In my company each region determines what works at a country and office level in regards to our hybrid work approach.  So far only Australia has required employees to sign a document where employees are seeking to work 50% at home. We’ve not been as prescriptive elsewhere and in the UK it is 100% the employees choice if and when they come to the office, they just have to book a desk in advance. We are not changing employment contracts, otherwise I don’t see it as agile.

Hi,

I think most employers are either trialling or still enabling hybrid working arrangements as part of the covid response – we most certainly are and consider that for many staff groups this will be the new norm. It doesn’t suit everyone so we wouldn’t want to impose it but are likely to offer hybrid working where it’s possible. I have recently advertised some senior level posts and stated in the ad that up to 50% of the time can be worked remotely.

In terms of you not wishing to set any precedent etc you can always make clear that it’s a trial and re-state that the organisation reserves the right to work from their designated base. I’d explain that after the experiences learned through covid you recognise the benefits of a mixed approach and that you will be reviewing the arrangement after a period of xxx.

Hopefully it will be demonstrated during the trial period that it’s feasible and actually beneficial both to the organisation and employees alike.

With regard to other matters I think that if you are endorsing this approach (as opposed to being plunged into working this way over the last 12 months) then all organisations will need to account for risk assessments, ergonomics and suitable home working equipment. I also think that governance issues will start to feature ie confidentiality etc as you never know who else is listening to sensitive discussions and also highly sensitive correspondence left around at home!       Steve

Hi,    I was fortunate enough to work at an organization that are early adopters of the hybrid model.  The leadership team acknowledge that a lot of employees valued working from home, they were just as productive as being in the office,  they also acknowledged that employees valued being in the office for collaboration and connection.  So in order to have a new way of working post-covid we bought together people from across the organisation and formed a project team to work out what next for the organisation.   The people in the project team were the “voice” for their teams, to identify what was important to them, what they valued, what worked well pre-covid and what they wanted to continue post-covid.   This was then balanced with the organisation’s needs to ensure the culture, collaboration and connection wasn’t lost.  As a result of of the project, we landed on a 50/50 split for most employees (some roles like sales might be on “the road” and work from home more).  Yes we had a form that people completed and signed from a Health and Safety perspective,  to confirm they had their home environment set up to work safely. The company paid a once off allowance to employees so they could set up their home environment. We didn’t change their employment letters and travel expenses are not paid for travelling to the office.  To ensure the hybrid working model was successfully leaders and employees where provided with information/training sessions.

Hope this helps.