Remote work without a policy is a collection of individual deals — different expectations, different equipment arrangements, different assumptions about availability, all negotiated ad hoc and all indefensible when one employee’s deal looks better than another’s. The problems compound when timekeeping, injury reporting, or out-of-state tax questions arrive.
This template converts the deals into a system: eligibility criteria based on role and demonstrated performance, a formal request-and-approval process with a signed remote work agreement, availability and timekeeping expectations, equipment and data-security requirements, and explicit recognition that remote work may also arise as an ADA reasonable accommodation through the interactive process — a distinct pathway with its own rules.
Who should use this policy template
- Employers formalizing pandemic-era remote arrangements
- HR managers fielding remote requests with no criteria to apply
- Growing companies hiring remote staff across city or state lines
- Organizations needing hybrid expectations in writing
What it helps prevent
- Remote arrangements as inconsistent one-off deals that breed grievances
- Non-exempt remote employees working untracked, unpaid hours
- Company data handled on unsecured personal devices
- Remote requests that were legally accommodation requests, mishandled
- Disputes over equipment, expenses, and availability nobody wrote down
What’s inside
- Purpose and scope — full-time, hybrid, and emergency remote scenarios
- Eligibility criteria — role feasibility, performance, approvals
- Approval process with signed remote work agreement
- Work hours, availability, and timekeeping compliance
- Equipment, security, and confidential data requirements
- ADA accommodation pathway through the interactive process
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.