Do employees have a right to work remotely?

Today, remote and hybrid working models are commonplace across many industries. Remote working means employees work remotely, from somewhere other than their employer’s base. With hybrid working models, employees can work part of the time from their employer’s base, and part of the time from home or anywhere else. Employees love the benefits that come with remote working, like longer lie-ins, less money spent commuting, and an overall improved work-life balance. But working from home all the time might not suit all employees, and that's why a hybrid working model can provide the best of both worlds.

Do employees have a right to work remotely?

In April 2023, The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 was signed into law. The act includes a section on the right of employees to request a remote working arrangement. Once the law is commenced, all employees who have at least 6 months of continues service with their employer will have a legal right to request a remote working arrangement. Employees must submit the request at least 8 weeks before they wish for the new arrangement to begin.

Once the Act is signed in, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) will need to publish its Code of Practice. This will set out rules and guidelines for employers on how they can manage remote and flexible working requests from their employees.

How should an employee request a remote working arrangement?

In line with the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, employees should submit a written and signed request to their employer, no sooner than 8 weeks before the proposed commencement of the remote working arrangement. It should include:

The details of the remote working arrangement requested (e.g., the proposed number of days and which days to be worked remotely)
The proposed date of commencement
Where applicable, expiration of the remote working arrangement
The reasons why he or she is requesting approval of the remote working arrangement (in this Part referred to as “the employee’s needs”)
The details of the proposed remote working location
Information as may be specified in the code of practice on the suitability of the proposed remote working location

Sharing a remote or hybrid working policy with employees

Employers must share a Remote Working Policy with employees to let them know about the process they should follow if they want to make a remote working request.

You may already have adopted a remote or hybrid working model in your workplace. If this is the case, your Remote Working Policy document should inform staff of how the arrangement will operate.

What information should be included in a Remote Working Policy?

Any rules or limitations surrounding the company’s policy should be clearly outlined in the Remote Working Policy, including:

How to make a remote working request
Are there any roles within the company which may not be suitable for remote working
Will employees need to follow a hybrid working schedule
Are there certain tasks which you, as an employer, would prefer to be taken care of in the office rather than at home (or vice versa)
While working remotely, is the employee allowed to work anywhere or are there limitations. Examples of this may be that the employee must stay in the country or cannot work in public settings due to cybersecurity concerns
What hours should an employee be working. Are there set working hours, when should they take breaks and what is the maximum number of hours they should be working each day

The policy should include details of how staff will be managed and supported as they work from different locations, including:

How should employees communicate with managers and colleagues and what should be done to ensure effective and fair communication
How should new staff be onboarded
How will employees’ performance will be managed
How will employees’ health, safety and wellbeing be maintained

Guidelines for remote working should be clearly defined, including:

What equipment is suitable for remote working and how will the equipment be provided
What are the insurance requirements for the employer and the employee
Details of a home risk assessment
How cyber security will be maintained

How should a Remote Working Policy be shared with employees?

So, you've got your Remote Working Policy all sorted, but now what? How do you actually get it out to your team? Physically handing out copies to each individual employee might not be the most practical option, especially if they're working from different locations. So, what's the solution? We've got some ideas on how to get your policy into the hands (or screens) of all your team members, all at once.

One option is to email copies of the policy to employees. However, emails are not always an effective way of getting your employees' attention. In a 2023 survey, 34% of respondents said that they sometimes ignore HR emails from their employer, while 5.7% even said that they always ignore HR emails. The reason for this may be that employees are simply overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive at work. The study also shares that 47.7% of respondents said receiving fewer emails at work would help increase their job satisfaction.

How to make sure employees read your Remote Working Policy

Want an easy way to get your employees to read your new Remote Working Policy? Another option would be to share the policy with employees through an employee app, such as BrightPay Connect. This cloud payroll extension to Bright’s payroll software, BrightPay, includes an employee app that can handle all sorts of HR tasks, like sharing important documents with your team. Using the app, employers can upload employee documents to their own employer dashboard and share them with individuals, multiple employees, or all employees. This means employees can easily access all their important documents on their phones - from their individual contracts to company-wide policies - anytime, anywhere.

How does it work?

When you share a document with your employees using BrightPay Connect, each employee will receive a push notification on their smartphone or tablet, that notifies them that a document has been shared. Using push notifications, your employees can instantly read the documents and are less likely to ignore it like they might with an email. Additionally, employers can track who has read the document and who hasn’t, so you can give them a nudge if needs be.

Reviewing and updating your Remote Working Policy

Once you have a Remote Working Policy in place, you should review it regularly. Any updates should be made once The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Law is commenced, and its Code of Practice has been published. The updated policy can quickly be reshared on BrightPay Connect, and employees will be notified by push notification, so they can stay up to date.

As well as sharing documents, BrightPay Connect allows you to:

Share payslips with employees
Manage employee annual leave
Update employee information
Automatically back up your payroll data to the cloud