Hybrid Work Policy Template

Hybrid is now the norm for jobs that can be done remotely. In Gallup's August 2026 survey of US employees in those jobs, 54% worked hybrid¹, 25% fully remotely and 21% on-site.

Decide eligibility by role, not by person, and write down why. A receptionist may need to be on-site daily and a payroll specialist may not; the stated reason is what makes that fair.

Before anyone drafts a target, find out how often each team comes in now. Use badge swipes, office Wi-Fi logs or desk bookings if you have them, or else a manager's weekly estimate, clearly marked as one. Measure every team from the same source over at least 10 weeks, so a holiday week doesn't skew it.

1. 1

   Average each team

   Each person's office days per week, averaged across the team.

2. 2

   Weight by headcount

   Divide total office days by total people. Averaging the team averages overweights small teams.

3. 3

   Count who would miss

   Everyone below the number leadership is considering would break the policy on day one.

Badge data needs care. Owl Labs, which makes video-conferencing cameras, found that 43% of hybrid employees admit to sometimes going in for a few hours just to show their faces². A swipe proves someone arrived, not that they stayed, so decide in advance what counts as a day.

Now choose the company-wide anchor: how many days, and which ones. In a six-month randomized trial at Trip.com, a Chinese travel company, 1,612 employees got either five office days or the option to work from home on Wednesdays and Fridays. Those with the option quit a third less often³, with no difference in performance grades or promotions over the next two years.

Build the anchor around the days teams need each other. At Trip.com, staff tended to use only one of the two home days, usually Friday³, because large meetings and product launches there often happen midweek.

Then give each team below the anchor a target for next quarter: no more than a set step above its measured average, such as half a day a week. A team already at or above the anchor adopts it now. Repeat each quarter until every team gets there.

Where possible, let each team decide how it meets its target. In Gallup's surveys, 90% of employees whose team set its hybrid policy together called it fair¹, against 73% where leadership set it.

Keep it to two or three pages, with each section answering a question employees would otherwise ask their manager.

Hourly staff need a clear way to record their time. In the US, the Labor Department says employers must pay for all hours worked, including telework at home. One way to learn about unscheduled hours is a reasonable process for employees to report them⁴, provided nobody discourages its use.

State law can add duties. California's Labor Commissioner, for example, says employees are entitled to reimbursement for all expenses or losses incurred in the direct consequence of their work duties⁵. Check your state's rules before you write the expenses section.

Expect a few standing exceptions: staff hired as remote before the policy, people who live far from an office and short-term caregivers. Log each with the reason, approver and review date, because an exception without one quietly becomes permanent.

Disability requests follow their own path. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodation. The EEOC says working from home may be one, even if the employer does not allow other employees to telework⁷. The employer may offer another effective accommodation instead.

Route those through your usual accommodation process; a leave of absence tracker can hold ADA review dates alongside leave. While an exception lasts, exclude that person from their team's compliance figures (but not the baseline), so no team looks behind for someone the company excused.

Brief managers with their team's numbers first, so nobody learns where they stand from a company-wide email. The announcement gives the anchor, each team's target, how attendance is measured and the first check date. Allow a few weeks' notice so people can rearrange commutes and childcare.

Give managers two rules: never discuss one person's attendance in front of the team, and never treat one low week as a trend. If someone keeps missing the target, the manager asks privately what's in the way before assuming they're refusing.

Each quarter, measure again with the same data and raise the targets of teams that met theirs. Let a team that's ahead move up early, and treat a miss of a tenth of a day as a conversation, not an escalation.

Afterward, watch the teams asked to change most in your next employee engagement survey, and file the policy in your employee handbook with a version number. The template on this page has the policy, manager guidance, exception process and announcement, and River can build the attendance baseline from whatever data you have.