Creating effective hybrid work policies: Top tips & template

Hybrid work offers employees the best of both worlds – the flexibility of remote work and the camaraderie of in-office time. But managing a hybrid workforce is not an easy feat, which is why you need to ensure you have the right hybrid work policy.

Often, homeworkers end up working longer hours with fewer career advancement opportunities than their in-office counterparts. Additionally, a lack of a formal hybrid work policy could leave your employees anxious or demotivated. In some cases, it could also create two classes of workers, remote and in-office, with remote employees being treated as “second-class.”

‍So, once you've established your business is ready for hybrid work, you need to create a strong hybrid working policy that:

• Is equitable and fair to everyone
• Provides the right working conditions to all employees
• Outlines all available hybrid arrangements and requirements
• Sets clear rules for remote and office work, including working hours, required office presence, and communication channels and tools

We also advise you to use hybrid work software to make desk booking and attendance management easier.

Just as workplace policies or employee handbooks outline dos and don'ts for employees, hybrid working policies should lay down clear criteria and rules around hybrid work and also provide best practices for employees.

Below, you'll find a hybrid work policy template you can grab and use for free, plus our top tips on how to build a sensible flexible policy that works well for you and your employees – but first, let’s clarify what hybrid work actually is.

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Defining hybrid work

Hybrid work is a flexible work model that allows employees to divide their work time between the office and their home – or different locations, such as coworking spaces, libraries, or even coffee shops. It recognises that not all tasks require a physical presence in the office, and some can be effectively completed from a distance, especially if you provide your employees with the right communication and project management systems.

By implementing a hybrid work model, you can offer your people the freedom to choose where they work and enable them to strike a better work-life balance. This, in turn, can lead to better job satisfaction and retention – and improved employee well-being.

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Your free hybrid workplace policy template

The template below is yours to use; you can simply copy and paste it and tweak it to fit your organisation's needs. ‍

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Policy overview

Beginning [Date], [Company] will implement a hybrid work model. All employees are eligible for hybrid work. Schedules must fit within one of the models described below and be cleared by your manager.

Please read the entire policy and sign to confirm you have read it. Contact [name and email of contact person] if you have any questions.

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Hybrid work schedule

Hybrid schedules depend on your department; you have flexibility within the hybrid model below. Contact your direct supervisor with questions.

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All departments should book office space for in-office days with Officely.

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‍Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Your manager will discuss with you all relevant key performance indicators and how they might be affected by hybrid work.

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In-office amenities

Employees working at the office more than 3 days a week will have a dedicated desk, parking space, and access to the company gym or childcare services.

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Equipment and software

For all employees, the company will provide:

• Laptop
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Headset
• Cellphone

Employees working remotely more than 2 days a week will also receive stipends to cover internet costs.

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Compensation and benefits

Compensation might be subject to adjustments if relocating to a different city or area.

Employees will also receive the following additional stipends:

• Gym memberships/related health membership
• Virtual health consults
• Virtual mental health counseling
• Childcare
• [Add more benefits here]

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Communication tools and guidelines

Use the following tools for remote communication:

• Email for weekly updates, updates for clients, delivery of material to clients
• Slack for team-wide communication, client groups (if requested), quick announcements
• Google Meet for meetings, presentations, stand-ups
• Officely for updating your work location (remote or from the office) and booking desks

Prioritise the use of public channels of communication and be respectful of others’ time and show up punctually for meetings.

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Commitment to equal opportunities

We’re committed to providing a similar experience to remote and in-office employees. To ensure everyone has equal access to opportunities, managers must:

• Use public channels to announce new work opportunities and projects
• Review how often employees are promoted with respect to their work preferences

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10 tips for building a successful hybrid and remote work agreement

Below, you’ll find our top tips on how to manage the transition to a hybrid work model – and how to ensure that it works well for you and your team.

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1. Determine eligibility for hybrid work

Before you start building your hybrid policy, define the roles for which hybrid work is possible and those for which it is not.

Here are some examples:

• Roles suitable for hybrid work: Most roles in project management, software development, design, marketing, finance, accounting, and admin
• Roles that require mostly in-office presence: Front desk and customer-facing roles, field staff managers, facility management staff, any role involving physical work

You might still want to offer employees in the second category some flexibility, for example by providing occasional WFH days. You might even have team members from other departments like marketing or finance cover office-based roles like the front desk from time to time to allow for more equitable access to remote work.

If your team has been working remotely but you'd like to switch to a hybrid work schedule, use an employee return-to-work survey to uncover potential concerns.

Make sure to consider resource utilisation and how exactly you'll manage your office space. One of the best ways to do that is with the help of desk booking software.

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2. Define the right hybrid work model and schedule

Hybrid work isn’t one-size-fits-all. 

Your hybrid work model might be remote-first, where employees are allowed to work remotely most of the time, or lean toward more in-office presence.

Because the term "hybrid" can mean so many things, outline the number of remote workdays allowed in your office and the advantages for each preference. For example:

• Remote 1-2 days per week: Because these employees are in the office more frequently, consider offering them a dedicated office or desk and parking space.
• Remote 3-5 days per week: Employees might have to surrender dedicated office desks but will be provided a hot desk or common area to work in the office. They may be eligible for visitor parking.
• Fully remote: These employees don’t have dedicated workspaces and may be eligible for visitor parking. They might visit the office on occasion for a few hours or a day and reserve a hot desk when they do. 

Desk booking software like Officely can make it easy to manage different schedules and give everyone the visibility they need to organise their work – and come to the office when others are there.

If you offer fully remote roles, specify if these roles are based out of specific countries, states, or cities. If you need remote employees to come to the office occasionally for client meetings and events, you might prefer to hire in your city or region.

For employees choosing hybrid work arrangements, specify if they'll set their own flexible schedule or if schedules will be manager-led. Employee-led hybrid work schedules usually provide better results, because employees know best where and how they work best.

Whatever style you choose, define when you'd expect team members to be available for work-related communication. Certain roles like customer support might need to work specific hours, even remotely.

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3. Review employee compensation

Be clear about how an employee’s location and work preference (in-office, remote, hybrid) affect their compensation and benefits, so employees can weigh the pros and cons of their choice.  

For example, if you have 100% remote positions with the option to relocate to another city or country, you might consider adjusting employee salaries to the cost of living – or decide against it. Or you could provide in-office or hybrid workers with a commute allowance.

Remote-first company Buffer has shared their salary calculator publicly, and you might want to use a cost of living calculator when defining salary ranges. However, you need to make sure you're not penalizing employees who opt for a hybrid model or those who choose to work remotely.

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4. Expand wellness and health benefits

Hybrid work offers ample flexibility, but it also has a few downsides. Employees who often work remotely might feel more isolated and some might need additional support to avoid burnout.

Here are some ways to safeguard employee health and mental wellbeing in remote and flexible working arrangements:

• Offer virtual health consultations on platforms like Teladoc and Wellthy and provide access to mental health services like Talkspace and Lyra Health
• Provide a few hours of free mental health counseling in addition to virtual consulting, if they’re not part of your Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
• Normalise taking time off not just for vacation but also for mental health and to care for family
• Offer stipends for exclusive in-office perks like childcare and gyms
• Encourage managers to make video optional during some meetings and reduce the number of mandatory calls per week

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5. Make sure you know the legal requirements for hybrid work

Ask your legal counsel or HR department about all local and national laws you should comply with in relation to hybrid work. Explain how you’ll fulfill legal requirements in your flexible work policy.

Here are some questions to get you started:

• Where is your business legally allowed to operate? This might affect the locations from which employees can work remotely.
• Do you need to reimburse employees for home office equipment? In states like California, laws require employers to reimburse employees for office equipment like computers, laptops, and desks. 
• Do you need to reimburse employees for office travel? While daily commutes are generally not reimbursable, for employees who work primarily from home, you might need to reimburse office travel.
• Do you need to pay overtime? Federal US laws require employers to pay overtime if employees work for more than 40 hours in a week, or in some states, more than 8 hours a day. If such laws apply in your country or state, you’ll need to define how you'll track time and whether employees require manager approval to work extra hours.

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6. Implement the right tech to uphold your new policy

The success of your hybrid work policy depends on the tools you use. Hybrid work software like Officely makes desk booking simple – and gives your employees and admin staff visibility into office attendance, making it easier to manage hybrid schedules and resources effectively.

With Officely, employees can easily reserve desks, see who’s in the office, and plan their workdays for better collaboration or focused work, all directly within Slack or Microsoft Teams. 

Other tools you should consider include: 

• Project management platforms like Asana or ClickUp
• Video conferencing software like Zoom, MS Teams, or Google Meet
• Knowledge sharing platforms like Confluence or Notion

For more ideas, check out our article on the best productivity tools for hybrid work.

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7. Set up information security measures for hybrid work

In your office, you're in control of all security measures like firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), on-premise servers, data centres, antivirus software, and authorised company equipment. And, while you can replicate most of these measures in a remote setting, your employees might need extra guidance to comply with data security measures.

When drafting your hybrid workplace policy, outline best practices for employees to keep your data safe, like:

• Set strong passwords and update them regularly
• Install security and software updates on a regular basis
• Avoid downloading suspicious, illegal, or unauthorised software
• Block suspicious websites and report any phishing attempts
• Use only work devices for work, and not their personal computers or smartphones
• Report any loss of equipment or information immediately
• Use a VPN as needed

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8. Create clear communication guidelines

Clear guidelines help eliminate communication silos. For hybrid teams, defaulting to remote-first online communication works best because it's equally accessible to in-office and remote employees.

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In your hybrid workplace policy, mention:

• Channels or tools for meetings, quick messages, updates, stand-ups, announcements, and reports
• Expected response time for internal emails, client emails, and Slack messages
• Internal knowledge base tools for looking up company-related information, processes, and policies
• Who to get in touch with for common issues

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9. Track employee performance

In a traditional work environment, time spent in the office was often used as one of the measures of performance and engagement, although we could probably all agree that it's a horribly inaccurate one. In a hybrid workplace, the need for setting clear key performance indicators (KPIs) is even more obvious.

Define what success looks like for different roles. For instance, “Success as a sales manager means contacting X leads per month, a X% of closed deals, and $XX in revenue.”

You can also set goals for employee attendance specially for roles that benefit from in-person collaboration, and use dedicated software like Officely to measure that.

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10. Foster equity between employees working from home or in the office

Proximity bias is one of the most common challenges of hybrid work, or the tendency to favour in-office employees. Team members working from home might miss out on important work-related talks and decisions if they happen in ad hoc meetings or in the hallway.

To provide equal opportunities to all employees, irrespective of the specific hybrid or remote work arrangement they opt for, you might decide to:

• Measure speed of promotion by employees’ work preference to avoid bias
• Announce new work opportunities and challenges using online channels like Slack or email instead of in-person meetings
• Hold virtual ask-me-anything sessions with leadership where employees can voice concerns and ask questions
• Run anonymous employee surveys to gauge employee sentiments
• Make hybrid meetings the norm, so all employees can participate regardless of their location

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The benefits of hybrid work

Hybrid work is a smart way to balance flexibility with productivity. Here’s how embracing a hybrid model can benefit your team and your business.

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Improved work-life balance

By giving employees the freedom to split their time between home and the office, you help them to better manage their personal responsibilities and commitments while staying productive. 

Additionally, you enable them to design their own work environment based on their preferences and needs – and still share time with others in the office whenever they need to work together on specific projects. 

This balance can lead to happier, healthier, and more engaged team members.

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Better collaboration and focus

Hybrid work allows employees to work together in person when it matters most and focus on deep work at home or in dedicated office areas without distractions. Finding the right balance between collaboration and individual work will depend on each person and role, but giving the possibility to switch between the two will help improve teamwork and individual productivity.

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Cost savings for everyone

Hybrid work enables businesses to downsize office space strategically and therefore reduce its associated costs (rent, utilities, and equipment), while employees save time and money on commuting and office lunches. 

Plus, it can also help reduce the environmental impact of your company.

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Steps to implement a hybrid work policy

Now that you have a policy template at your disposal and know what benefits hybrid work can offer, let’s see exactly how you can shift to this model, step by step. 

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1. Assess your company's needs

Before switching to hybrid work and flexible work hours, take the time to assess your company's needs and challenges. 

Consider factors like job roles, team dynamics, and client expectations. Identify potential roadblocks and develop strategies to address them.

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2. Draft the policy

Once you have a clear understanding of your company's needs, it's time to draft your hybrid policy. You can use the template above as your starting point and refine it as necessary. 

Involve HR, managers, and employees in the policy development process and make sure it aligns with both the company’s needs and your team’s preferences. 

Make sure the policy is comprehensive and easy to understand. Clearly define eligibility criteria, expectations, and guidelines for remote and hybrid work. Address issues like scheduling, time tracking, and performance evaluation.

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3. Share the policy with employees

Once the policy is ready, share it with everyone. Be transparent and address any concerns or questions others may have. Provide training and resources to ensure that employees can navigate the hybrid work environment easily. 

Regularly review and update the policy based on feedback and your team’s needs.

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Overcoming challenges in hybrid work arrangements

Now, let’s look into some of the problems you might face and see how you can tackle them. 

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Maintaining team cohesion

One of the biggest challenges of hybrid work is maintaining team cohesion and collaboration and reducing silos. 

Encourage regular team meetings, both in-person and virtually, to build strong relationships. Use collaboration tools to simplify knowledge sharing and manage projects efficiently. 

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Ensuring accountability and productivity

Remote and hybrid work may bring up concerns about accountability and productivity – but empowering employees to take ownership of their work usually yields much better results than micromanaging them.

Define clear expectations, goals, and KPIs for each role, along with metrics to measure performance. Give regular feedback and celebrate wins to keep employees motivated and engaged, and ensure they know what to do whenever they face challenges that might impact their work. 

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Addressing technical issues

Not all remote or hybrid employees will be sufficiently tech-savvy to tackle all technical issues on their own, so ensure that employees have access to IT support when needed. 

To maintain airtight security for your data and systems, you might also consider setting up regular maintenance checks for all company-provided equipment. Encourage employees to use secure internet connections and back up their work regularly.

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Boost your hybrid success with help from Officely 

Hybrid work policies help you build a work environment that's centred around your employees' well-being and work-life balance, which will help you improve productivity and attract top talent.

To implement this successfully, you need the right hybrid work policy template, which you can find above, along with the right software tools. Here's a sample tech stack to get you started:

• Communication platforms such as Slack, Google Meet, or MS Teams
• Productivity and project management apps such as Asana, ClickUp, or Monday.com
• Desk booking software such as Officely

Officely simplifies hybrid work and makes it easier for employees to reserve desks and know the best days to go into the office. Book a free demo to see how easy it can be to build a strong flexible work policy with the right software at hand – and check out Officely’s Complete Guide to Office Management in Flexible Workplaces for more ideas on how to make hybrid work work for everyone. 

Challenges with hybrid work model scheduling

Obviously, when you switch to an employee-led hybrid work model, you also need to consider the challenges that’ll inevitably come up. Let’s zoom in and see what the most common ones are.

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You need software to appropriately manage schedules and hot desking

Let’s be real: Employee-led hybrid scheduling might require extra efforts and software to get right, especially if you’re also trying to optimize office space. 

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How to address this challenge: 

The best way to manage this is to use dedicated software like Officely to sort out hot desk booking and monitor office usage. 

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Low adoption will kill your efforts 

Your workflows and processes are only as good as their weakest link, and if that’s the low adoption rates of the software you’re planning to use to manage hybrid schedules, you’re in trouble. 

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How to address this challenge:

Apps which live inside the collaboration tools your team uses daily will be your best bet. That’s exactly why we’ve made sure Officely works seamlessly in Slack and Microsoft Teams. 

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You need to do some extra admin work (at least initially)

Building a hybrid or flextime policy requires some heavy lifting, at least initially. You need to make sure that: 

• You know exactly what your team wants and needs 
• Employment contracts are in line with your new policies
• You’re not breaching any labor laws and regulations
• Your employees have the right equipment and resources to work from the office and remotely
• Your IT team is on top of all security threats that remote work might pose

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How to address this challenge: 

Employee surveys will help you figure out what makes the most sense for your team; for the rest, you might need to sit with your HR and IT teams to figure out the best way to approach those challenges. The good news is that this is, to a large extent, a one-time effort; once you set up everything, it’ll be much easier to manage it. 

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Communication and collaboration might be more challenging

Effective communication and collaboration inevitably become more complex with hybrid work.

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How to address this challenge: 

Regular check-ins, team meetings, clear communication guidelines, and, importantly, the right communication tools, can help bridge the gaps. Unless everyone’s in the office, make your meetings remote-first to not exclude those who are working from home. 

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Maintaining a strong company culture will require more effort

In a hybrid work environment, it is crucial to maintain a strong company culture and create a sense of belonging, regardless of everyone’s specific preferences – and this is usually more challenging than if everyone’s in the office every day.

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How to address this challenge: 

Team building activities (some of which can be surprisingly affordable), regular social events, and meaningful daily interactions can help create a strong sense of community. Embrace transparency and involve everyone in decision-making processes, and beware of any proximity biases.

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Best practices to implement an employee-led hybrid work schedule

An employee-led hybrid work schedule might sound like a logistical challenge, as you have no certainty around how many employees might come to the office on a given day. Plus, those who work remotely most of the time might miss out on social interactions and growth opportunities.

But it doesn’t have to be that way if you make the effort to implement a hybrid work schedule that actually works for you and your people, without depriving them of choice. Here are our top tips to make that happen: 

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1. Roll out integrated desk booking software

There are a few hybrid work software tools you need, but desk booking software like Officely is a must. It enables employees to book desks, meeting rooms, parking spots, or even space for their pets in advance, so that everyone has what they need to do their best work. 

Plus, they can see when their coworkers are in the office and when is the best time to come in; after all, nobody wants to come to the office and find it empty, right? 

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Officely also offers attendance visibility, which means you can see how your office is actually used and optimize the space you have. 

The app is super easy to integrate into your existing workflows, because it fits seamlessly into Slack and MS Teams, where your teams spend a big part of their workdays anyway. This means that they don’t need to open yet another app, but simply book a desk from Slack or Teams in only a few clicks. 

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2. Put someone in charge

Someone needs to set up the software, train employees, answer their questions, make sure the physical space is set up for different types of work, and more. In short, someone needs to be in charge – and ensure employee-led hybrid schedules function as intended. 

In most companies, this will likely be the office or culture manager; they’re typically the ones who make sure employees and businesses are aligned in what they need and want from each other, down to the (very specific) details of floor plans and schedules.

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3. Ensure communication goes both ways

Communication is key for the success of employee-led schedules. 

Even if you give nearly unlimited choice to your people, there may be times when some of them need to be in the office at the same time, or come in to meet job candidates, clients, or partners. Communicate all this clearly (and in advance). 

You might also want to have visibility about who’s coming to the office and when; desk-booking software is a great way to stay in the loop without having to actually ask your people each day. 

In parallel to that, make sure your team members feel comfortable speaking out about what works for them and what doesn’t. Or, simply said, listen to them and take action if something needs fixing.

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4. Get support from leadership

Your leaders’ support is key for the success of hybrid work; presenteeism or never coming to the office can be equally harmful, if your goal is to build a thriving hybrid culture.

Encourage leaders to use the same desk booking software as everyone else to drive team-wide adoption and not make it a “us vs. them” thing. 

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4. Clarify hybrid policies

Even the most flexible environments need clear and well-written policies to ensure compliance with local laws and the protection of workers’ safety and well-being. 

Don’t know where to start? Grab our hybrid work policy template. 

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5. Make hybrid meetings the norm for maximum flexibility

‍Mandating in-office presence for meetings is as good as imposing a rigid hybrid schedule on employees. Hybrid meetings, on the other hand, allow employees to dial in from home, too, so they don’t have to come to the office every time there’s a meeting.
To make your hybrid meetings accessible and inclusive, you need to set them up in the right way. This might depend on how many employees are in the office at a given time: 

• If more employees are in the office than working remotely, hold the meeting in a conference room with a large screen that shows all remote attendees. 
• If more people are working from home, it makes sense to have everyone dial in separately from their computers. 

Some teams choose virtual meetings, irrespective of office presence, to reinforce their hybrid approach.
Find out how Officely’s Find a room feature can help you run better, hassle-free meetings in a hybrid workplace.

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6. Make sure you give equal opportunities to all employees, irrespective of office preference

‍Employee-led hybrid schedules imply that some employees will inevitably spend more time in the office, while others work from home more often. Studies also show more face time with managers leads to better outcomes for employees. Therefore, you need to be more mindful of promoting fairness at work and ensuring everyone has equal access to opportunities.

Here are some ways to do that:

• Announce new work opportunities on public channels like company Slack groups or company email updates
• Open public channels on Slack (or your company’s communication tools) to ask for feedback and brainstorm ideas for new projects to have remote employees participate and contribute equally
• Track employee promotions and office attendance to make sure employees aren’t getting promoted simply because they spend more time in the office
• Create virtual training materials, so remote employees can access them; for instance, have sales reps shadow senior reps on sales calls virtually or host online workshops to make them accessible for everyone

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7. Have occasional in-office days for everyone (or nearly everyone)

Social interactions at work help foster work friendships, which boost employee happiness. Designating certain days in a month as in-office days helps employees interact and bond with their colleagues on a more regular basis.

But instead of mandating office presence on those days, make them naturally attractive to employees. For example, you can also organize social events like a cooking class, board game nights, or even a book club. With tools like Officely, you can easily spread the word about team building events directly in Slack or MS Teams. 

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8. Evaluate the success of the program

The last step is to make sure your employee-led scheduling is working as intended. For this, you need to always keep the program’s goals in mind: Is it to make your people happier? Make better use of the available office space? Boost productivity?

Your people are your best source of information about how the program is impacting them. Use surveys or even casual conversation to get feedback on what’s working and what’s not. 

Keep an eye on analytics and resource utilization to make sure the space you have available is sufficient and used in the best possible way. Then, as you gather data, look for ways to tweak things and improve.

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Make hybrid work with easy employee scheduling

Workers globally value the ability to choose when, where, and how they work. Employee-led hybrid work schedules are a step toward providing this flexibility to your people – and you now know how to make it work for everyone.

With the right approach and the right tools, like desk booking software, creating a balanced and efficient hybrid workplace doesn’t have to be complicated.

Investing in easy-to-use tools like Officely can make managing flexible scheduling and hot desking a breeze, helping you get the most out of your office space while keeping employees happy. 

Want to dive deeper into creating a flexible workplace? Download Our Flexible Future to find out more – or book a demo to see how Officely can simplify hybrid work for everyone.

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