Work From Home Policy Checklist

Over 5 million employees in the U.S. are working from home.

No matter if your employees are working from home part-time or full-time, it's imperative they understand the WFH policies your company has in place.

Without knowing them, they could be going about WFH all wrong!

That's why the team at Process Street — which is state-of-the-art BPM software — created this Work From Home Policy Checklist to use.

This is how it works.

Firstly, an HR manager will need to edit the template. Specifically, replacing the text in red boxes with their own text regarding the company's policies.

When the template has been fully edited, the HR manager should ask their WFH employees to work through this checklist.

In each section, the employee will read through their company's policies for a certain area — e.g. tech & IT. Then, the employee is asked to prove they understand the policies by writing about them in text form fields.

They repeat this until all policies are covered. The HR manager is then automatically assigned to approve (or reject) the completion of the checklist.

Easy, right?

It's recommended that all WFH employees work through this checklist every quarter. This is so they're always on top of the company's WFH policies. 

Before going through the work from home policies, there are three initial tasks to complete.

The first task is for you to input your basic information, while the second and third tasks will help you recap the company's culture and values.

Due to the importance of this Work From Home Policy Checklist, stop tasks have been attached to all tasks.

To learn more about Process Street's workflow automation feature stop tasks — and how they enforce order — watch the video below.

Add basic information.

So that the HR manager who approves the completed checklist knows who worked through it, add basic details.

Write basic details such as name, your department, your job title, your work email, today's date and time, and the HR manager's email in the form fields below.

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Read about the company culture.

A company culture (or workplace culture) is the shared goals, attitudes, behaviors, and practices that define an organization.

Read about our company culture via the subchecklist below. Tick through the subchecklist as you read each line.

[Add company culture information in the subchecklist below — the user will tick the subchecklist off as they read through. For more information on what makes a good company culture, read through this list of company culture examples.]

Acknowledge the company values.

Company values characterize how employees behave and work in a company. They also act as guidelines for employees.

For instance, at Google, some of their values include "Focus on the user and all else will follow" and "Fast is better than slow".

Acknowledge our company values below. Tick the subchecklist off as you read through each value.

[Add your company values in the subchecklist below — the user will tick the subchecklist off as they read through. If you're unsure of what constitutes as 'company values', read through this widely-shared list of values from Google.]

With the initial tasks completed, it's now time to dive into the company's work from home policies.

You'll start by looking at, reading, and understanding, the company's policies. You'll then be asked to rewrite those policies or describe the main takeaways in the form fields. This is to ensure you've understood what you've learned.

Remember: The text in the red boxes need to be replaced first before you ask employees to work through this checklist. Delete this text after replacing the text in the red boxes.

Understand the company's WFH working hours.

Working from home provides an opportunity for flexibility when it comes to when you work.

Understand how our company operates in terms of WFH working hours by reading the text below.

WFH working hours:

[Replace this text and write about the company's WFH working hours. For instance, you might want to discuss if it's ok for people to set their own routine or not, if everyone should follow a 9-5 daily schedule, etc.]

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Confirm the company's WFH working hours.

After reading our approach to WFH working hours, confirm you've understood it by writing the main takeaways in the text box.

Familiarize yourself with the company's time-off rules.

Time-off is important; it helps employees focus on their personal lives, recuperate, and take a much-needed break away from the working week.

Read through our time-off rules below to familiarize yourself with how we go about time-off for WFH employees.

Time-off rules:

[Discuss the company's time-off rules here. For instance, talk about how many days off work WFH employees are allowed, if sick days are paid, and what to do to apply for time off.]

Restate the company's time-off rules.

Similar to what you did in task #8, write down the main takeaway regarding our time-off rules in the text box.

Next up are the policies related to communication. 

Again, here you'll look at the policies. Then, you'll write about them in the provided text boxes.

Remember: The text in the red boxes need to be replaced first before you ask employees to work through this checklist. Delete this text after replacing the text in the red boxes.

Understand how the company communicates when working from home.

Over the last few years, there's been a surge in people working from home.

However, each company wants its employees to communicate with their team differently when working from home.

Read how we want our WFH employees to go about communication below.

WFH communication:

[Here, talk about how your company wants WFH employees to interact with the rest of the company. You may want to advocate for asynchronous communication, which is arguably the best way for remote workers and remote companies to communicate.]

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Ensure you know the company's WFH communication protocols.

Now that you've read how we want our WFH employees to communicate, write task #12's main takeaways in the provided form field.

Learn about how the company goes about internal calls.

Internal company calls — whether for team meetings or 1:1s — are an important part of your schedule as a WFH employee.

Below, read how the company prefers WFH employees to go about (attending and interacting with) internal company calls.

Internal company calls:

[Discuss how your company goes about internal calls here. For example, talk about the tools that should be used, if webcams should be on or not, what to do when people can't connect to calls, etc. You might also want to refer your employees to this guide on company call etiquette from the University of Pittsburgh.]

Confirm how to go about company calls as a WFH employee.

After reading through task #14 and learning how we want you — a WFH employee — to go about internal calls, write down the main takeaways below.

Considering WFH employees rely on technology to do their jobs, this section focuses on the company's tech & IT policies.

Remember: The text in the red boxes need to be replaced first before you ask employees to work through this checklist. Delete this text after replacing the text in the red boxes.

Read through the WFH tech policies.

Thanks to technology and the business software available to us, it means employees can work from home in a professional, productive way.

The text below will inform you about our policies for the tech you use at home. Take a read through.

WFH tech policies:

[Replace this text by talking about the tech policies your WFH employees must follow. This could be ensuring everyone uses a VPN, a password manager, and follows other security-related best practices and policies.]

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Confirm the WFH tech policies.

Confirm you've understood our company's WFH tech policies by writing down the important takeaways from task #17. 

Comprehend how to utilize IT support.

The IT support team is accessible while working from home. They'll be able to rectify all your software and hardware-related needs.

The text below — which you should read through — informs you how you can best utilize the IT support team while working from home.

Utilizing IT support:

[Here, talk about how WFH employees can utilize IT support. Tell employees about when the IT support team should be utilized, how they should get in contact with them, and when the IT support team is available.]

Restate how to utilize IT support.

By reading the above task — task #19 — you should have a complete understanding of how to utilize our IT support team.

To show you do indeed have a solid understand, write and restate how you should utilize IT support below.

In this final section of the Work From Home Policy Checklist, you'll acknowledge how the company goes about payment for WFH employees.

Once you've completed this section, a staff member from HR will look over and approve (or reject) your completion of the checklist.

Remember: The text in the red boxes need to be replaced first before you ask employees to work through this checklist. Delete this text after replacing the text in the red boxes.

Acknowledge how WFH payment works.

As a WFH employee, you may be unsure if the payment process differs in any way, shape, or form.

Read through the following paragraphs where we clear that up for you.

WFH payment:

[Here, talk about how WFH employees will be paid. The WFH employees may need to send an invoice each month, or they may not need to do anything at all as they'll receive a cash deposit in their bank account each month like normal.

For creating invoices, use Process Street's creating an invoice checklist template.]

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Ensure you know how payment works when working from home.

This is the final checklist task for you to complete.

In the underneath form field, show us you know how payment works — and how you'll be paid as a WFH employee — by writing about the process below.

The final section of this checklist concerns approvals.

The HR manager has been automatically assigned to the next task — which is an approval task — thanks to role assignments. They'll look over what you've written in the form fields to check you've understood everything correctly.

There's nothing left for you — the person who's worked through this checklist — to do (unless the HR manager wants you to make changes, that is).

• Maddie Sheperd - 28 Surprising Working From Home Statistics
• Oliver Peterson - What is BPM Software? The Best Business Process Management Software (BPMS)
• Thom James Carter - Approvals: How to Streamline Decision-Making in Process Street
• Benjamin Brandall - 50 Ways To Save Time & Money with Workflow Automation
• Thom James Carter - Workplace Culture: What It Is and How to Make Yours Better (With Examples)
• Alex Gallia - Key Takeaways from 5 Excellent Company Culture Examples
• Google - Ten Things
• Benjamin Brandall - 14 Ways Your Team Can Boost Productivity While Working From Home
• Lisa Frye - More People Are Taking Time Off, and That’s Good for Business
• Beth Braccio Hering - Remote Work Statistics: Shifting Norms and Expectations
• Benjamin Brandall - The Complete Guide to Asynchronous Communication in Remote Teams
• University of Pittsburgh - Zoom Meetings: Etiquette and Best Practices
• Benjamin Brandall - Free Small Business Software: 34 Powerful Tools to Try
• Alex Laws - 8 Best Practices for Working Remotely

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