This blog post will look at what Home Office Licenced Sponsors need to do to ensure that they are meeting their duties and responsibilities when their sponsored workers are working from home. This looks to be a particular concern for the Information and Communications sector as they are most likely to continue to use homeworking and are facing recruitment issues for skilled workers. Failure to comply with Sponsor duties can lead to Sponsors losing their Licence. This can have serious operational and reputational consequences for businesses.
Recruitment Issues: Skilled Worker Shortage
Information technology, communications professionals, programmers and software development professionals are all on the shortage occupation list and the difficulties in recruiting Skilled Workers for this sector has been well publicised. With the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, State of the Nation Report 2022 showing that “On average, there were 64,000 job vacancies in the Information and Communications sector during Q3.21 - an increase of 36% on the previous quarter and 191% on the equivalent period of 2020.”
To deal with recruitment issues many businesses in the Information and Communications sector will be considering sponsoring workers to allow them to fill their current vacancies and to continue to grow.
Homeworking in the Information and Communications sector
The Office for National Statistics – Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) provides an interesting insight into the future intention of businesses to retain homeworking for staff.
“Overall, the proportion of businesses reporting using or intending to include homeworking as a permanent business model increased slightly from 16% in autumn 2020 to 23% in early April 2022. This varied significantly by industry.
More than half (54%) of businesses in the information and communication industry said they were using, or intended to use, increased homeworking as part of a permanent business model in early April 2022.”
While homeworking provides many benefits in the Information and Communications sector, Sponsors need to be careful that they are still complying with their Sponsor Licence duties in relation to reporting and record keeping.
Sponsor duties and responsibilities
Reporting
Employers must continue to comply with Sponsor duties and responsibilities including reporting a change in work location unless this is due to coronavirus. In all other situations, Sponsors should notify the Home Office of hybrid arrangements via the Sponsorship Management System (SMS) account. Sponsors should provide information on the average hours expected to be worked in each location.
Sponsors should take care to ensure that they maintain procedures for monitoring absences even when workers are working outwith the office and that they require workers to update them with any changes to their address.
Record keeping
Sponsors must continue to keep a record of information on their sponsored employees including absences and current contact details. To demonstrate to the Home Office and to ensure that expectations are clear for employees Sponsors should implement a Hybrid working policy. Sponsors should think about employment law as well as immigration law when implementing a hybrid working policy.
Hybrid working policies
Communication is key when implementing a hybrid working policy, which is why an effective policy is crucial. Any such policy should contain details of any hybrid working arrangements across the company, including expected office hours and regularity, and whether there is flexibility between departments. The Sponsors should always be aware of the possibility of a working arrangement being discriminatory to particular members of staff.
It is important to make clear that any hybrid working arrangement is discretionary and that the Sponsor maintains the ability to change or terminate the arrangement if the Sponsor deems it no longer suitable. The policy provides an opportunity to address any provisions the Sponsor may wish to implement with regard to data protection and confidentiality of company information being used outwith the normal premises, as well as any required health and safety provisions in an environment where the Sponsor has limited control. The policy is a further opportunity to explain what expenses can be claimed from the Sponsor, and what amounts to the normal commute.
It will also be important for any employer using a hybrid working policy to ensure that the employees’ contracts are up to date and reflect their place of work. Any variations to the contract should be provided in writing within one month of the change taking place. It will be helpful therefore to invoke mechanisms that require the employees to update the Sponsor with any changes to their address.
Full-time Remote Working
If a sponsored employee is not expected to attend a physical location in the UK, the Home Office may question the need for the employee to have a Skilled Worker visa. If the worker is based wholly outwith the UK they do not require a Skilled Worker visa and if they are required to attend a UK based location on occasion one of the Global Mobility visa routes may be more suitable.
Businesses who require further information and advice in respect of obtaining or maintaining their Sponsor Licence or other visa routes should contact our specialist Immigration team on 03330 430350 for further information and advice. If you have questions or concerns about the implementing hybrid working policy in your organisation our Employment team can be contacted on 03330 430350.
