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.

‍

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.

‍

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. ‍

‍

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.

‍

Hybrid work schedule

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

‍

‍

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

‍

‍Key performance indicators (KPIs)

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

‍‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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]

‍

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.

‍

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

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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

‍

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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

‍

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.

‍

‍

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

‍

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.

‍

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

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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. 

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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.

‍

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. 

5. Saves employers money

• Nearly 60% of employers identify cost savings as a significant benefit to offering employees the ability to work from home.
• Alpine Access Remote Agents home-based employees close 30% more sales, customer complaints decreased by 90% and turnover decreased by 88%.
• IBM slaved $50 million on real estate costs after implementing a work from home strategy.
• Sun Microsystems saves $68 million a year in real estate costs.
• McKesson has said it saves them$2 million a year.
• On average businesses save $10,000 a year per employee on real estate costs.
• It also offers inexpensive compliance with ADA for disabled workers.
  
  

6. Reduces the potential for discrimination

• Virtual hiring, as some all-virtual employers do, greatly reduces the potential for discrimination.
• It ensures that people are judged by what they do versus what they look like.
• Communication via email and instant messaging  equalizes personalities. No longer is the loudest voice the one that’s heard.

‍

7. Cuts down on wasted meetings

• Asynchronous communications allow people to communicate more efficiently.
• Web-based meetings are better-planned and more apt to stay on message.
• Finding a meeting room in the office isn't always easy, so jumping on a call for two minutes is accessible and cuts down time.

‍

8. Increases employee empowerment

• Remote work forces people to be more independent and self-directed.

‍

9. Increases collaboration

• Once telework technologies are in place, employees and contractors can work together without regard to logistics. This substantially increases collaboration options.

‍

10. Provides new employment opportunities for the un- and under-employed

• Eighteen million Americans with some college education aren’t working.
• More than 12% of the working-age population are disabled (16 million). A full three-quarters of unemployed workers with disabilities cite discrimination in the workplace and lack of transportation as major factors that prevent them from working.
• 24 million Americans work part-time.
• Only 75% of women, still the traditional primary caregivers age twenty-five to fifty-four, participate in the labor force (compared to 90% of men). Almost a quarter of women work part-time (16.5 million), compared to 10% of men.

‍

11. Expands the talent pool

• Working from home reduces geographic boundaries, massively increasing the talent pool.
• Provides access to disabled workers and employees from different areas.
• Offers an alternative that would have otherwise kept parents and senior caregivers out of the workforce.
• Offers geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural diversity that would not otherwise be possible.

‍

12. Slows the brain-drain due to retiring Boomers

• 75% of retirees want to continue to work — but they want the flexibility to enjoy their retirement.
• 36% of retirees say the ability to work part-time rather than full-time, or to work from home would have encouraged them to keep working — even if it didn’t provide health benefits or meant a temporarily reduced pension.
• 38% of surveyed retirees indicated that being able to work seasonally or on an independent contractor basis would have encouraged them to delay retirement.
• 71% of retired workers who later decided to go back to work, originally retired because of a desire for more flexibility than their job offered.

‍

13. Reduces staffing redundancies and offers quick scale-up and scale-down options

• Having access to a flexible at-home workforce allows call centers, airlines, and others to add and reduce staff quickly as needed.
• The need to overstaff ‘just in case’ is greatly reduced.
• 24/7 worldwide coverage is easier to staff with home-based help.

‍

14. Environmentally-friendly policies are good for companies‍

• Sun Microsystems reported that its 24,000 U.S. employees participating in the Open Work Program avoided producing 32,000 metric tons of CO2 last year by driving less often to and from work.
• Office equipment energy consumption rate is twice that of home office equipment energy consumption.
• 70% of employees report they would see their companies in a more favorable light if they helped them reduce their carbon emissions.
• 24% of employees say they’d take a pay cut of up to 10% to help the environment.

‍

15. Reduces traffic jams

• If traffic continues to grow at the current pace, over the next couple of decades drivers in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland, San Francisco-Oakland, Seattle-Tacoma, and Washington, D.C. will be sitting in daily traffic jams worse than the infamous traffic jams that plague Los Angeles eight hours a day.
• As a result, commutes will take almost twice as long and you’ll have to leave even earlier to allow for traffic jams if you have to arrive someplace at a specific time, producing a further reduction to our national productivity.
• Traffic jams rob the U.S. economy of $78 billion/year in productivity.
• Traffic jams idle away almost three billion gallons of gas and accounts for 26 million extra tons of greenhouse gases.
• Every 1% reduction in vehicles yields a three-fold decrease in congestion.

‍

16. Ensures continuity of operations in the event of a disaster

• As has been seen in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, having a work from home ready workforce means you can continue uninterrupted.

‍

The drawbacks of Working from Home

Management mistrust

• 33% of managers reported that they trust their employees more when they can see them.

‍

‍Collaboration concerns

• Some managers feel that distance inhibits collaboration. They need the ‘energy in the room’ when a crisis occurs.
• When working from home you loose the “water-cooler moments” where employees strike up a conversation that leads to new ideas and strategies.

‍

It’s not for everyone

• Social needs must be addressed. Some can work from home very well, but others can feel isolated and lonely.

‍

Career fears from ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality

• Some employees cite career fears as a reason not to want to work from home. Successful working from home programs overcome the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ issue with performance-based measurement systems, productivity versus presenteeism attitudes.

‍

Security issues

• Managers worry about the security risk of employees accessing files remotely.
• However, if you ask those actually in charge of security of large organisations, 90% feel that home-based workers are not a security concern. In fact, they are more concerned with the occasional work that is taken out of the office by traditional employees who lack the training, tools, and technologies that work from homers receive.

‍

IT infrastructure changes may be necessary

• Employees working from home need access to company systems, software, and data.
• Infrastructure changes that support work from home might be needed.
• Companies need to address remote technical support issues. Off-the-shelf solutions exist.

‍

Summary

Working from home clearly has a lot of benefits for both employee and employer, ranging from better work life balance to huge cost savings. However what are the drawbacks? Read on here for both sides of the story.

‍