77% of full-time workers agree that after COVID-19, being able to work from home (WFH) would make them happier and 75% of people realized that they were the same or more productive during COVID-19 while working from home.

Employers that used to be considered fairly traditional, like Ford, have jumped right into the future of work, opening up their company policies in favor of remote work. After all, the future of work is flexible— join us in the future by implementing any of these hyflex policies in your organization.

What are Hyflex Policies?

Hyflex workplace policies, or hybrid-flexible policies, are those designed to support a more than typical flexible work style. By implementing hybrid policies, such as allowing employees to telecommute while working from anywhere all or part of the time, along with flexible policies, such as core hours and meeting free days, you will set your employees up for long-term success in our increasingly remote society.

By the way— in our 2020 State of Remote Work Report, we found that lots of people (80%) want meeting free days (at least once a week) and we are here for it. 

Creating a Hyflex Workplace Environment

The most effective hyflex work environments are those tailored to your employee’s specific needs. Before implementing any policy changes, reach out to your workers and open a dialogue with them about which policies they feel would most ease their transition back to the office. Hyflex policies are designed to support both the individual employee and your company as a whole, if you neglect to include your employees in the policy creating step of the process, then you are missing out on some valuable intel.

Once you have had a productive hyflex policy-based conversation with your team leaders and department heads, it’s time to begin implementing your chosen hyflex policies. With so many new policies to choose from, this can quickly become an arduous undertaking. To help, here is an outline of the most common hyflex policies.

Hybrid Workplace Policies

With 80% of employees expecting to work from home at least 3x/week in a post-COVID-19 world, it’s clear that the future of work is hybrid. But how you implement new hybrid policies for your employees is up to you. Choosing a hybrid policy depends on primarily one thing: how often are you’re going to require employees to work on-site from the office.

If your answer to that question is “never” then a remote work policy is for you. But if you will be requiring employees to work from the office more than 0% of the time, you’ll need to offer them a hybrid work schedule. A hybrid work policy is any policy that allows an employee to work remotely part of the time. The key to creating successful hybrid systems is to balance in-person and remote strategies to build hybrid workflows that benefit everyone.

The best hybrid policies:

• Incorporate a combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication strategies to keep teams connected regardless of where team members are working from
• Include clear communication and collaboration guidelines to assist teams adjusting to the hybrid lifestyle
• Set appropriate short and long term expectations for the remote/on-site work balance of hybrid employees
• Provide hybrid employees and teams with the necessary educational materials and access to tools, remote collaboration software, and project management systems needed to ensure a smooth transition
  
  

To get started with creating a hybrid system that benefits your organization, begin with using a template to create a remote work policy that fits the needs of your hybrid employees and hybrid teams.

Flexible Workplace Policies

There are two primary components of flexible work policies: flexible schedules and flexible workspaces. Typically, one goes hand in hand with the other— flexible workspaces are designed to support employees working on flexible schedules. If you were to implement flexible schedules but failed to adjust your workspaces to accommodate those newly flexible employees, your workplace environment would suffer for it. To avoid unnecessary flexible work frustrations, implement flexible schedules and flexible workspaces alongside one another.

Flexible Schedules

Flexible schedules are similar to hybrid schedules, except whereas hybrid schedules focus on balancing remote and on-site work, flexible schedules cover all of the intricacies of atypical (not 9 to 5) work schedules.

The most common flexible schedules are:

• Meeting free days— are exactly how they sound, days where employees have no scheduled meetings allowing employees to have deeper, uninterrupted work sessions. With 80% of full time employees agreeing or strongly agreeing that there should be a day a week with no meetings at all, meeting free days are a highly desired flexible schedule.
• Compressed work week— also known as a 4 day work week, this is when employees fit 40 hours of work into less days than the standard 5 and is ideal for employees who work more independently and are not required to regularly attend meetings. For example, an employee could work for ten hours Monday through Thursday and enjoy a three day weekend every week instead of working the typical 9 to 5 every Monday through Friday.
• Core hours— a slight adjustment to the typical work schedule, core hours is a way for employees to have a few hours each day where they are available for meetings and team communication but reserve the rest of the day for independent, uninterrupted work. 74% of full time workers agree or strongly agree that they should have core hours.
• Daily flexible schedule— ideal for highly individual employees who are rarely required to attend meetings, a daily flexible schedule policy allows employees to work during different hours each day. The key here is to remain a strong coworker and team player even when working on an ever changing schedule.
  
  

Flexible Workspaces

Supporting your flexible and hybrid employees doesn’t stop with creating hyflex policies, it also means reorganizing and revamping your office design to support employees who will only be working out of your on-site office part of the time.

The most common flexible workspaces are:

• Hotdesks— also known as flex-desking, employees can reserve desks ahead of time when they will be working on-site, ensuring that no desk space is unnecessary and workplace resources are maximized to make up for an overall decrease in unused office space.

• Interactive maps— for flexible employees who skew remote-heavy and could be uncomfortable working on-site, interactive maps show employees which areas are being occupied and which ones are open for use.

• Huddle pods— in place of standard oversized conference rooms, create smaller huddle pods instead for employees to conduct one-on-one in-person or hybrid meetings.
• Room booking— to avoid double booking desks, meeting rooms, and huddle spaces you will want to incorporate a room booking system to allow both on-site and remote workers the opportunity to reserve work spaces for themselves and their teams ahead of time.
  
  

Although we will soon see the end of the typical 9 to 5 workday, workplace culture is not changing, just making some slight adjustments. To stay up to date on the latest remote, hybrid, and flexible work trends, check out these 45 Key WFA & Remote Work Statistics for 2021.