Work cultures are shifting, and tech companies realize that remote work can help them succeed in business at scale. This transformation in working style happened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and most people predicted that remote work is here to stay even after the crisis.

There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is that employers witness their employees loving the flexibility that comes with remote work leading to an increased boost in productivity.  A study shows that remote workers are productive 1.4 days more every month compared to offline workers. It ultimately benefits the bottom line. 

To succeed at scale with remote working, companies will have to make massive shifts in the organization’s model, including company culture, physical design, the infrastructure of the office, and workplace policies. 

This blog will tell you how to create a remote work policy for your team.

Why Do You Need a Work From Home Policy?

As a tech company, you might hire talent from across the globe. So, just talking about your company’s rules is not enough. You need to have a solid policy in place as your team does not meet each other in-person daily, and a great policy can help everyone to be on the same page and meet the company’s expectations. 

It helps to establish a standard of fairness for in-house and remote employees. It also outlines your company’s best practices and guidelines for new remote hires.

A work-from-home policy establishes a professional tone for employees, even when working remotely. A standardized remote policy further helps your company to grow in an inclusive work environment. 

What Is a Remote Work Policy?

A remote work policy has guidelines that explain how a company plans to let its employees work away from their main office. It will include work expectations, collaboration methods, company rules, and employee benefits. Remote work policy can be temporary or permanent based on the company’s vision and goals. 

How to Build a Remote Work Policy for Your Developers?

Decide How You Want Your Employees to Work and Communicate

The first step of a remote policy should include how you want your developers to work on their tasks. Set realistic expectations and ensure that the employee’s responsibilities are manageable even if they are away from the company’s primary office. 

Also, see that the policies you write promote inclusivity in all aspects. Consider who will be the managers of the remote workers as well. 

You will even have to outline strategies and tools to help your employees work productively. Some of the questions to consider are:

• Will you have to provide technology and infrastructure to your employees?
• What strategies, tools, and resources will your developers need to work effectively?
• Do your existing supplementary policies fit into a remote work model?
• How will remote work affect the culture within your existing teams?
• Think about your communication policies, technology policies, and onboarding documentation in a remote setup
• Will remote work impact the taxes or benefits of the company or the employees you hire from different states or countries? 

Considering and asking the right questions can go a long way and make the transition smoother for your company. Discuss all the aspects with your HR, finance, and legal teams before rolling out the policy officially. 

List Out the Resources to Make Remote Work Efficient

Once you have established a reporting channel of supervisors, you must define the resources that your developers will need to work productively. Please write whether you would provide equipment to your remote staff. Also, mention if you want the employees to use their equipment.

This point will also include the various software that the company will provide. For example, video conferencing software, tech tools, or any other resources needed based on your project. No matter what you decide, you need to communicate the resource allocation plan in your policy.

If you are a company that works with customers’ private data, you will have to give extra cyber security measures to your employees. For example, you can provide your developers with a virtual private network based on your project. You will also have to define if it is alright for your employees to work in places that provide public internet access or if they will have to work exclusively from home. 

Working Hours

Working remotely implies flexibility around time. But, if a company cannot manage flexibility, it can turn counterproductive as people can be working overtime or unavailable when needed.

Sometimes, the lines between work and life become blurred if the working hours and expectations are not defined realistically.  

Although 9-5 is dead, you need clear guidance on the working hours of your remote employees. Strike a balance between allowing employees to work on hours that are best for them and also being available for meetings and follow-ups when you need them. 

Also, have systems in place to track time, which will help you see how many hours your developers are working and whether flexibility is compromised or not. 

Establish a Communication Policy

Having communication rules in a remote setup is crucial. Issues will arise if you do not set the expectations early. Some of the questions to consider are:

• How will you communicate with your remote developers? What tools will you use? How do they differ when it is a quick check-in versus a virtual meeting?
• How often do you want your employees to check in? Will you need your remote employees to check in during holidays and weekends?
• Will you conduct team meetings? Do they have to be present in all of them? Will the meetings happen weekly or bi-weekly, or monthly?
• Do they have to use any project management tools and leave an update on the progression of their work? Do you want them to update daily or as and when required?
• How fast do you want your remote workers to reply within regular hours? 
• What are your regular business hours?

You have to consider the different time zones when hiring global talent. You cannot expect them to be available in your company’s time zone. If you want an employee to be available in your time zone, you must state this clearly before hiring them. 

You can even work out a midway where employees from different time zones overlap any part of your day. Only then will you be able to offer flexibility. 

Include all these aspects in your remote work policy, and your employees will face fewer communication issues as everyone will know what’s expected of them when it comes to staying in touch.

Include Methods for Collaboration and Socialization

Ensure your policy has guidelines for building time for teams to be together apart from work-related conversations. It doesn’t matter if you have hired temporary employees or independent freelancers; allowing them to interact with your core team will help them understand each other better, ensuring a seamless workflow.

So, include time in your policy for gathering all the team members virtually for an informal planning and brainstorming session. You can even host virtual kickoff meetings for projects or set up a video call for non-work-related conversations. Such activities will bring your team closer even when residing across multiple locations.

Also, highlight etiquette guidance in casual chat rooms for your employees so they can interact personally while maintaining professionalism. It can promote consistency and efficiency when employees talk to each other.

Add Employees’ Legal Rights

Including legal rights for your remote employees will help your organization to remain legally compliant with governing bodies and promote employee satisfaction. 

You can mention bonuses, sick leaves, and overtime pay for your employees. For example, if they work more than 40 hours a week, they will be liable for overtime. You can even avoid high overtime costs by mentioning times employees should or shouldn’t be working. With clear guidelines, remote workers won’t be able to work outside these times unless they have permission from their manager. 

Most companies do not give these benefits to remote employees. So, it is essential to mention your company’s policy for such workers. You should also discuss whether your remote developers need training or not. 

How to Measure the Success of a Remote Work Policy?

The primary goal behind creating a remote work policy is to have a standardized and seamless workflow, mainly when it includes a transition from office work to remote work. Since your employees are not working in a traditional office setting, tracking them and seeing what they are working on is challenging. 

Creating a policy will help in this situation as it will focus on the expectations of the managers from their developers and what metrics they will use to measure success. 

Every role is different, so success metrics will also be different. For developers and coders, you can either focus on the number of hours they worked in a week or the number of milestones they achieved for a project within the given deadline. 

You can even track milestones or hours with the help of project management tools like Trello or Asana. Although, keep a check on the progression of your project because if your remote developer worked for long hours in a week, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were maximizing their productivity during that time. 

Find a metric that aligns with your company and project requirements. However, clear guidelines can help to reduce the chance of missed deadlines or low-quality work. If you see things going out of hand, it is a sign that you need to update, tweak, or communicate your remote work policy better. 

Hire Remote Rockstar Developers with Workfall

You can create fantastic remote work policies for your employees but looking for top-notch remote developers right for your company can be challenging and daunting.

But you don’t have to worry, as Workfall helps you find highly skilled and pre-vetted software developers. 

You can look for them based on your exact requirement – which means that you can hire developers for specific needs, specific projects, specific hours, and specific costs. You do not have to pay them recurring payrolls. 

Apart from that, you only pay for their approved timesheets. So, you can hire highly qualified and experienced remote workers yet make them work based on your policies. 

It is a smooth process, and you will have a developer on your team within 24 hours. But before hiring one, we suggest you create your remote work policy, as it will help you onboard the developer from Workfall immediately.