MAKE YOUR FREE Remote and Hybrid Working Policies
What we'll cover
What are Remote and Hybrid Working Policies?
Remote and Hybrid Working Policies set out how an organisation’s staff members can utilise alternative working arrangements.
They include permanent and temporary working from home policies, which specify how staff members can request permanent or ad-hoc remote working arrangements or how staff members should work remotely during a temporary business interruption.
Alternatively, you can create a Hybrid working policy to communicate your formal model for staff members’ working partly remotely and partly from your main workplace. Or, you can create a Flexible working policy to explain how staff members’ can use their statutory right to request flexible (eg remote) working arrangements.
When should I use a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy?
Use a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy:
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if you have staff members based in England, Wales or Scotland
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to set out when and how staff members can work from home either on a permanent, hybrid or temporary basis
Sample Remote or Hybrid Working Policy
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WORKING FROM HOME POLICY
Statement and purpose of policy
- (the Employer) supports working from home for all staff and will agree to an employee working from home in appropriate circumstances,.
- In certain circumstances, occasional or permanent working from home allows the Employer to accommodate a disability and can be requested as flexible working.
- This policy sets out how requests for working from home can be made, how such requests are dealt with and the conditions on which working from home will be approved.
- The Employer may amend this policy at any time, at our absolute discretion.
What does this policy cover?
- This policy and the rules contained within it apply to all employees, irrespective of seniority, tenure and working hours, including all directors and officers, casual or agency staff, trainees, interns, fixed-term staff and volunteers.
Requests to work from home
- You can make an application to work from home. Any such application will be considered on its merits. However, note that not all jobs or roles are suitable to work from home.
- A request to work from home is unlikely to be approved if:
you need to be present in the office to perform your role (e.g. because it involves specialised equipment only available in the office);
you require supervision to deliver an acceptable quantity or quality of work;
your current standard of work or your performance, as indicated by your line manager or most recent performance review, is unsatisfactory; or
you have an unexpired warning relating to conduct of performance.
- When applying to work from home, you will need to show that you can:
- effectively manage your workload, meeting work deadlines
- work independently, motivating yourself and relying on your own initiative; and
- adapt to new working practices when working from home, including maintaining contact with colleagues and managers.
Response to working from home application
- If the Employer refuser your request to work from home, you will be given a written response stating the reasons for refusal. If you are unhappy with our decision, you may appeal.
- If the Employer accepts your application to work from home, this will be recorded in writing. Any such acceptance may be subject to a trial period.
- Any agreement regarding your working from home, will include the following terms:
- While working from home, you will continue to be subject to the same performance measures, objectives and processes as when you were working on the business premises.
- Your line manager will continue to supervise you, taking steps to address and rectify any problems. Your line manager will also ensure that you are up to date with information relevant to your work.
- You agree to attend the business premises or other reasonable location for training courses, important meetings or other events which you are expected to attend in person.
- You acknowledge that when you attend the business premises, you may have to share a desk or hot desk.
Hours of work
- Please make sure that you take adequate rest breaks throughout the day, as set out in your employment contract.
- In the event that you need to change your hours of work (e.g. to deal with the potentially conflicting demands of work and looking after children), please discuss any changes you need to your working schedule with your line manager.
Communicating with your line manager
- Make sure you keep in regular contact with your line manager and notify them if you are unsure about what you are required to do.
- You should consider all lines of communication, including email, telephone and video calls to ensure relationships are maintained and work continues.
Equipment and materials
Expenses
- You will be responsible for any other associated costs of you working from home, including the costs of heating, lighting, electricity and printing.
Security
- You are responsible for ensuring the security of all equipment, documents and information and must take all necessary steps to ensure that confidential information is kept secure at all times. In particular, you must:
- password protect any confidential information held on your home computer;
- lock your computer whenever it is left unattended;
- store confidential papers securely when they are not in use;
- ensure the secure disposal of any confidential papers (e.g. by using a shredder if there is one available); and
- report any data security breaches to your line manager immediately.
Health and safety
- When working from home, you must take reasonable care of your own health and safety and that of anyone else in the home who is affected by your work while working from home.
- You should follow all health and safety instructions issued by the Employer's from time to time, including attending any health and safety training.
- Liaise with your line manager to make sure that your workstation is appropriate and that you are working in a safe manner.
- There are steps you can take to make sure you achieve a comfortable posture while working from home on display screen equipment (DSE). Please watch the video from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on workstation set-up at www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/workers/home.htm.
- While working with DSE, please also observe these guidelines:
- Break up long spells of DSE work with rest breaks (at least five minutes every hour) or changes in activity.
- Avoid awkward, static postures by regularly changing your position.
- Get up and move around or do stretching exercises.
- Avoid eye fatigue by changing focus or blinking from time to time.
- Notify your line manager and the HR department if you identify any work-related health and safety concerns or hazards while working from home.
- You should follow the usual reporting procedures for any work-related accidents that occur in your home.
- For health and safety purposes, the Employer retains the right to inspect and check your home office. The need for such inspections will depend on your specific circumstances, including the nature of your work.
Insurance
- You acknowledge and understand that working from home may affect your home and contents insurance.
- You should check with your home and contents insurance providers that they have adequate cover for the fact that you work from home and whether any of your own equipment is covered for work use.
Rental or mortgage arrangements
- You acknowledge and understand that working from home may affect your mortgage, lease or tenancy agreement.
- You are responsible for checking any applicable mortgage or rental agreement to ensure that you can work from home. If permission is necessary, you must make all necessary arrangements with your bank, mortgage provider or landlord before commencing to work from home.
Termination of working from home arrangement
- The Employer reserve the right to bring your working from home arrangement to an end (e.g. if your role changes and working from home is no longer suitable), by providing you with notice.
- If you wish to terminate your working from home arrangement, you should first notify your line manager. The Employer will only be able to accept the termination if there is sufficient space available for you to return to work on the business premises.
Attribution
- This working from home policy was created using a document from Rocket Lawyer (https://www.rocketlawyer.com/gb/en).
About Remote and Hybrid Working Policies
Learn more about making your Remote and Hybrid Working Policy
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How to make a Remote and Hybrid Working Policy
Making a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy online is simple. Just answer a few questions and Rocket Lawyer will build your document for you. When you have all of the details prepared in advance, making your document is a quick and easy process.
What information you need to make your Remote or Hybrid Working Policy will depend on the document in question. However, the types of questions you may be asked include:
Employer details
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What is the employer’s name?
Home working
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Can employees request to work from home on a regular basis?
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Can employees request to work from home on an ad-hoc basis?
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How many days per week are employees expected to work remotely for?
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Will employees work normal hours?
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If not, what core hours should employees be available?
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Arrangements and guidelines
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Does the employer have a Health and safety policy, Data protection policy, Communications and equipment policy, Sickness policy and/or a Flexible working policy in place?
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Will employees be reimbursed for work-related telephone and internet costs while working from home?
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How about other work-related costs incurred while working from home? If so, what limit is set on these expense claims?
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Will you cover any additional insurance premiums that remote workers require?
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Common terms in a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy
Remote or Hybrid Working Policies allow employers to set out how and when their staff members can work remotely or flexibly. While the terms of a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy differ depending on the document in question, examples of common provisions in Remote and Hybrid Working Policies include:
Statement and purpose of the Policy
The Policy will generally starts by identifying the business subject to its provisions. It then sets out the reasons why the employer is making and adopting the Policy. It startnotes that the employer may change this Policy at any time.
Who does this policy cover?
This section sets out to whom the Remote or Hybrid Working Working Policy applies. For example, all staff members (irrespective of seniority, tenure and working hours) including volunteers and casual staff.
Hours of work
This section details the hours of work that staff members are expected to keep when working from home. If they’re not expected to work full regular hours, the core hours that they should work are specified. This section also explains that working hours can be changed if necessary and sets out how this can be done.
Expenses
This section specifies whether the employer covers any employee expenses associated with working from home (eg additional internet tariffs).
Health and safety
This section details steps employees should take when working remotely, to protect their own health and safety and to help the employer comply with their health and safety obligations. This includes reminding employees to take rest breaks, asking them to follow all relevant health and safety steps in relation to display screen equipment (DSE) and encouraging them to follow the employer’s health and safety instructions and policies.
Communication when working remotely
This section sets out guidelines for remote workers’ communication with their line managers when working remotely. For example, they should keep in regular contact about work matters as well as wellbeing.
If you want your Remote or Hybrid Working Policy to include further or more detailed provisions, you can edit your document. However, if you do this, you may want a lawyer to review or change the Policy for you, to make sure it complies with all relevant laws and meets your specific needs. Ask a lawyer for assistance.
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Legal tips for making a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy
Ensure compliance with health and safety laws and requirements when dealing with remote workers
As an employer, you are subject to stringent health and safety obligations. At the base of this lies the requirement to take reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of everybody in your workplace. This applies regardless of whether employees are working on your business premises or from home. However, further specific risks need to be considered for any employees who work remotely (eg from home). These include, but are not limited to:
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employees injuring themselves while working alone
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the strain on mental health that working remotely and alone may have
To comply with your health and safety obligations, you should adopt a clear Health and safety policy and carry out all relevant risk assessments. Whenever you have staff working alone (ie as lone workers) you should also consider adopting a Lone working policy.
Consider what other, supplementary documents you may need
There are various policies you can consider adopting or procedures you may need to follow as an employer. Remote or Hybrid Working Policies are often adopted to grant employees greater flexibility with regards to their working life. Other documents you may consider creating to facilitate this include:
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Working time directive opt-out letters - allowing staff members to work more hours across multiple jobs (in excess of the 48-hour work week), if they wish to do so
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a Change to employment terms letter - to formalise any changes you’ve made to to a staff members’ contract of employment to give them security in their new, flexible working arrangements
For information about more policies you may want to put in place as an employer, read HR policies and procedures.
Understand when to seek advice from a lawyer
Ask a lawyer for advice if:
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all or part of your workforce is located outside England, Wales and Scotland
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the documents do not cover what you need
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employees do not agree with your policies
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Remote and Hybrid Working Policy FAQs
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What is included in a Remote and Hybrid Working Policy?
This Remote or Hybrid Working Policy template covers:
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the employer’s details
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when employees can work from home
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employees’ hours of work
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how the practicalities of remote working are handled (eg expenses, insurance, security and health and safety considerations)
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Which Remote and Hybrid Working Policy should I use?
A working from home policy is appropriate when you want to let staff members know how they can request to work from home.
You should use a temporary working from home policy when your employees are required to work from home on a temporary basis (eg because their typical place of work is unavailable short-term, for example, due to the effects of a pandemic). Our Temporary working from home policy should be used specifically where employees are asked to work remotely due to the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
If you want to implement a long-term working from home policy, you should use the Working from home policy. This document can be used to set out provisions for permanent and/or ad-hoc home working.
If you want to set out a precise model under which your staff members should work remotely some days and from your main workplace for the others (ie under a hybrid working model), a Hybrid working policy is appropriate.
Alternatively, you may just wish to communicate the statutory flexible working rules to staff members. This lets them know how they can make formal requests to work remotely flexibly in certain circumstances. In this situation, you should make a Flexible working policy.
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Why do I need a Remote and Hybrid Working Policy?
Implementing a Temporary working from home policy allows you to respond to changes that affect your workforce’s ability to work from their typical working place. By adopting such Policy, you make sure that your staff members are aware of how they will be expected to continue carrying out their duties from home.
Implementing a Permanent working from home policy shows your employees that you are willing to be flexible and that your business takes into consideration individual circumstances and the specific needs of employees (eg childcare responsibilities). Having a more permanent working from home policy in place also promotes a good work-life balance.
Having a Hybrid working policy shows your commitment to modern and dynamic workplace models, and your willingness to consider the ways of working that are most effective and suitable for your staff members.
Having a Flexible working policy demonstrates your commitment to upholding your staff members’ rights to request flexible working arrangements and to have any such requests treated fairly.
Moreover, under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for employees when they are working from home as when they are at your business premises. As a result, it is important to set out these responsibilities in a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy and to identify how you will manage health and safety when implementing either temporary or permanent working from home arrangements. For more information, read Health and safety and Employer health and safety responsibilities for staff working from home.
You should ask employees to assess any risks they might face when working from home and then identify how you can help them manage these risks.
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What is included in a Remote and Hybrid Working Policy?
Exactly what’s covered in a Remote or Hybrid Working Policy differs depending on the policy in question. However, these policies will generally cover:
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how many and which days should be worked remotely
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how employees can request alternative arrangements and how these will be considered
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whether employees must work their usual hours or if working hours can be flexible
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whether relevant equipment and materials will be provided to employees
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any expenses the employer will pay (eg additional wifi usage)
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security practices (especially with regards to the protection of confidential information and reporting of any data security breaches)
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insurance requirements (eg employees should be aware that working from home might affect their home and contents insurance and, in certain cases, you might want to ask them to take out public liability insurance)
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termination of remote, hybrid or flexible working agreements
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