NOM 037: Challenges For Mexican Companies Regarding Home Office
Although the concept of home office came into our lives recently, due to the pandemic, it’s actually been a labor modality around the world for over 40 years. In Mexico, it was established within the comprehensive reform of the Federal Labor Law of 2012.
According to the Mexican National Employment Occupation Survey (2021), the working population in the country totals 56.6 million people, and about 23% could continue working under the home office modality. This means that about 13 million people could be protected by NOM 037, a reform that seeks to be incorporated into the regulatory framework of the existing Mexican Official Standards, supervising labor situations that may arise during remote work and that may compromise the physical and mental health and safety of remote workers.
This standard was published on July 15, 2022, and it’s estimated that it will be enforced throughout the country by mid-2023. This new regulation aims to establish safety and health conditions for teleworking in order to prevent accidents and diseases, as well as to promote a safe and healthy environment within the space employees provide their services.
In this context, it is important to highlight that Mexico is the Latin American country that is most reluctant to allow employees to work remotely. According to Pandapé's Market Research, 62.51% of Mexican companies prefer their staff to work at the office, and only 33.6% of companies in the country have adopted remote work among their personnel.
Therefore, teleworking standards in Mexico are driving forces that encourage companies to adopt this type of variant to generate greater autonomy, resilience, curiosity and competitiveness among employees.
NOM 037, like all standards, comes with obligations that companies and workers must meet to carry out this type of work. Among these are periodic verification mechanisms, guaranteeing the confidentiality of employees as well as implementing measures to prevent psychosocial risks.
Employee Mental Health
According to different studies, teleworking can decrease employees' sense of emotional well-being due to factors like social isolation, long working hours , with a consequent increase in cognitive load, as well as a lack of physical activity. Therefore, among the 13 employer obligations established by NOM 037 is the prevention of psychosocial risks for workers.
To address this key need, talent management teams must inform employees and implement breaks and rest times. In addition, with a solution or software, the creation-dissemination of a corporate social network and news panel can be promoted to share information as well as materials on physical and mental health, surveys, and sessions with psychologists, among other actions.
All this defines a positive change in the business ecosystem, in which health in the workplace begins to be considered among the preventive tasks of organizations, which until recently focused solely on physical risks and legal compliance.
A Standard With a Gender Perspective
This issue could not be left aside as today's private and public policies are entering into the equality discourse to reduce the gender gap, as well as to carry out actions that enable the changing conditions that allow progress toward equality. Thus, NOM 037 includes provisions aimed at granting special protection for women who perform remote work. These provisions include:
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Promoting a gender perspective in the teleworking policy and the possibility of reconciling personal life as part of the effort to avoid occupational risks caused by psychosocial risk factors.
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The obligation to have attention mechanisms for cases of family violence.
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The alternative of returning to on-site modality on a temporary or permanent basis.
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The possibility of reconciling work with family and personal life, including the eventuality of flexible working hours to ease family responsibilities.
Technology as a Verification Tool
We have been able to witness that due to technology we can carry out remote work, along with its benefits to make employees more productive and happy in their workplace.
Applying NOM 037 is a new challenge for HR departments. How can we manage attendance when working from home? How can we know when employees begin or end each day? How do we keep them informed and increase their sense of belonging? How can we measure results? Once again, technology can become a true ally and help us face these challenges.
Using technology to apply NOM 037 aids in obtaining, processing and monitoring information, for the creation of reports and, above all, in the management of remote personnel. Following the line of the digital ecosystem, software for human resources management that easily implements this type of regulation have become essential for the proper functioning of the department, not only for the efficiency in saving time and effort they offer, but also for the performance of their work since, without a doubt, both employees and organizations will see the benefits.