Over the last decade, the remote work arrangement has proved to be beneficial for employers and their staff members alike. It allows businesses to minimize costs and achieve higher team productivity. Plus, it lets employees save some time on the commute and enjoy a much better work-life balance.
Besides, the remote way of working turned out as an excellent public health crisis solution and enabled people to deal with the devastating financial impacts of the pandemic much better.
In other words, many things say in favor of remote work today. However, it still comes with a few risks:
- How to ensure your employees perform well even without managers’ direct supervision?
- How to collaborate productively with your colleagues when you can’t interact face to face?
- How to prevent data breaches and keep your confidential information safe?
A well-developed remote work policy is the answer to these questions. It outlines the critical rules behind productive team behaviors and describes which rights and responsibilities your employees will have under this work arrangement.
Such a policy protects businesses against legal risks and helps employees develop greater trust in their employers. And if you intend to craft a perfect policy yourself, simply download our free remote work policy template and customize it to your unique business needs.
Remote Work Policy Components
Our template is a great starting point for writing your own remote work policy. It already includes all the necessary sections and provides you with clear examples of topics you may cover in your document.
Below is a brief introduction to each individual segment of the policy. Read it through to get a better understanding of which things to focus on during the writing process and inspire new ideas:
- Policy overview | At the beginning of the document, you need to explain why it was created and which objectives it pursues. Add a few words about the policy’s target audience and clearly state why it’s vital for everyone to respect the inscribed rules.
- Remote work agreement | When and on which conditions are your team members allowed to work remotely? List all the relevant eligibility criteria in the second section of the document.
- Conditions of employment | Will your remote employees enjoy a disparate benefits package than office workers? How will their pay calculation and time off accrual differ? If the conditions of employment stay the same – remote work or not – indicate it in the policy explicitly.
- Remote work requirements | This part of the policy is all about the norms, operating procedures, and performance management tools that your remote team is expected to adopt and use consistently. You may describe how many hours per week the employees have to work and which equipment they must acquire. You can specify which software products they have to apply to log their daily progress, communicate with colleagues, schedule time off, etc. In other words, if there are any work management rules that you want your team to follow regularly, you need to spell them out here.
- Data security | It’s crucial to specify which steps your remote employees need to undertake in order to prevent security breaches and manage corporate data in a responsible way. Thus, the policy must include some well-defined data protection recommendations. Besides, it should explain which penalties may apply in case a data breach does occur.
- Occupational safety | Regardless of where your staff members are doing their job, their workplace should always be safe and comfortable. So, dedicate a portion of the policy to the topic of occupational safety and give some tips on how your workers can arrange a hazard-free and productive home office.
- Productivity guidelines | When crafting the policy, you need to keep in mind those team members who never worked remotely before and consider that they may struggle to be efficient at the beginning of their work-from-home experience. To help them build healthy routines and avoid major remote work mistakes, provide a few productivity recommendations in the policy. Add some links to informative resources and inspire your employees to learn about some ways to maintain an optimal work-life balance. Show to them that you care for their well-being, and you’ll get one step closer to establishing positive and trustful relationships with your remote team.
