Hybrid Working Guidance June 2024

2. Scope

This guidance covers all employees excluding staff on the complement of locally managed schools for whom a separate guidance applies.

3. What is hybrid working and who does it apply to?

Hybrid working is a flexible working model. It’s applicable to those employed in multi-located roles, where their ability to undertake their role is not reliant on the location that they work. Employees may spend time working at one of our council sites or remotely (at home, in the community or other locations).

Where you work will depend on the task you are doing and the kind of role you have. We want to ensure that we all work in a way that enables Carmarthenshire County Council to conduct its activities as efficiently as possible, whilst providing you with some flexibility to decide how and where you work best.

Simply, it’s about how you do the right work, in the right place at the right time.

What we expect of you

Hybrid working arrangements must incorporate at least 40% of your time being spent at the workplace. What this looks like will vary depending on:

• the needs of our organisation
• the needs of the service you work in
• the nature of your role
• what is happening within your role and team at any time

What we expect of our people managers

Employee wellbeing is important to us and as an employer we believe that leaders and managers need to be visible and available to their teams. To ensure our people are properly supported, we expect our people managers to spend slightly more time at the workplace (at least 50%). This is to make sure managers are available for all members of their team on a face-to-face basis.

Given the degree of flexibility that our hybrid working arrangements provide, we expect our workforce to be flexible. Each service and team is different, so managers and team members are encouraged to put in place working practices that suit the needs of their service.

4. Principles

Here are some key principles that underpin working in a more flexible way:

• It’s based on trust. We trust you to choose the best places, and available technology to support the work you do, and to balance this with the needs of your service and your team as well as your own needs.
• Your performance will be evaluated on the impact you have and the outcomes you deliver.
• This way of working is open to everyone who is in a multi-located role regardless of how long they have worked for us, this includes our agency workers and contractors, providing it supports service delivery.
• We commit to making sure that you have the right technology and equipment to support you to work in this way.
• Hybrid working should not adversely impact your colleagues nor the level or quality of service to our customers.
• We know that connecting with your colleagues and others is important for your wellbeing. We will continue to provide safe office spaces for you to collaborate and connect with each other.

Some key things to remember about hybrid working:

• It will depend on whether your role is multi-located, the department you work in, the level of supervision you need in your role, any minimum levels of physical cover required as well as the technology and environment you have available to you.
• Our business needs will take priority when considering our approach and individual working arrangements.
• Working in this way will not change your contractual terms and conditions of employment in respect of working hours or contractual location of work; it’s an informal arrangement that may be changed depending on business needs.
• The location of your contractual base for expense claim purposes will be stipulated in your contract of employment and will remain unchanged if you are an existing employee. Claims are made from your contractual work base location as per your contract (not your home).
• It’s not the same as a flexible working agreement. If you want to make a more permanent change to your hours or working pattern, you will need to request this separately through our Flexible Working Policy, which you can download and read from our Flexible Working pages of our intranet.
• If you identify as a disabled person and have any access needs or accessible equipment, these will be considered when planning for hybrid working. Please refer to reasonable adjustments guidance.
• Your manager will work with you to explore how hybrid working could work for you and your team based on the needs of the business.

Please remember that any working arrangement is subject to the ongoing agreement, and sometimes might need to be changed for business reasons.

5. Considerations

Both Employees and Managers need to consider and discuss the following in your teams:

• Working hours and keeping in touch

You should make yourself available to others during agreed working hours when you are needed by your customers and your team.

We may ask you to be available at certain times to meet the needs of the business, to physically be in the office to collaborate, attend training or provide support and training for new colleagues, including apprentices.

There may be times when we might ask you to come in at short notice. We’ll let you know the circumstances and provide as much notice as possible. An example is to cover for a colleague who is sick in a customer facing role.

Flexing your working times should not result in extra work for other members of the team or compromise the objectives of your team or service delivery.

You are not entitled to any additional or overtime hours pay if you choose to work more hours than you are contracted to do unless you have agreed this in advance with your manager.

You should be prepared to work at an alternative location in the event of equipment or related service failure in line with our Disruption to Working Arrangements policy.

We know that modern life is complicated, and that working in this way can help you balance your home and work life. However, hybrid working should not be used as an option for managing emergency leave or for making care arrangements if it has a significant impact on your ability to carry out your day-to-day role. Please refer to our Time Off Policy, which you can find on our Leave and Absence pages of the intranet.

• Work performance and conduct

Work performance can often improve when individuals work in a more flexible way. However, if performance concerns develop during a hybrid working arrangement, your manager will discuss this with you.

Good communication is key to the success of hybrid working, you should ensure that you know what is expected of you in your role via your job description, 1:1 meetings, day-to-day discussions, and your appraisal. Further information relating to successfully managing and working in a hybrid team can be found on our Learning and Development intranet pages.

Whilst working more flexibly is based on trust, it’s still important that work performance is monitored to ensure productivity and output. Your manager will discuss with you any need to manage your work performance under the Capability Policy and/or the withdrawal of hybrid working. Advice and guidance can be sought from your HR Business Partner..

For confidentiality reasons, when making calls or attending online meetings you should always use the headphones provided by CCC and ensure you have an appropriate background. We have developed resources for you to use, which can be found on our Marketing and Media pages of the intranet http://intranet/our-people/marketing-media/1

In addition, useful information relating to meeting etiquette is available on our Meeting Etiquette Guidance page of the intranet.

6. Touchdown zones

The touchdown zones in our key strategic buildings are available across the county where you can drop in and work when you're in the area or work in between meetings. You can browse by towns to find our touchdown zones and what facilities are available in each location.

We also have additional locations across the county where you can drop in to work, which are not our traditional office buildings. These secondary site touchdown zones include our leisure centres and libraries.

7. Personal costs and expenses

Here are a few things to consider about personal costs and expenses when utilising hybrid working:

• We should minimise the need to print anything. If printing is needed, you must use council facilities. Further information can be found on the Print and Scan pages of our intranet.
• When working from home you will need to use your own broadband facilities and meet any increased energy costs – you will not be reimbursed for doing so.
• When working from home, if you experience issues with your broadband or power supply, or anything else, that means you are unable to use your equipment, or perform your role / tasks, you will be expected to attend your base location or other remote location to maintain productivity. When this is not possible, and you are unable to work, the time may be agreed as annual or other leave subject to entitlements and agreement with your line manager.

8. Contractual work location

All employees have a designated contractual base location. This base will be unchanged by hybrid working and is used for mileage claims. It is important that all employees manage their travel and limit this where possible, to achieve the environmental benefits of hybrid working.

Video conferencing via Microsoft Teams may be used to keep in touch and to minimise travelling to meetings. Mileage claims will be reimbursed under the usual terms and conditions of claiming expenses and subsistence allowance detailed on the Expenses page and Financial Procedure Rules of our intranet.

For clarity: travelling between the designated base location and home isn’t refundable. The Travel Policy provides worked examples of mileage claims.

9. Communication and contact

Effective communication and engagement with employees, including front line workers, is essential to developing our culture, new behaviours, and ways of working. For safety reasons, you must be contactable whilst working remotely.

Here are some key things you will need to ensure:

• Arrangements should be made for effective communication to be maintained between employees, line managers and between colleagues. Regular face to face contact is essential to developing and maintaining professional working relationships, this would include team meetings, 1:1’s, work-based meetings and attendance at learning and development events.
• Electronic diaries must be used, regularly updated and be open for others to view. You should use the privacy settings to ensure that sensitive information about who and why you are meeting is not publicly available.
• Electronic diaries should reflect working routines as well as meetings to ensure effective time management and facilitate diary booking.
• Your office phone number is appropriately diverted if you are not available to take calls.
• Your contact details must be kept up to date, including the publication of work-allocated mobile phone numbers. You should not give out your personal telephone number for work purposes, unless you are using your own phone instead of a work phone by your own agreement. Further information can be found on our Bring Your Own Device pages of our intranet.

10. Health, safety & wellbeing

Risks to your health, safety and wellbeing should not increase by hybrid working. The same responsibilities and arrangements should still be in place but may need to be adjusted to ensure they meet all required standards and provide you with relevant support. The aspects that need to be discussed and considered while hybrid working include:

• Lone working and personal safety arrangements – discuss how you will keep in touch, what the lone working arrangements are, if there are any types of work you should avoid undertaking whilst hybrid working and what the emergency arrangements are.
• Safe workstation set-up and assessments (known as DSE Self Assessments) – individual requirements should be taken into consideration; workstation assessments should be undertaken at regular periods and if there are significant differences in workstation set-up they may need to be repeated for multiple working locations. Any issues or equipment required to work safely should be identified through the assessment and provided to you, where required.
• General working arrangements – if there are any concerns or you identify any risks including the environment, equipment, or emergency arrangements you should discuss these with your line manager at the earliest opportunity.
• Stress, Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing – to avoid issues with stress and mental health, regular contact with your line manager and colleagues should be maintained, you may want to agree to set regular meetings alongside additional contact whenever required.
• Accidents / Incidents – the same requirements to report all accidents and incidents including near misses and violence and aggression remain in place. You should contact your line manager as soon as possible so any required actions can be implemented.
• Occupational Health – a referral can be made to provide medical advice on the best ways to support you and your health where appropriate. Please discuss this with your line manager.
• For any further information, support and guidance visit the Health & Safety and Health & Wellbeing pages on the intranet.

11. Care of equipment

If any equipment is lost, damaged or stolen, you need to let your line manager know as soon as possible. If you no longer need a piece of equipment, or are leaving your employment, please ensure that all council owned property is returned.

12. Information security

All personal data should be handled in accordance with the authority’s information governance procedures.

13. Insurance

If you have a multi-located working arrangement, and you plan to work from home part of the time, you are responsible for checking applicable mortgage or rental agreements to ensure you are permitted to work from home, and for obtaining any permissions necessary to work from home.

14. Working outside the UK

Due to the potential complex legal and tax implications, alongside the insurance implications, we are unable to support arrangements or requests for permanent relocations outside the UK. Employees must be able to attend a Council site when requested, within a reasonable timeframe. For information in relation to portable IT equipment please refer to Portable Devices Policy.

15. Sickness absence

Hybrid working and specifically working from home, should not be used as a way of carrying on working when you are sick. If you are ill, then you would need to take time off until you have recovered. You should follow the sickness absence reporting process detailed in the Sickness Absence Policy.

16. Review

Not all hybrid working arrangements will be successful either from the service point of view or the individual’s point of view, so they are open to review at any point. Managers will only consider stopping hybrid working arrangements for sound business or performance reasons and after consulting with you. In addition, as an organisation we will continue to review our working arrangements to ensure they meet the needs of our organisation and the services we deliver.

17. Ensuring equality of opportunity

All our employees are required to adopt a positive, open, and fair approach and ensure the authority’s Equality and Diversity Policy is adhered to and applied consistently to all irrespective of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, disability, religion and belief or non-belief, age, sex, gender reassignment, gender identity and gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, marital or civil partnership status.