Free Remote Work Agreement Template and Practical Guide for Business Owners

By 2025, 32.6 million Americans will be working remotely. That means businesses must prioritize hybrid and remote work agreements to attract and retain top talent.

A remote work agreement serves as the cornerstone for outlining expectations, responsibilities, and the terms of employment for remote team members. As a business owner, ensuring your remote work agreement is effective and practical for you and your employees is essential.

In this post, we’ll collaborate to craft a remote work agreement that meets your needs. Together, we’ll explore a practical guide to creating an arrangement that fosters productivity and harmony within your remote workforce.

So, let’s begin by downloading the template provided:

Free Remote Work Agreement Template Download

Now that you have downloaded the template, we will go through all the steps to tailor this template to your organization and team members.

Understanding the main components of your remote work agreement

A remote work agreement isn’t just a document — it’s your roadmap to a successful remote workforce. That’s why, in the template provided, we have included:

• Remote work schedule and working hours 
• Productivity goals
• Equipment and technical requirements
• Security measures

But, here’s the creative twist – just as your business is unique, so should your remote work agreement be. It’s not about adhering to a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it’s about customizing this agreement to fit seamlessly with your business model and foster a healthy company culture.

After reading this post, you’ll have learned how to create a remote work agreement tailored to the unique needs of your business. 

Define the remote work schedule and hours

Explicitly defining each employee’s work schedule and hours is essential for creating seamless remote work arrangements. In the template, we’ve added two elements for the team leader and employee to define:

First, you want to define how many hours each employee works per week. If your team is hybrid, you should confirm how many days each team member will work remotely. With 100% remote teams, you can remove the second question shown above.

If your team works in a hybrid environment, you need to establish rules for in-office and remote days. Will you give your team full autonomy over which days they’re in-office and which days they work remotely? If not, how will you set up a schedule?

While a schedule might be easier for you, you can empower your team to decide how many days they want to work in the office and how many prefer to work from home. This can also improve employee experience and lead to happier, more productive employees.

As an example, we have included an optional schedule in the template. Feel free to remove it if you prefer to provide full flexibility.

Outline productivity goals 

Now, it’s time to add each employee’s goals and objectives. Setting clear goals ensures everyone is on the same page.

Here’s a quick example of a content marketer’s goals:

**Example**

Content Marketer Goals:

• Produce four articles a month 
• Generate ten monthly brand mentions 
• Generate five major quarterly updates 
• Complete a daily standup at the end of each day 
• Submit your timesheets [insert when timesheets need to be submitted]

Outline your expectations regarding productivity during these designated times. This step is crucial in preventing ambiguity and establishing well-defined deliverables for employees.

Additionally, it’s equally important for business owners to communicate how they intend to measure productivity. Doing this provides trust and transparency and also serves as a foundation for continuous improvement and alignment on goals.

Establish communication channels and standards

In this section, you’ll want to list all the communication channels you plan to use for employees and managers alike to communicate seamlessly.

When drafting this part of the agreement, it’s crucial to outline:

• The frequency of required check-ins
• The specific information to share during these check-ins
• The means of contacting co-workers, managers, and clients.

This clarity ensures a well-connected and collaborative remote work environment. Here’s the example from the template:

Team members must respond to messages from these channels within [insert time frame here]. For example, at Hubstaff, our handbook specifies a 24-hour response time for Slack messages.

To ensure we all respectfully communicate with each other, here are some general guidelines:

• Record your working hours with Hubstaff.
• Keep your Slack status up to date so your team knows when you are available. 
• Submit a daily standup with Hubstaff Tasks each day. List what you worked on in the day and how long each task took, your main priorities, your stress level, what’s on your mind, a big win for the day, something you wish had gone better, and any roadblocks you encountered.
• Request PTO when you will be away from your desk. If you take the day off, please let your team leader know two days in advance and a week in advance for anything longer. 
• Stay in touch with your team leader, your main point of contact at [insert company name]. The employee and their team leader(s) should work together to share any updates during the workday.
• Additional conditions [add anything important for you to agree on].

List equipment and technical requirements

To help your employees work effectively, you should list the equipment they need and any technical requirements.

Complete the table in the template by adding a list of the equipment your company will provide for remote work. You can also add additional items as needed. For each item, fill in the “Date Provided to [insert employee name]” and add any relevant notes.

Be clear about security measures

It’s crucial for business owners to regularly verify that employees have up-to-date access and security measures in place. Remote team members should receive precise guidelines on safeguarding company data and information and commit to promptly reporting any potential security breaches for enhanced protection.

Here is a list of the guidelines that we added to the template:

• Safeguard organizational information from unauthorized disclosure or damage.
• Adhere to federal, state, and organizational rules, policies, and procedures for public and official record disclosure.
• Consider work at the employee’s remote location as official business for the organization.
• Maintain records, documents, and correspondence securely (physical or electronic).
• Promptly report any incidents of loss, damage, or unauthorized access to your team leader and IT. 
• Release or dispose of records following relevant laws, organizational policies, and with supervisor consent.
• Protect electronic and computer files as organizational records.
• Promptly surrender organization-owned equipment and data documents upon request.

Congratulations on creating your remote work agreement

You’ve just taken a significant step towards a more productive remote workforce. With your new personalized agreement, you can now set the stage for an environment with:

• Better clarity and collaboration
• More defined working hours
• Improved productivity goals
• More accurate equipment needs
• Increased security measures. 

This commitment to an employee-first approach to remote work empowers your team and reinforces your company’s values. Here’s to a productive and secure remote work experience, keeping your team connected and engaged.

If you haven’t already downloaded the template provided:

• Remote Work Agreement PDF Template
• Remote Work Agreement Word Template (.docx)

Remote work agreement FAQ