In-out-in-out-shake it all about! Is your Hybrid office policy working?
How many days should we be in the office? What’ s your answer to this question? Maybe your role can’ t be done remotely and you’ re rolling your eyes at this point thinking: jog-on, some of us don’ t have that luxury! Maybe you’ re saying adamantly: it’ s a minimum of three days. Maybe you have a highly flexible policy and people can decide what they do based on their roles, or maybe you’ ve gone fully remote?
Whatever the answer, it’ s clear that despite the fact we are several years post-pandemic, lots of us are still having the same conversation.
Here’ s an example of a recent client issue that came up that’ s representative of the types of challenges I get asked about when it comes to hybrid working.
• Jan 2025 – client decides to formalise a three days in the office policy
• There are 6 partners in the business most of whom are fully behind the new policy but let’ s say that one of them was‘ luke-warm’
• The office manager is assigned as the person to administer the new policy. The idea is that everyone agrees their three days with their line manager. It’ s shared across the business so if you want to know when Ruth George is in the office, you can just look at the schedule
• The office manager is also responsible for updating any changes which employees should get signed off first by their line manager
All this sounds fine in principle. However, fast forward to March 2025 and the client calls me to say they have one employee still turning up maybe once a week, always with a perfectly plausible excuse. Sick child one week, transport issues the next, doctor ' s appointment the week after that. The Partners of the business knew it was happening but nobody wanted to be the " bad guy " who called it out.
Meanwhile, the Partners themselves aren’ t exactly setting the gold standard. One was openly ambivalent about the whole thing and was barely managing two days a week himself – I think you can guess which one it was! So, what should they do?
Why Policies Fail A policy is just words on paper until everyone is committed to making it work. Despite my best efforts crafting a beautifully worded return-to-office policy( even if I do say so myself!) if it’ s not being effectively communicated and the senior team isn ' t modelling the behaviour; it’ s a waste of time.
In the case above with my client, the leadership team hadn ' t actually agreed on why they wanted people back in the office. Some thought it was about collaboration, others about " culture," one person admitted they’ ve always had to come into the office five-days a week throughout their career, so why shouldn’ t everyone else?!? Without a clear shared purpose, is it any wonder the policy felt arbitrary?
A Policy is Just the Starting Point Writing a policy is the easy part. The hard work comes in the implementation, the conversations, and the consistent application. If you ' re not prepared to have those uncomfortable discussions when people don ' t follow the rules, don ' t bother creating the rules in the first place.
Your return-to-office policy should be a tool that supports your business goals, not a stick to beat people with. Get your leadership aligned, be clear about expectations, and then crucially- follow through consistently. Because at the end of the day, if you can ' t manage a simple " three days in the office " policy, what does that say about your ability to manage anything else?
Ruth George- HR Consultant- ruth @ ruthgeorge. com | 07899 920075
© Ruth George HR Consulting. This is not legal advice and is provided for general information only.
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