Hybrid Working Policy Template

A Hybrid Working Policy is a workplace policy that sets out how employees split their working time between the employer's premises and an approved remote location (usually the employee's home). It is one of the most commonly issued workplace policies in the UK following the post-pandemic shift in working patterns.

Why employers issue one:

• Sets clear expectations — office days, remote days, anchor days, and core hours
• Manages legal duties — health and safety, UK GDPR, working time, equality
• Supports consistent decisions — line managers apply the same framework
• Frames flexible working requests — under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, employees can request flexible working from day one
• Reduces dispute risk — written rules reduce misunderstandings around attendance, equipment, and performance

Our template is structured following the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and the Employment Rights Act 2025), the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Working Time Regulations 1998, the Equality Act 2010, and the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working.

Common risks employers face without a written policy:

• Inconsistent treatment — different managers reach different decisions, exposing the employer to indirect discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010
• Health and safety failings — DSE assessments missed, work-related stress or musculoskeletal injuries unmanaged, RIDDOR reporting overlooked
• UK GDPR breaches — Personal Data viewed by household members, paper records left out, devices lost from home
• Working time issues — unrecorded overtime, rest break failures, weekly working time limit breaches
• Disputes over attendance — informal "two days a week" promises that later cannot be evidenced
• Performance management difficulty — no documented standards to refer to in capability proceedings
• International tax exposure — employees quietly working from abroad triggering host-country payroll, social security or permanent establishment risks

The Health and Safety Executive has reminded employers that their duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 apply equally at the employee's home as in the workplace.

The template includes all of the following sections:

• Purpose and policy statement
• Scope — who the policy applies to
• Definitions — hybrid working, remote location, anchor day, core hours, DSE, Personal Data
• Requesting hybrid working — framed by the Employment Rights Act 1996 and Flexible Working Act 2023
• Working pattern and attendance — minimum office days, maximum remote days, anchor days
• Place of work — contractual position, approved remote location
• Working hours — Working Time Regulations 1998 compliance
• Core hours and availability — right to disconnect outside core hours
• Equipment, IT and connectivity — configurable provision options
• Expenses and allowances — optional monthly home working allowance, HMRC ordinary commuting rules
• Health and safety — DSE self-assessment, RIDDOR reporting, wellbeing
• Data protection — UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 obligations
• IT security and confidentiality — approved devices, VPN, public Wi-Fi rules
• Communication and collaboration
• Performance management — outcomes over presence
• Conduct standards
• Equality, diversity and reasonable adjustments — Equality Act 2010
• Sickness, absence and leave
• Insurance, utilities and council tax
• Tax — HMRC working-from-home tax relief
• Working from outside the United Kingdom
• Change of circumstances notification
• Trial period and review
• Variation, suspension and withdrawal
• Breach of policy
• Grievances
• Policy review
• Governing law — England and Wales
• Authorising signature and (optional) employee acknowledgement block

Avoid these recurring drafting errors:

• Treating it as contractual — if the policy is incorporated into contracts, every update requires individual contract variation. Most employers keep it non-contractual.
• Forgetting anchor days — without designated in-person days, teams drift to fully remote and in-person collaboration suffers
• Skipping DSE assessments — the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require workstation assessments, and these must be reviewed
• Ignoring UK GDPR at home — household members can see screens, paper records can be left out — the policy must say what employees must do
• Silent on international working — employees quietly working abroad can trigger host-country tax, social security or immigration obligations
• No working time guardrails — without core hours and right-to-disconnect language, employees can drift into excessive hours
• No equipment ownership rules — who provides what, who pays, what must be returned on termination
• No reasonable adjustment route — disabled employees may need different arrangements under the Equality Act 2010
• Not naming a contact for requests — under the Flexible Working Act 2023 framework, the employee needs to know where to send a request
• No review date — policies that aren't dated and reviewed go stale within 12 months

Our template addresses each of these areas with built-in clauses you can keep, edit or remove.