Two legal risks of remote workforce: Accountability, state jurisdiction.

If you're converting some of your in-house staff to telecommuters in this current environment, be aware of a couple of key legal issues:

The rules still apply

As much as realistically possible, you can still apply your company rules to employees who work outside the main workplace. Don't let employees take advantage of the distance and begin to ignore the rules everyone else has to follow. Insist on accountability--and discipline employees who don't comply.

Case in point: Renee worked out of her home office in Florida for an engineering company. She was required to regularly turn in time sheets and expense reports on time, but she began to turn them in late or not at all. She also took leave without permission.

Her supervisor asked her to be more accountable and put her on a performance improvement plan. When things didn't improve, she was terminated and sued for discrimination.

The court tossed out her case, saying that remote employees don't have any extra rights to not follow company policy. (Bean v. Quails, ND FL)

Which state law matters?

Be careful if your telecommuters live in one state but work in another. Employers have found out (the hard way) that they could be subject to the other state's jurisdiction and employment laws.

So before authorizing telecommuting...