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 recognizes 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 organization'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
Prioritize 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 utilization 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 organize 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)
- Normalize 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 centers, antivirus software, and authorized 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 unauthorized 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 favor 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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