There is no single way to undertake hybrid working, and its exact form varies from organisation to organisation. 

Key steps for successful hybrid working include: 

• Agreeing an overall strategic position on hybrid (and broader flexible) working for the organisation and development of a policy and supporting guidance reflecting the strategy.  

• Defining hybrid working taking into account the specific organisational context. This might include several different forms of hybrid working even within one organisation, depending on role requirements.  

• Provision of training and ongoing development activity for people managers to support successful hybrid management and leadership.  

• As hybrid work is still relatively new at scale, ensuring that any approach to hybrid is kept under review and changes made as learning takes place and good practice emerges.

• Having effective approaches for potential challenges such as technology, employee wellbeing, inclusion and facilities.  

• Supporting effective team building and cohesion in hybrid teams. More information on this can be found in the CIPD Developing effective virtual teams report.  

Some of these areas will now be considered in more detail. 

Hybrid working is a form of flexible working. Therefore, employers should reflect it in their flexible working policies. Flexible working legislation sets out how individuals can apply for flexible working, and how to consider requests on an individual basis. However, hybrid working is also often implemented at a team level.

When developing or updating policies and procedures organisations should consider the following: 

• Setting out who (or which role types) is eligible for hybrid working. 

• Explaining how to request hybrid working – or clearly state that it is available to everyone. 

• Clarifying roles and responsibilities for hybrid workers and people managers.  

• How hybrid working intersects with other forms of flexible working.  

• Ensuring alignment with other related policies including, for example, expenses, IT usage, homeworking and data protection.  

• Clearly setting out expectations for in-person attendance at the workplace, such as a number of days or specific events.

• Determining whether or not hybrid work opportunities are formal and contractual, or informal and ad hoc. 

Communication is critical to hybrid working success but also a potentially high-risk area. When communication is not well managed it can result in poor information flow, knowledge gaps, barriers to effective team working and exclusion of team members who are not in the office. Communication within hybrid teams needs to be more intentional as casual or ad-hoc conversations may be reduced. Effective communication needs to be seen as the responsibility of everyone in the team. 

Exactly how a hybrid team needs to communicate will vary depending on its size, the nature of the roles in the team and the specific type of hybrid working being undertaken. 

• Hybrid meeting can be supported through specific technologies and quality facilitation. If these are not available, it may be necessary to default to remote meetings for everyone.This will help to ensure that each attendee has a consistent experience of the meeting. When co-located employees have a face-to-face meeting but colleagues attend remotely this can lead to ‘presence disparity’, where people experience the meeting differently and communication can be disrupted. The CIPD have tips on hybrid meetings.  

• Teams should be encouraged and supported to establish their own principles for communication. This may include how often to meet physically, what technology to use for meetings and asynchronous work and how to ensure that communication is inclusive of everyone.  

• When teams are working in a hybrid way, communication can be enhanced by asynchronous tools such as Slack or chat functions in platforms such as Microsoft Teams. This allows people to have more schedule flexibility, as well as location flexibility, and reduces online meeting time.  

• Build in regular social and human connection opportunities to support employee engagement and team building, such as 'anchor' days where all team members come together.

Hybrid working requires a different skill set to managing a fully in-person team. Even if managers have managed remote team previously, organisations should still consider putting in place learning and development to ensure effective people management, especially for anyone taking on their first hybrid management role. This should include some of the following:

• Practical management of hybrid working arrangements. This might include managing requests for hybrid working at an individual and team level, implementation of effective ways of working, co-ordinating hybrid schedules and managing hybrid meetings. 

• Developing the skills to ensure effective communication, performance management, team and relationship building and collaboration in hybrid teams. 

• Managers will also need information and guidance on ensuring inclusion and diversity, effective induction and employee engagement with a distributed team. 

• Technology skills may also need ongoing development – see below for more information. 

Technology plays a critical role in hybrid working. Employees need to be able to work seamlessly between workplace and home, and there needs to be ease of connectivity between people in the office and those working remotely. 

Organisations may wish to consider the following: 

• Supporting employees in fully using available technology, as well as using them in a way that supports health and wellbeing (including meaningfully disconnecting from work).   

• Reviewing systems and equipment available in offices and provided by individuals in order to assess whether it will appropriately support hybrid forms of working.  

• Providing a mix of recommended tools (with implementation support) to enable hybrid meetings and collaboration.  

• Putting in place appropriate security measures to ensure system and data integrity when employees are working away from the workplace. 

• In addition to technology, considering what other equipment will support effective and healthy remote working, including the provision of office furniture or mobile devices. 

Hybrid working can support employee wellbeing through reducing commuting time, providing employees with more autonomy around their schedules and extra time for health and wellbeing activities. Hybrid working may however bring with it specific challenges around work-life balance and managing the boundaries between work and home. Some people find that remote and flexible working supports their wellbeing, but others find that it can be a detractor.   

Consider the following to maximise the potential of hybrid work for wellbeing: 

• Providing training and support to employees on managing work-life balance whilst working in a hybrid way / working from home. 

• Offering training on digital wellbeing and having healthy habits in relation to technology use.  

• Helping managers to understand the potential wellbeing implications of hybrid working and equipping them to have appropriate wellbeing conversations.  

• Ensuring managers are aware of potential signs and symptoms of poor wellbeing or mental health, as these may be weaker whilst employees are working in a remote or hybrid way.

When employees are working remotely or more flexibly, their performance may be harder to observe.  

Instead of assessing employees via time spent in the office (or in virtual meetings), managers will need to adjust to assessing performance through outcomes, contribution and value. Managers will not be able to monitor every aspect of an employee’s work when they are working remotely, nor should this normally be necessary. 

Consider some of the following: 

• Ensuring that performance is based upon outcomes, objectives and results, supported by effective objective setting. This may need to be reflected in policies or management training.  

• Advising managers to have scheduled 1-2-1 time with team members on a regular basis to discuss performance, provide feedback and update objectives. 

• Having mechanisms to identify and reward great performance, as well as address poor performance with hybrid workers. Monitoring the outcomes of performance management, reward and recognition, can help to ensure that hybrid workers are not disadvantaged compared to those who more typically work in person. 

Hybrid and flexible working have the potential to support inclusion and fairness through opening up the labour market to employees who cannot work in a traditional office based role.  If poorly managed however it could also worsen existing inequalities and create new ‘in and out’ groups. In a hybrid environment, organisations must ensure ongoing access to development and career conversations for all employees and make sure there is a fair allocation of work, opportunities and voice. 

Consider some of the following:   

• Identifying where any inclusion risks may arise if employees move to hybrid working and how these can be mitigated.  

• Where employees are unable to work in a hybrid way because of the work that they undertake, raising awareness of other forms of flexible working that may be suitable for them. 

• Taking steps to ensure equality of experience between employees in the office and employees at home.  

• Being aware of potential conflict and taking steps to ensure managers are prepared to properly manage any conflict situations. 

People professionals can use the employee lifecycle as a framework to review hybrid work and make sure that it is effective and supported by effectiv people practice. 

Consider: 

• Including information about hybrid work opportunities in recruitment activities to support talent acquisition, and equipping managers to have conversations about the organisation’s approach to hybrid work during recruitment. 

• Induction processes for hybrid workers, including assimilating company culture and values and building a relationship with other hybrid team members.  

• Provision of learning and development activities in hybrid workplaces and supporting long term career development.  

• Amendments to performance management systems or processes.  

• Reward and recognition strategies, with particular reference to ensuring that reward and recognition is fair and not biased towards those spending more time in the office. 

• The inclusion and diversity aspects of hybrid working and in particular considering how hybrid working might both support inclusion initiatives but also the risks that some may be excluded through remote working.