employee safety and mitigate risk exposures. Maintaining duty-of-care for employees may now extend to anywhere that work is being performed, as opposed to the company’s physical premises of work.
As a result, there are key risks that businesses need to consider when their employees are working from home. Electrical safety hazards, such as the provision and maintenance of electrical equipment for the employee’s make-shift-workstation, are an obvious consideration. So too are fire safety hazards.
Welfare, both physical and mental, is vital. Issues such as the correct design and use of furniture, computer equipment and workstation accessories to avoid musculoskeletal injuries become even more important when employees are working long hours. Work has already been done on how working from bed during the pandemic period has had a negative impact on employee health and performance. This also impacts perhaps the most important issue – employee mental health. Ensuring an employee has interaction, supervision and overall wellbeing can be very challenging for an employer in a work-from-home setting.
Companies must consider whether the employee’s working environment is suitable and conducive to good work. Shared accommodation has its own challenges, which could lead to employees adopting bad practices such as working from their beds. Spouses, children and parents may not necessarily help the employee’s focus on work. Managing with insufficient, cramped accommodation while trying to balance childcare and work-related responsibilities in the new norm seems far from ideal. Consider also junior colleagues who have flatmates – and maybe multiple flatmates – who could work in a variety of industries or sectors that bring potential additional exposure to data breaches or violation of confidentiality.
Technological risks, predominantly around cybersecurity, pose a huge and increasingly frequent issue to companies. Technological risk also extends to connectivity issues. Maintaining seamless and uninterrupted high quality communication at all times is a prerequisite in present-day business. Who wants to be the person or company that misses out on a big business deal, for example, by failing to submit a tender on time because somebody’s home WiFi fails, or communication drops when a video call freezes?
Even in low litigious environments like the UAE and other GCC countries, the employer may face lawsuits and situations liable for compensation. The outcome of these are likely to be a complex process. Structured norms and standard operating procedures for work-from-home can and must continue to develop due to the productivity and cost related benefits the corporate world and society are deriving.
The dimensions and extent of safety-risk assessment of work-from-home will be a matter of debate and action. Should self-assessment be carried out by the employee as per the company’s checklist? Or an in-person or virtual safety risk assessment done by a company occupational health and safety professional? Or an in-person or virtual safety risk assessment done by an external third-party occupational health and safety specialist?
These are all vital and valid questions that companies need to address. The processes of risk assessment and risk mitigation will continue to progress, because the reality is that remote working is very much here to stay.
Jugal Madaan, EVP – Commercial Lines Underwriting, Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC)
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