How to organise hybrid working in your company

Today, most managers move between the office, home and a range of third places (coworking spaces, cafes, transport, and so on). The variety of settings and the endless combinations they allow - known as “hybrid working” - are forcing companies to organise themselves more effectively in order to sustain their business, protect their culture and keep their teams engaged.

From a company’s perspective, formalising the rules of hybrid working looks essential. Those rules need to reflect its culture, its values, and its business activities and priorities. Some firms are trialling innovative arrangements; others are moving forward cautiously.

Between “everyone does as they see fit” and “compulsory return to the office five days a week”, HR policies vary enormously and sometimes lack effective mechanisms for enforcing the decisions that have been taken.  

Can we now take stock of best practice? Is it possible to set out a clear framework? How much flexibility can you offer without harming team cohesion and performance? Where should you set the dial between autonomy and control? How do you embed these rules into company culture and HR processes?

Six very practical tips for organising hybrid working in your company

In 2025, several major groups such as Amazon, JP Morgan, Google and Société Générale attracted headlines with 100% return-to-office policies. That is not, however, the norm. Remote work remains firmly established.

According to an Appinio x Morning survey carried out in 2025, 73% of respondents are allowed to work remotely, at least occasionally. Among them, only 4% nonetheless choose to come into the office every day. On average, company agreements now provide for a little over two days of remote work per week. Six years on from the pandemic, remote work has settled down and become a lasting part of company culture. The question is no longer whether to allow it, but how to frame and organise it effectively. Here are six tips drawn from a Bureau des Talents panel discussion.

1) Mind the legal framework — and apply it

First things first, companies can rest easy: accidents at work in the home remain very rare. Accidents mostly occur on sites with specific hazards, a world away from the conditions of those eligible for remote work. That said, there is no such thing as zero risk. It is essential to raise your employees’ awareness and to anticipate accidents by applying the same prevention principles at home as in the office. 

Whether the day is spent in the office or working remotely, the same rules apply. Thomas Gobey confirms it: “Bumping into something at home or at the office makes no difference in the eyes of the law.” In practice, though, a gap exists between these two settings. In the office, fire extinguishers are checked and installations inspected. At home, no checks are carried out. No labour inspector will come to verify the electrical wiring or the safety standards. What happens if there is a fire in the building during a day of remote work?

Some employers ask their employees for proof of home insurance. This practice is counterproductive. Should a problem arise, insurers could refuse to cover an employee who works from home. It is the company’s insurance that must cover occupational risks, wherever the work is carried out.

Focus your efforts on prevention instead. Simply make sure the employee works remotely in good conditions, while raising their awareness of (remote-)work accidents and how they happen.

When it comes to working time, the logic is the same. The employer must be aware that “an accident occurring at the time and place of work is presumed to be an accident at work”* as stated in the Ministry of Labour’s guide for victims of accidents at work and their families.” 

The Labour Code also requires a minimum rest period of 11 consecutive hours between two working days for employees. Hence the importance of respecting the hours set out in employment law, even when working remotely.

Here too, awareness-raising and social dialogue have their place. The employer must ensure that legal provisions are applied, at home or in the office. 

For example, some companies cut off access to email inboxes between 8pm and 8am.

Another fundamental point raised by Thomas Gobey: remote work cannot be imposed. The successive lockdowns brought about by the Covid crisis were extraordinary situations. In normal times, no one can be compelled to work from home. The Labour Code is explicit: “remote work must be voluntary, so the employer cannot impose this way of organising work, except in exceptional circumstances of force majeure”.

Tip 2. Choose the rhythm that makes sense for your company

Alternating between the “office” and home (or another third place) has a direct impact on a company’s business activity and its culture. For that reason, business and cultural priorities should be at the heart of how you think about organising hybrid working.  

The first step is to assess how compatible each role and activity is with remote work. Some functions lend themselves to it little or not at all, while others fit perfectly with a hybrid model, or even with 100% remote work.

It is at team level that setting the remote-work rhythm makes the most sense. Each team knows its own constraints and needs for on-site collaboration, the volume of tasks that can be done remotely, and its rituals and key moments requiring a physical presence.

This is where the number of remote-work days, how they are spread across the week and how they fit around collective time can be pinned down. Take care, however, to avoid overly disparate rhythms within a single team, which would make coordination harder. Differentiated arrangements by business unit or job family, on the other hand, make perfect sense.

In some contexts, a single rule for all employees may be called for. Following the acquisition of several companies that had previously operated across different sites, the Skeepers executive committee decided on a common rhythm for the entire workforce. The aim was to build a shared culture and speed up cross-functional projects. A balance emerged: three days in the office per week.

Some organisations go so far as to ban remote work in order to avoid disparities with roles that are not eligible. This approach can be justified on grounds of fairness. Beware, though: remote work has become a major factor in attractiveness for certain profiles. Giving up this flexibility entirely can penalise your employer brand and your ability to recruit for hard-to-fill roles. 

3) Let teams set their own framework, in keeping with your culture

As with any management practice, once the human factor comes into play, a bespoke approach is essential. When it comes to hybrid working, then, the point is not to match exactly the individual case of an employee who happens to have physiotherapy between 1.30pm and 2.30pm, but to agree, as a team, that “employees are allowed to work remotely when they have a medical appointment, in order to give the timetable some flexibility”. 

What is more, organising hybrid working is an opportunity for collective reflection, and for decisions taken by the manager for their team, and sometimes even with their team. These discussions offer valuable perspective on work and how it is organised. Why do we need to come together? And why, conversely, do we need more solitary moments? 

HR has its share of the challenge in organising hybrid working. It must engage managers and give them ownership, so that they relay and frame the current or future policy, driving the change forward in a positive way.

Managers have to act as ambassadors. They set the days of collective presence, frame team rituals (stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives), rule on well-founded exceptions and orchestrate the balance between individual focus and collective time. The HR department supports this movement without being reduced to a policing function, bringing support and resources to the teams. 

Change management is decisive for the success of your hybrid set-up. Listen to the fears your employees voice: the risk of being “monitored”, the sense of being “punished” when returning to the office. Spell out clearly the point of the exercise: coming back to the office is not about reproducing in person what was done over video call, it is about multiplying useful interactions and strengthening team bonds.

Favour a gradual approach: launch trial phases, gather feedback, adjust the arrangement and factor in individual cases. This iterative approach makes it possible to embed solid practices that are understood and accepted by everyone.

4) Formalise the rules and make them official

If you want a genuinely binding framework, formalise a collective agreement or a remote-work charter. Avoid attaching these rules directly to employment contracts, so as to retain agility and be able to adapt them as needs change. Draft concrete rules while leaving room for framed exceptions co-created with the teams. Consult the works council and file the document with the labour inspectorate.

Make sure to include the details required by Article L.1222-9 of the Labour Code. Your document should notably set out the conditions for accessing remote work and the arrangements for leaving it, the categories of eligible employees and their eligibility criteria.

Don’t forget to specify the places authorised for remote work (home, third places, coworking spaces). Set boundaries around the management of working hours and remind people of the right to disconnect. Clearly indicate the volume of remote work allowed (in days per week or per month), the mandatory break times and the rules on overtime.

An essential point that is often overlooked: describe precisely how workload and working time are monitored and regulated. Clearly state the proportionate consequences of failing to observe the mandatory days of presence. Too many arrangements still omit these elements, fundamental though they are to applying the framework properly and preventing conflict.

5) Invest in “remote-working” equipment worthy of the office

Set your employees up at home as they would be in the office. “Remote-friendly” tasks may be moments of output or concentration, long stretches where working postures will not tolerate the situation of a bistro chair and a laptop perched on the kitchen table all day long. Some figures illustrate the point. In 2023, Santé publique France notably revealed a significant gap in the prevalence of lower-back pain: 9% for full-time remote work compared with 5% for hybrid working.

As Tanguy from Fleex observes, employees are looking above all for ergonomic support: “Our best-sellers are the second screen, the ergonomic stand and, for those willing to spend, the chair.” The average basket seen at Fleex hovers around €400 when an employee joins, an amount that can be adjusted upwards for certain key groups (developers, payroll experts) with specific ergonomic requirements, notably for quality chairs above €400.

This investment counts twice over: for health and for performance, so don’t treat “bare” remote work, without any equipment, as a gift. Put your remote workers in good conditions to safeguard their health and the quality of their work. Investing in this equipment is equivalent to setting aside an “employer brand” budget that enhances your company.

Another point: avoid shifting the risk onto the employee, notably through unsuitable requests for proof of insurance (see tip 1). Clarify from the outset the company’s responsibility, the arrangements for recovering equipment and the renewal cycle, so as to guarantee optimal conditions over time.

6) Make the office desirable and give in-person time meaning

Make days in the office genuinely useful and desirable, with team rituals and high-value-added days. Make employees want to come in naturally, without excessive constraint and without disproportionate financial outlay.

Avoid the traps of in-person time with no value. In the workspace, steer clear of back-to-back meetings held entirely over video call when everyone is on site. As Béatrice points out: “At first, they came to the office to sit in a meeting room on video calls all day. That changes nothing.” You need to schedule days rich in useful interactions. Treat asynchronous work as the default outside team days and make sure to give remote workers a voice in mixed meetings.

Skeepers saw a significant rise in Friday attendance thanks to the three-day rule combined with well-thought-out rituals. Béatrice recounts: “In Paris, out of 120 employees, there were 10 of us on a Friday; today it’s between 30 and 40.” The monthly brunch works as a convivial trigger, without an extravagant budget.

Rethink the design of your spaces by increasing the number of meeting rooms and phone boxes. Aim for a hotel-like experience where every employee finds the ideal conditions for their various activities.

One last, very important point: explain why a physical presence strengthens decisions, sparks creativity, aids learning, improves onboarding and nourishes company culture. Multiply personal illustrations and concrete examples. In the office, meetings are shorter and more effective, and ideas emerge more easily.

Béatrice is particularly insistent on onboarding: “Interns and juniors need to see people around them. Starting your working life in an empty office isn’t easy.” That is why Skeepers has multiplied rituals and events to bring the office back to life, creating an environment conducive to integration and collaboration.

Read also How to get your teams to come into the office?

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