The Ultimate Guide to Hybrid Working

The Ultimate Guide to a Hybrid Working Model

The Covid-19 pandemic forced offices and workplaces around the world to close their doors. Millions of people had to work from home using video calls. As restrictions eased, much of the business world moved to a new model: hybrid working.

Home workers had to adapt their homes for it. That meant buying office furniture, upgrading broadband and rethinking the balance between work and home life.

Businesses had to make changes too, including whether to choose an open office floor plan or a cubicle office layout. The right setup can improve productivity in the office while saving on property costs. Furniture such as meeting booths and tub chairs is good at creating distinct "zones" within an office.

If you’re making the switch to hybrid working, this guide will make the transition a lot easier. It covers the main models, the benefits and the pitfalls, and how to roll it out. It also explains how to write a policy, what UK law says about requests, and how to set up both the office and the home desk.

What is hybrid working?

Hybrid working is a mix of working in a traditional office or workspace and working from home. Many companies now offer it to give staff more flexibility and more time with their families instead of commuting every day. It can also save on office rent and cut carbon emissions.

Hybrid working is one type of flexible working. GOV.UK describes it as “a combination of working remotely and working in the employee’s usual workplace”. Flexible working can also mean changing when or how long people work, such as part-time hours, flexitime or compressed hours. GOV.UK lists the main types of flexible working.

Where did hybrid working come from?

The pandemic sped up the move to hybrid working, but the idea has been around since the early days of the internet. Once people could send emails, collaborate online and join virtual meetings, businesses saw a chance to save on office space and travel while giving staff more time at home.

Which hybrid working model suits your team?

There’s no single way to do hybrid. Most arrangements are a version of one of four patterns. The big choice is who picks the office days: the business or the employee.

Say your team works a “3-2” week: three days in the office and two at home. That sets the split. You still need to agree which days, and that’s where the coordination comes in. Many teams fix one or two shared office days and let people choose the rest.

What are the benefits of hybrid working?

Some people love working from home; others enjoy working side by side with colleagues. Hybrid working gives employees the best of both worlds. When staff split their time between the workplace and home, there are benefits for both the worker and the employer.

Lower office costs

Fewer people in the office at any one time means you need less space. That gives businesses the chance to move to smaller premises and cut their rent and business rates.

Better work-life balance

In big cities especially, commuting can take a large part of the day. Giving workers that time back means more time with their loved ones, their friends and their hobbies, which many people value highly.

Fewer commuting days can also cut what staff spend on fares, fuel and parking.

Productivity

Hybrid working can lift morale and motivation, and people who are happier with their life outside work often bring that to their job. Measure it in your own business, though: the feedback step below explains how.

Access to more talented employees

The wider a business can cast its net, the better its chance of finding talented people. If the distance between a candidate’s home and the workplace matters less, you can recruit from a much larger area.

Fewer people in the office at once

Social distancing became second nature during the pandemic. Hybrid working can reduce how many people are in on a normal day. Shared office days may still bring everyone in, though, so plan for your busiest day.

Someone with a cold may be able to work from home if they feel well enough. What if they have a high temperature, or don’t feel well enough for their normal activities? Then the NHS advises staying at home. They should avoid contact with other people until they feel better. Anyone too unwell to work should follow your sickness absence policy.

If your team feels nervous about returning to the office after Covid-19, a hybrid pattern can ease them back in.

The challenges of hybrid working, and how to handle them

Hybrid working brings its own problems. Most can be managed if you plan for them from the start.

• Presence bias: it’s easy to favour the people you see most. Judge people on agreed results, not on time spent visibly at a desk. Give remote colleagues the same access to decisions, training and promotion.
• Fewer casual chats: the quick word by the kettle disappears on home days. Make time for informal contact, not just task check-ins. Our guide to workplace wellbeing has more ideas.
• Blurred boundaries: working across two places can blur the end of the day and make tasks harder to organise. Agree a finishing time and keep one task list for both locations. Agree how quickly people are expected to reply, too.
• Unequal kit: not everyone has a spare room, a proper desk or fast broadband. Check that everyone has suitable equipment and a reliable connection.
• Reliance on technology: when the internet drops, so does the meeting. Agree a fallback, such as a phone number, for when a connection fails.

How to introduce a hybrid working model

If you’ve decided to bring in a hybrid working policy, there are a few issues to consider and steps to take.

Start by asking and assessing

Before you change anything, ask staff and managers what has worked so far. Then look at the work itself:

• Tasks: which ones need people on site?
• Roles: how much of each job could be done remotely?
• Required days: which office days, if any, are non-negotiable?

HSE also suggests talking to workers about their arrangements. Working from home may not suit everyone. Some people don’t have a suitable place to work, and some prefer to come in for their wellbeing.

Consider phasing your approach

You can’t be sure hybrid working will suit your business until you’ve tried it, and any change will disrupt normal work for a while. That’s why it’s a good idea to start with a few employees or a single department. If it works, roll it out slowly across the business.

Share the policy with everyone before the pilot starts. Brief managers first, so they can answer questions and apply the rules the same way.

Collect feedback from managers and employees

Hybrid working isn’t suited to every business, and in some it can do more harm than good. Get regular feedback from the managers and staff who are working this way. Are people getting more done? Are costs falling and revenue rising? Review your policy often and be ready to change it quickly.

Look at staff satisfaction and retention too, not just output and costs. If good people start leaving, the policy isn’t working.

Cultivate a strong company culture

Hybrid working only lasts if everyone is invested in it, so make it part of your culture. Not everyone can stay at home every day. You’ll need compromises, arrangements that work for both sides and a set of rules that keep things fair and in line with the needs of the business.

Optimise your existing office space

To save money with hybrid working, you’ll need to make the most of your existing office. If you won’t have everyone in at once, even on your busiest days, you can remove desks, chairs, sofas, tables and communal areas you don’t need. Work out how much space you really need; then you can look for smaller premises if it makes sense.

Implement remote work benefits

Hybrid working only works if your staff embrace it. Many people will be happy to work from home, but some won’t: plenty of workers prefer to keep work and home life separate.

If hybrid working saves you money, pass some of it on to your staff as bonuses or home working payments. Home workers also use their own heating, power and broadband, so an extra payment to cover expenses is a good idea.

HMRC sets a simple rate for this. It applies where someone works at home regularly under an agreed arrangement. You can then pay £6 a week, or £26 a month for monthly paid staff, towards their extra household costs. You don’t have to justify that amount, and staff don’t need to keep records (HMRC guidance).

That rate is not a maximum. You can pay more without tax if you have evidence of the extra costs. GOV.UK explains the tax and reporting rules for homeworking expenses.

Keep this optional support separate from equipment. If a workstation assessment shows someone needs a piece of equipment, they can’t be charged for it (more on that below).

Build trust between employees

Everyone should get the chance to work from home if possible, but some jobs can’t be done remotely. Keep your team working in harmony and find ways to build trust. Introduce a shift-swap system, and encourage people to be open about any grievances.

Set clear working hours and check-ins

Hybrid teams need to know when and where everyone is working. Ask staff to share their hours and which days they’re in the office, so colleagues and clients know when to reach them.

Write down simple guidelines for remote work, covering how the team communicates, shares work and handles private information. Then hold regular check-ins, in person or by video call, so nobody drifts out of touch.

Help staff manage their time across two workplaces

One of the biggest challenges of hybrid working is managing your time well. A few habits help:

• Daily list: start each day with a to-do list. Prioritise tasks by importance and urgency.
• Time log: if it’s useful, keep a simple time log or use a time-tracking tool. It shows where your day goes, so you can adjust your habits.
• Right task, right place: where you can, save focused tasks for your quieter location. Plan office days around collaboration.
• Breaks: plan short, frequent breaks or changes of activity away from screen work. Get up and move around, or at least stretch and change posture.

Breaks aren’t just good advice. For staff who use screens daily, the law says employers must plan work so there are breaks or changes of activity. HSE says short, frequent breaks are better than longer, less frequent ones.

Write a hybrid working policy

Those simple guidelines work best as a written policy. Keep it short and practical. It should cover:

• Purpose and eligibility: why you offer hybrid working, and which roles it covers.
• Attendance: the pattern, and any required office days.
• Hours and availability: core hours, and how people show when they’re working.
• Communication: which tools to use, and how quickly to reply.
• Equipment and IT: what the business provides, and who looks after it.
• Privacy and data protection: how staff keep personal data safe at home.
• Health and safety: workstation assessments for home and office.
• Expenses: what you pay towards home working costs.
• Changes and contacts: how to ask for a different arrangement, and who to ask.
• Review date: when you’ll look at the policy again.

For the data protection part, the Information Commissioner’s Office has ten tips for working from home securely. They include using only the technology your organisation approves and taking care with printouts. They also cover holding calls and placing screens where others in the house can’t overhear or see. And they suggest locking devices and papers away when you finish work.

Give everyone the same tools

Hybrid working runs on software that works the same at home and in the office. Most teams need four kinds:

• Messaging and calls: Microsoft Teams, Slack or Google Workspace, for chat, file sharing and calls in one place.
• Project management: Trello, Asana or Monday.com, to track tasks, deadlines and progress. Assign each task to an owner.
• Video meetings: Zoom, Google Meet or Teams, with screen sharing for group work. Where recording is available and appropriate under your workplace policy, tell participants. Then share the recording with colleagues who need to catch up.
• File storage: Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox, so everyone works on the latest version of a document. Use version history to track changes.

After each meeting, share the decisions and who’s doing what. Colleagues who couldn’t attend can then catch up without chasing.

Help staff set up a proper home office

A kitchen chair and the end of the dining table won’t last long. Make sure home workers have a chair and desk built for the hours they’ll spend at them. Our office chairs suit home as well as office use, and our narrow and small office desks fit where space is tight while still giving a sturdy, well-made workstation.

Health and safety for home workers: the employer’s duties

Employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for people working at home as for any other worker. HSE’s guidance names hybrid workers specifically.

The display screen equipment (DSE) rules apply to staff who use screens daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more. For them, HSE says:

• Assess both places: where someone works at home and in the office, the DSE assessment should cover both.
• Self-assessment is allowed: staff can assess their own workstation once they’ve had suitable training, for example with a checklist.
• Check what they have: people may not need office furniture at home, but you should check their own equipment is suitable.
• Fix the risks found: reduce them as far as is reasonably practicable.
• No charge for required kit: if the assessment shows someone needs a piece of equipment, they can’t be charged for it.

Set up the home workstation

For the set-up itself, start with HSE’s good posture basics:

• Screen: top of the screen level with your eyes, about an arm’s length away.
• Chair: good lower back support, with the seat supporting the front and back of your thighs equally.
• Keyboard: just below elbow height, with the screen and keyboard straight in front of you so you don’t twist.
• Laptop: for long spells, use a separate keyboard and mouse so the screen can be raised. A riser or a monitor arm holding a separate screen does the job.

Check the broadband too. A connection that copes with email may still struggle with video calls and large shared files. Test it before someone relies on it all day.

Our guide to sitting at your desk goes into posture in more detail.

Does a hybrid worker need a printer at home?

Often not. If someone prints a few pages a month, they may be able to save printing for office days. If they do need one at home, here’s what to consider when selecting a printer for hybrid working:

• Volume: roughly how many pages a month, and whether they need colour.
• Features: whether they need to scan or copy as well.
• Space: measure where it will go, including room for the paper tray.
• Compatibility: check it works with their work laptop and supports wireless printing, if they need it.
• Supplies: agree who pays for paper, ink or toner.
• Confidential paper: there’s no confidential waste bin at home. The ICO suggests following your organisation’s guidance, or storing printouts safely until they can be disposed of securely at the office.

Can employees ask to work hybrid? What UK law says

Yes. In Great Britain, asking to work from home, or to change how often you’re in the workplace, is a flexible working request (Acas). It’s a right to ask, not an automatic right to hybrid work.

Since 6 April 2024, employees have been able to make a statutory request from their first day in a job. Before then they needed 26 weeks’ service (Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023). The key rules, from GOV.UK:

• Two requests a year: employees can make 2 applications in any 12-month period.
• In writing: the request must include the date and a statement that it’s a statutory request. It must also set out the change wanted, when it should start, and the date of any previous request.
• Two months to decide: the employer must decide within 2 months, or longer if the employee agrees.
• Talk first: the employer must discuss the request with the employee before refusing it.
• Agreed changes in writing: the employer should write with the agreed changes and a start date. It should update the contract no later than 28 days after approving the request.
• No statutory appeal: there’s no legal right to appeal, but an employer can offer one.

When an employer can say no

An employer can only refuse for one of eight business reasons:

1. extra costs that will damage the business
2. the work can’t be reorganised among other staff
3. people can’t be recruited to do the work
4. it will affect quality
5. it will affect performance
6. the business won’t be able to meet customer demand
7. there’s a lack of work during the proposed times
8. the business is planning changes to the workforce

A few more points from Acas are worth knowing:

• Informal requests: you can agree hybrid working informally, without the statutory procedure. That route doesn’t carry the same legal protections.
• Risk assessment: when considering a request, the employer may need to check that working at home is suitable and safe.
• Disability: someone asking to work from home because of a disability can make a flexible working request or ask for a reasonable adjustment.
• Protection: employees are protected from dismissal and detriment for making a statutory request.

Northern Ireland has different flexible working rules. If you’re unsure about a particular case, Acas runs a helpline, and GOV.UK suggests getting legal advice.

Prepare the office space for hybrid work

Hybrid working may free up space in your office, if fewer people come in on your busiest days. Use it well, and follow the principles of good office interior design, and you may give productivity a boost. You’ll also be able to judge how much space you’ll need in future, once the policy is fully in place.

Create collaborative spaces

With hybrid working, half a team may be in the office while the other half works at home. Set the office up for practical communication, with space to talk as a group and quiet space for focused work.

Keep calls apart from focused work. Put video calls in a quiet room or a meeting booth, so the people around them can concentrate.

Meeting rooms

A well-appointed meeting room gives a team the formal seating and privacy to discuss the issues of the day and share ideas. At the centre are usually meeting room tables. For a relaxed atmosphere, a Hub High Meeting Table is ideal. If you’d rather keep things formal and promote business-like, efficient meetings, choose a traditional boardroom table instead.

Most meetings will now include someone at home. Equip hybrid meeting rooms with a camera, a microphone, speakers and a screen. Then test them: can the people on the call hear everyone, and can they get a word in?

Breakout areas

Breakout areas need a range of seating, plenty of space and a place for a screen for video calls. A selection of sofas creates a comfortable, open space that’s good for collaboration and easy conversation.

A three-seater reception sofa, for example, offers comfort with a smart, formal look. Smaller seats scattered around the room create smaller breakout areas, and one of our tub chairs would be a great option here.

Shift to a hot desking setup

Giving every employee their own desk doesn’t often fit hybrid working. Ideally, you need a selection of standard office desks, each with a screen, a phone and some storage. Encourage people to move around, but ask them to clear their things away before they go home. Something like the One Cantilever Rectangular Office Desk in Grey Oak is perfect, as it’s compact, lightweight and easy to move around.

Size the desks to your busiest day, not your headcount. Say you have a team of 30, and the rota never needs more than 18 of them at desks at once. You need 18 usable workstations for that planned peak.

Before you remove any desks, agree how you’ll handle visitors, extra attendance and anyone who needs an adjusted workstation. Then use a shared booking calendar, and check it against your required office days.

Give employees a place to relax

Your staff need a place to unwind and chat with colleagues, in person or online. This space needs carpet, soft furnishings and perhaps some catering equipment or reading materials. Add a few office lockers to give office staff a little extra privacy and security.

The focal point of any relaxation space should be a comfortable reception sofa, and a plush two-seater makes the perfect spot to unwind during a busy day. It’s also a good idea to provide soft seating for people who need a little space. The Vibrant Tub Armchair with Metal Feet is perfect for that.

Hybrid working FAQs

What is the difference between remote and hybrid working?

Remote working means an employee spends all of their time working away from the office, at home or on the move. Hybrid working is when an employee splits their time between the organisation’s office and somewhere else, usually their home.

Is hybrid better than remote?

It depends on the needs of the business and the preferences of employees. Some people feel detached if they never see their colleagues in person. Others will happily say goodbye to long commutes for good.

Remote working can suit businesses whose priority is to cut property, utility and travel costs. However, it’s harder to keep track of a remote worker’s performance and productivity.

Do employees want hybrid work?

Many do. Employees often see it as the best of both worlds: more time with their loved ones, while still enjoying the company and social side of the office. Some prefer to take work that needs focus home, away from distractions in the office.

It isn’t for everyone, though. As HSE points out, some people don’t have a suitable place to work at home, and some prefer to come into the workplace for their wellbeing. Ask your own staff before you decide.

Why is hybrid working the future?

Since people could first work together by email, the move towards hybrid working has been growing. The pandemic sped it up and gave both employees and businesses a first-hand look at what it offers. As companies look for savings and increased efficiency in the office, and employees look for a better work-life balance, hybrid working looks set to stay.

The figures point the same way. The Office for National Statistics found that “more than a quarter of workers in Great Britain (28%) were hybrid workers between 8 January and 30 March 2025”. It added that the share of hybrid workers has risen, while the share who only travel to work has fallen (ONS, 11 June 2025).

For help choosing furniture for a home office or hybrid workplace, contact our friendly team.