Work From Home Policy With Monthly Limits

A work from home policy needs more than a line in the handbook. On the work terms card in ZeniaHR, HR sets how many work from home days a month are allowed and whether they need approval, whether on duty needs approval, where new joiners work by default, and which weekdays hybrid staff spend in the office. When an employee asks to work from home, these settings decide whether the request counts toward the limit and whether it needs approval at all.

How it works

HR opens Work terms under Policies in Settings and sets whether work from home needs approval and how many days a month are allowed.
HR sets whether on duty needs approval; on duty has no monthly limit in the recommended values.
HR picks where new employees work, Office, Home, Hybrid or Field, and ticks the office days for hybrid staff.
The default work model applies to people who join after the save; HR changes anyone else's on their profile under Work terms.
When an employee asks to work from home, ZeniaHR checks the limit for their work model: hybrid staff are counted only on office days, and home-based staff have no limit.
With no approval needed, a request for today or later is approved at once, and approved days count as present in attendance.

What you can set

Default work model for new joiners: Office, Home, Hybrid or Field; Office in the recommended values.
Hybrid office days: any weekdays; Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in the recommended values.
Work from home: manager approval or no approval, up to 4 days a month in the recommended values.
On duty: manager approval or no approval, with no monthly limit in the recommended values.
A monthly work from home limit of 0 means work from home is not allowed.
Hybrid staff: work from home on a home day does not count toward the monthly limit.
Home staff have no monthly work from home limit, and field staff have no monthly on duty limit.
With no approval needed, a request for today or later is approved at once; a back-dated one still goes for approval.

Why the limit should live in the system

When a work from home limit lives only in the handbook, it is enforced from memory. One manager allows six days, another two, and nobody can say how many days a person has used this month. Putting the limit and the approval rule on the work terms card makes every request count the same way, tells the employee where they stand before they ask, and lets HR change the policy for everyone in one place when it needs to change.

Worked example: hybrid staff at a Mumbai fintech

A Mumbai fintech sets new joiners to Hybrid, with office days on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and work from home needing approval, up to 4 days a month. Analyst Rahul Desai asks to work from home on Wednesday 14 October. Wednesday is a home day in his plan, so the request does not count toward his limit, though it still goes to his manager for approval.

On Thursday 22 October his daughter is unwell, so he asks to work from home on an office day. ZeniaHR tells him this is work from home day 1 of 4 for October, and the request goes to his manager and then HR. Once approved, the day counts as present. Had he already used all 4 office-day requests that month, the request would have been refused with a message saying so.

Writing a work from home policy people follow

A work from home policy works when the rules are few, written down and applied the same way to everyone. Put the monthly limit and the office days in the HR policy, and let the requests on My Self-Service do the counting, so nobody keeps a separate tracker in a spreadsheet.

Pick office days that match team meetings, not just desk availability.
Keep the monthly limit modest and let managers approve genuine exceptions.
Put field staff on the Field model so their on duty days are not capped.
Review work models when people change roles, since the default applies only to new joiners.

See work from home policy in a demo

We show it on a video call with your own shifts, leave types and rules. Free for your first 50 employees.

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Frequently asked questions

How do we set a work from home limit in ZeniaHR?

On the work terms card under Policies in Settings, set work from home to manager approval or no approval and enter the days allowed each month, such as 4. Requests from My Self-Service and the app are then checked against that limit, and the employee sees how many days they have used.

Does work from home on a hybrid home day count toward the limit?

No. For hybrid staff, only work from home requests on their office days count toward the monthly limit. A request for a home day in their plan still follows the approval setting, but it never uses up the monthly allowance.

Can work from home requests be approved automatically?

Yes. Set work from home to no approval on the work terms card. A request for today or a later date is then approved as soon as it is raised, while a back-dated request still goes to the manager and HR. The monthly limit applies either way.