Home and Hybrid Working | Three Things the HSE Wants You to Fix

I’ve been working in occupational health and safety for close to four decades now, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the law doesn’t care where your employees are working from. It cares that they’re safe.

This month, the Health and Safety Executive issued a pointed reminder to employers across Great Britain: your health and safety responsibilities apply to home workers and hybrid workers just as they do to anyone sitting in your office. That might sound obvious to those of us in the profession but given the sheer scale of remote working in 2026, it’s a message that clearly needed repeating.

How Big Is the Home Working Picture in 2026?

According to the Office for National Statistics, 38% of workers in Great Britain were working remotely or in a hybrid arrangement as of January 2026. That breaks down to 25% in hybrid roles and 13% fully remote. We’re not talking about a niche arrangement anymore. This is how more than a third of the workforce operates, across nearly every sector and business size.

To put that in context, the House of Lords Home-based Working Select Committee recently gathered evidence from over 800 organisations to examine the impact of this shift. Their report, Is working from home working?, recommended clearer guidance for employers and a dedicated awareness campaign. The government has agreed, and the HSE’s March 2026 announcement is part of that response.

What Are the Three Priority Areas?

The HSE is asking employers to focus on three areas in particular:

• Stress and mental health. The latest HSE annual statistics have revealed a worrying picture here. In 2024/25, 964,000 workers in Great Britain reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety. More than double the rate recorded when annual tracking began in 2001/02. Collectively, these conditions accounted for an estimated 22.1 million lost working days. For home workers, isolation, blurred boundaries between work and personal life, and pressure to remain “on” outside normal hours can all contribute.
• Display screen equipment (DSE). The DSE Regulations haven’t changed, but the environment has. If that kitchen table, sofa, or spare bedroom setup your employees have been using all day hasn’t been properly assessed, you may not be meeting your obligations. Musculoskeletal disorders affected 511,000 workers in 2024/25, and poor workstation setups at home are a known contributor.
• The working environment – including accidents, emergencies, and lone working. Trailing cables, damaged equipment, obstructed exits – these hazards don’t disappear because someone works from their living room. Employers also need to consider what happens if a lone home worker has an accident or medical emergency. Do they know what to do? Do you?

What Does “Good” Look Like in Practice?

The reassuring news, as Barbara Hockey from the HSE’s Engagement and Policy Division has pointed out, is that you don’t need to physically visit every employee’s home. For most home workers, the risks are low and manageable through straightforward steps.

From my experience, the employers who manage this well tend to do a few things consistently. They keep regular, meaningful contact with remote staff. Not surveillance, but informal check-ins about workload, wellbeing and training needs. They have open conversations about the physical workspace, asking employees to visually check their equipment and report any concerns. They make sure everyone understands what to do in an emergency, even at home. And they actively discourage a culture of out-of-hours working.

None of this requires expensive technology or complex processes. A simple self-assessment checklist for DSE, a clear lone working procedure, and a manager who asks “how are you really doing?” regularly can go a long way.

What’s Coming Next? Keep an Eye on ISO 45008

It’s also worth noting that the international standards landscape is catching up. ISO 45008, a new guideline for occupational health and safety management in remote working, is currently at Draft International Standard stage and expected to be published later in 2026 or 2027. It will sit alongside ISO 45001 and provide practical, structured guidance for organisations managing workers outside traditional workplaces.

For those of us who’ve been advocating for a more systematic approach to remote worker safety, this is a welcome development. It signals that home working health and safety has become a permanent feature of how we work, and the frameworks need to reflect that.

The Bottom Line

This is a legal duty, not optional guidance. If your organisation has home or hybrid workers – and statistically, it probably does – you need to be actively managing the health and safety risks that come with those arrangements. The good news is that for most employers, the steps involved are proportionate and practical.

Start by reviewing your risk assessments. Have an honest conversation with your teams. Make sure your managers have the confidence and the training to support remote workers properly. And if you’re not sure where to begin, the HSE’s free guidance at hse.gov.uk is a solid starting point.

After nearly 40 years in this industry, I’m encouraged to see the conversation evolving. The workplace has changed, and our approach to keeping people safe within it needs to keep pace.

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