Overview
The new world of work is characterised by a hybrid model incorporating a level of home based duties. We can help you engage a remote workforce, deal with the challenge of ‘quiet quitting’ or ensure that you are across newly emerging legislative changes such as the right to disconnect.
Remote & Hybrid Work in 2025
The new world of work has ushered in many challenges from a people and culture perspective. According to the Australian HR Institute Report, ‘Hybrid and Flexible Working Practices in Australian Workplaces 2025‘:
- 44% of employers have a minimum office attendance requirement with the most popular being 3 days per week [p 4]
- HR Professionals identified that the benefits of hybrid working include improved life balance (cited by 65% of respondents), better staff retention (cited by 44%) and a better ability to attract candidates (cited by 41%) [p 18]
- Employers surveyed reported a strong correlation between hybrid work and higher levels of productivity with 45% reporting gains [pp 4, 15]
- HR related challenges associated with hybrid working include a feeling of disconnectedness between colleagues (cited by 57%), collaboration (cited by 38%) and the ability to monitor employee performance (cited by 35%) [p 18]
- The States of NSW, QLD and VIC did not demonstrate any significant increase in office attendance mandates since 2022 with 13%, 10% and 25% respectively requiring office attendance 4 or 5 days a week in 2025. In WA, this figure increased to 29% in 2025. Conversely, the ACT follows a different trend with over 50% of employers surveyed having no minimum office attendance mandate [p 10]
- We encourage you to review the detailed findings including by State and industry sector by accessing the the full report here: https://www.ahri.com.au/resources/hr-research/hybrid-and-flexible-working-practices-2025
How we can help you and your business
We continue to observe some high profile organisations receive media attention for requiring their people to return to offices.
This policy position may involve either a return to full time office based work, minimum office attendance mandates each week or mandatory attendance on given days of the week such as Monday and Friday. This type of policy stance appears to be particularly targeted towards those staff members who have worked predominantly from home particularly in recent years post pandemic.
Also emerging is evidence of implementation over a period of months to facilitate gradual adjustment to office mandates and in some cases, the linking of annual bonus payments to compliance with office attendance requirements.
Be assured that we can assist you with all of your hybrid and/or work from home policy requirements including:
- Work from home/hybrid work arrangement policy
- Work from home policy refresh and review
- Work from home risk assessment safety checklists
- Difficult conversations regarding work from home
- “Coffee Badging” and how to deal with it
- Phase-in processes for new office attendance requirements
- Directing people to attend the workplace when reasonably required
- Assistance with determining the appropriate work from home policy arrangement for different work groups in your company
Work from Home: Updated (03/2025)
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has now scheduled a timetable into 2025 in order to develop a model work from home term to be inserted into the Clerks (Private Sector) Modern Award 2020. This particular modern award is amongst the most common. With that, the Work from Home term to be contained in this modern award will have significant impact and application across workplaces in Australia. It will likely also be seen as a baseline or yardstick for the development of work from home provisions in workplace policies as well as workplace instruments such as enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs). Elements to be covered in this term are set to include:
- A ‘work from home‘ definition
- any right to request work from home arrangements
- modifications or amendments necessary to other award terms that may impede a work from home term
- to what extent (and which classifications) the work from home term will apply
There is a dedicated website in relation to the progress of the development of this work from home term which you can access here:
You can also read the most recent statement released by the Fair Work Commission in relation to this matter (AM2024/34) as at 03 March 2025 here: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/sites/am2024-34/2025fwcfb47.pdf
Contact us today for immediate assistance with your work from home related enquiries.
Quiet Quitting, Quiet Vacationing and ‘Task Masking’
You may be struggling with employees who are simply turning up each day and going through the motions. Others might be running around looking busy when they really aren’t. Some might even be working elsewhere around the world without having sought your approval. Be assured that there are actually a variety of tools and interventions in the HR space available to you. Depending on the nature of your business, one or more of the following may be relevant:
- Engagement initiatives
- Contract provisions (including in relation to monitoring)
- Coaching contracts
- Performance objectives and measures
- Variable compensation metrics
- Absence management (especially for dealing with ‘quiet vacationers’ working elsewhere including overseas or interstate without approval)
- Re-establishing and articulating reasonable boundaries.
Contact us today and we can help you explore options to strengthen engagement and reduce the impact of the silent resignation movement and/or quiet vacationers.
Right to Disconnect
A newly enacted workplace right in the world of work is the ‘right to disconnect’. It can be tricky to correctly grasp and apply this provision, though with HR guidance and advice we can help you:
- Understand an employee’s right to disconnect vs an employer’s ability to still make contact outside of ordinary working hours
- Understand the scope of ‘contact’ – ie: telephone calls, email and other communication
- Develop practical steps you can take right now – such as contract administration and revising position descriptions and duty statements
- Understand the factors to inform an assessment of whether an employee’s refusal of contact was reasonable – including:
- The reason for the contact in the first place
- The nature of the contact (ie: how contact was made)
- The level of disruption to the employee
- Seniority and scope of the employee’s role (such as the need to be available for contact outside of regular hours across time zones)
- Compensation already payable to the relevant employee to remain available
- Relevant family and/or personal circumstances.
- The Fair Work Commission have now finalised the ‘Employee Right to Disconnect’ modern award term (08/2024): https://www.fwc.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/news/right-disconnect-modern-award-term-published
Contact us today to best ensure that you understand the new ‘right to disconnect’ and the industrial implications of this workplace right.