Employees Working From Home – How Should Companies React?

Executive Summary

With the country reopening due to the lessening of COVID-related restrictions, companies and employees are returning to a new "normal." Remote working has become a recruiting tool for some companies. For other companies which have required employees to return to the office, the failure to continue to allow some form of remote working ("hybrid model") has been frustrating for many employees. Although many managers have been surprised to see that employees' productivity has not suffered when they have worked from home, many companies still firmly believe that they should require employees to work at the company's office(s). Regardless of a company's philosophy regarding remote work, companies that provide some form of remote work should draft and distribute appropriate policies and have employees sign telecommuting agreements to establish the company's expectations and working rules.