Hybrid Working Policies

With most English Covid-19 restrictions being lifted, many employers will be considering their approach to working arrangements as things get back to normal and many businesses will already have decided that they will not be bringing their employees back to the workplace on a full-time basis.

As more and more sectors of the economy start to re-open, employers will be considering what their working arrangements will be going forwards and what their employees will expect in terms of flexibility.

Hybrid working arrangements

Many employers across the country have already stated that they are planning to, or have already implemented, a mixture of home and office working, which is referred to as hybrid working.

The benefits of introducing a hybrid working arrangement include greater flexibility and a work-life balance for employees. For employers, they can reap the benefits of increased wellbeing and productivity amongst their workforces.

Hybrid working policies

If your business is contemplating implementing a hybrid of office and home-based working in the future, we recommend that you develop a policy around this and share it with your employees. This will enable your employees to understand what is permitted and the expectations and obligations that go with it.

Ideally, hybrid working policies should include the following:

• The eligibility for hybrid working arrangements.
• The nature of these arrangements and the level of flexibility, for example:
  • Will staff need to come into the workplace for a minimum number of days each week or will it be optional?
  • Will employees have the right to choose which days they come into the workplace?
  • Will staff be allowed to change their working hours?
• Health and safety issues for the time spent working from home.
• Obligations in terms of IT and other equipment and dealing with confidential information at home.
• What expenses, if any, can be reclaimed.

How we can help

At Nelsons, our expert team of employment law solicitors in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham advise organisations of all types on appropriate policies and procedures to adopt to provide structure and fairness for managers and employees.

We are currently offering a tailored hybrid working policy that will deal with all of the issues outlined above, in line with your preferred approach, for a fixed cost of £300 + VAT.

For further information concerning our fixed-fee service, please contact a member of our Employment Law team on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.