Policies in the Hybrid Work Environment: Conduct Related Policies

Are your policies optimized to support your organization’s codes of conduct in a remote and hybrid work environment? As organizations support a remote or hybrid work environment, it is critical that they dust off their conduct related policies - inclusivity, diversity, harassment, discrimination etc.

People are not in corporate offices, and they are not sitting in corporate conference rooms - they are at home. It is very possible that they think different rules apply and may feel more relaxed. Things are being said on Zoom calls that would never be allowed in a corporate conference room, opening doors of HR liability and risk exposure.

Organizations need to:

• Review all conduct related policies from a hybrid/remote office context to make sure they reflect the reality of the new work environment.
• Communicate and engage remote/hybrid employees on these policies.
• Provide training and FAQs that address conduct in a hybrid/remote work environment that goes through scenarios and engages employees to train and educate them on your organization’s policies.

Your organization needs to adjust to the changing business environment and develop a policy management framework that makes it easy for employees within your organization to access and understand corporate policies within a hybrid work environment.