Work from home (WFH) has been swamping the work environment in which employees can work from anywhere they want. A work from home policy is an agreement formed between the employer and the employees who like to avail the privileges of the said work situation. The policy includes everything, right from expectations, responsibilities, eligibility, to other work-from-home guidelines. It ensures that all employees must understand the exact requirement of the company from them as they are working from home.
While some companies are working remotely, others may take it up only in case of emergencies. A case in point, the current Coronavirus pandemic, sparking off a WFH scenario and it continues to reign supreme. Whatever may be the circumstances, companies need to have a defined work from home policy to ensure the smooth running of their business. The work from home policy is customized to meet the company’s needs and requirements. Later it can be changed as per the organization’s specific values.
The Intent and Purpose of a Work From Policy
It is important to mention the intent of your work from home policy, and what you may try to achieve before providing job opportunities from home. Put forward your policy as you implement it going forward. It may improve the overall employees’ perspectives about the value proposition, improvising on the work experience of your team members.
Ask About Specific Work From Home Policies
You can ask about which positions are available for remote work within the setup of the organization, especially regarding client-facing responsibilities, software limitations, and other remote work security risks. It will also help streamline the work-from-home application as you put up a stronger case for your need for the said working environment, having a fair idea of the basis on which your application will be assessed.
You can also ask who will assess the entire process, the HR or any individual manager? Apart from this key question you can also ask several other questions, namely, do you need to install any specified software? Apart from these, the work from home policy should also mention when the employees can avail this opportunity if it is a full-time thing or part-time. Moreover, the number of days and the number of hours an employee would be expected to spend at his remote workstation or physical workplace.
The Request Process
Before you join work at a particular organization, ensure you get all the details of the entire procedure to request WFH and it needs to be laid out clearly. The rules should also be clear to the employees and whether they can make a formal request, or do you need to register yourselves after discussing it out with your manager. Get a gradual rundown of what you need to do to get the right to WFH.
Uniform Attendance Standards
The remote workers must get their availability standards mentioned clearly in the work from home policy. It may be difficult for a person working from his house to get to the desk and get all their input right on time. In some cases, companies can provide set standards such as a specified time slot for remote workers to come to work.
Productivity Yardstick
Ask your manager to find out exactly how your productivity will be measured. It can evaluate your work in a variety of ways, such as depending on the time spent on the project, the number of cases you may require to handle, the number of customers you may need to interact with, and more. Companies may also need to enunciate when the remote workers may be assessed.
The Tech Support You May Require
While joining an organization, you as an employee need to understand the kind of equipment and tech support you may need. If the company expects you to work on laptops, it needs to be mentioned in the policy. The company policy should also mention an outline where they have an action plan to combat sudden technical difficulties.
Promoting a Healthy Bonding Between Workers and Supervisors
The rules must mention a clear working policy for the remote workers who are expected to respond to a manager or a colleague immediately. Also, it should set clear communication channels to help foster a healthy bonding between workers and supervisors.
The Compensation and Benefits on Offer
If you are working from home, you may need to find out whether there are any compensation and benefits for the employees, and the policy should clearly mention the same.
Is work from home one of the best policies for employees? Well, it may or may not be, but what the employee needs to know is exactly what are they signing up for when they are saying yes to a job offer.