Hybrid Working

Hybrid working is a work arrangement that allows you to conduct some of your work at an approved alternative worksite such as your home. It brings many advantages for colleagues:

• Improved work/life balance and therefore improved health and wellbeing
• Greater ability to focus on your role with fewer distractions
• Reduced travel time and costs
• IT and Technology upskilling

Plus advantages to our Business:

• Enabling colleague wellbeing – providing more flexibility and choice
• Supporting inclusion and diversity
• Potential reduction of some business costs
• Potentially reduced absence rates

The roles eligible for hybrid working must be office-based roles and the final decision on whether dual working will work for a role will ultimately be determined by a director. It is essential that we get the balance right both for you, and our business. This is the same principle that applies to traditional flexible working requests.

While impossible to capture every individual scenario in our business, as a general principle we consider at least two days a week being office-based as being a reasonable balance between office and home-based working, unless agreed otherwise with a Director.

A proposal to conduct hybrid working needs to be carefully reviewed in terms of: 

• operational/business need
• the cost of providing equipment
• health and safety
• communications considerations
• security and data protection
• working and reporting relationships
• any requirements to attend the workplace to perform the duties of the post.

All roles within One Degree North are eligible for hybrid working however the pattern of where you will work and when needs to be agreed in advance by a director.

Should the Director(s) feel that you are not being productive during your home working days then they can rescind the hybrid working arrangement and require you to attend the office for all days you are contracted to work.

On occasion the Director(s) may ask you to be in the office for more than your agreed days as which may be due to work pressures. By agreeing to this Hybrid Working arrangement, you acknowledge that this may happen, and you agree to waive your home working days accordingly. The Director(s) will seek to make this request as infrequently as possible and to give as much notice as possible in the event of having to ask you to attend the office for more than what you might usually work.

In addition, there is no carrying over of ‘homeworking days’ within this policy.

This Hybrid Working Policy should not be used as an alternative to caring for dependants. For dependency leave, please refer to the Personal Leave section of the Staff Handbook.

Hybrid working requests can be submitted once in every 12 months. It is however at the director(s) discretion as to whether to accept a request within 12 months. In circumstances where it is mutually beneficial for a colleague to be granted a change to hybrid working within 12 months, the director(s) may agree to grant this change. If the request is for a permanent arrangement, it could be treated as a formal flexible working request subject to eligibility.