Someone working alone at home is a lone worker, and an employer's health and safety duties follow them there. The risks are different from a visiting role, less about assault and more about isolation, a medical event with nobody nearby, workstation problems over time, and mental health, but the duty to assess and manage them is the same. For most home-based office staff the controls are light: a workstation assessment, a way to check someone is OK, and a clear route to raise concerns. For higher-risk home-based work, the same check-in and alarm thinking applies as anywhere else.
Remote staff are lone workers, and often forgotten ones
Lone-working policies usually picture someone out on a visit or alone on a site. They rarely mention the person working by themselves at a kitchen table. But a home worker is working alone, without direct supervision, and the Health and Safety at Work Act follows them home.
The risks are just different. The main ones are isolation and its effect on mental health, a medical episode with nobody present to notice or help, poor workstation set-up causing musculoskeletal problems over time, and, for some roles, the home becoming a place where a worker deals with distressing contact alone.
Proportionate controls for most home workers
A home-worker risk assessment and a display-screen-equipment assessment cover the basics: a suitable workstation, breaks and a sensible set-up. These can be self-completed with a simple checklist for most office-type roles.
Then the human side: regular, genuine check-ins so an isolated worker is seen and heard rather than only measured on output, clear ways to flag a problem or a wellbeing concern, and manager awareness that someone going quiet can be a signal. For most home-based office work, that is a proportionate level of control.
When home-based work needs more
Some home-based roles carry a sharper risk. A worker who takes distressing or hostile calls from home, a sole trader or carer whose home is also their workplace, or anyone with a health condition that could lead to a sudden medical event alone, needs more than a workstation form.
For those cases the same thinking applies as for any lone worker: a timed check-in or welfare check, a fast way to raise the alarm, and a named person who responds. An app on the phone they already carry can provide a one-tap SOS, automatic fall detection and a check-in with no hardware at all, which is often the lightest way to cover a home-based worker who needs it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is working from home classed as lone working?
- Yes. Someone who works by themselves at home, without close or direct supervision, is a lone worker, and the employer's health and safety duties apply to them as they would to any other lone worker. The risks are different, but the duty to assess and manage them is the same.
- What does an employer have to do for home workers?
- Assess the risks of home working and put proportionate controls in place. For most office-type roles that means a workstation (DSE) assessment, sensible arrangements for breaks and set-up, regular check-ins, and clear ways to raise a problem or a wellbeing concern. Higher-risk home-based roles need more.
- What are the main risks of lone working from home?
- Isolation and its effect on mental health, a medical event with nobody present to help, workstation and musculoskeletal problems over time, and for some roles dealing with distressing or hostile contact alone. Assault, the headline risk for visiting staff, is usually lower, but the others are real.
- Do home workers need a lone-worker app?
- Most office-based home workers do not; good check-ins and a workstation assessment are proportionate. But where a home-based role carries a sharper risk, a sudden medical event, hostile contact, or working truly alone, a simple app providing one-tap SOS, fall detection and check-ins is often the lightest way to cover it.
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Last updated 2026-10-28