Home › HRMS › HR glossary › Work from home (WFH)
HR glossary

What is Work from Home (WFH)? Meaning and Example

Work from home (WFH) is an arrangement where an employee does their regular job from home instead of the office for a day, a few days, or a longer approved period. The employee is working and paid as usual, but is not physically present at the workplace.

How WFH is managed day to day

In an office-first company, WFH is a request: the employee asks for a date, the manager approves it, and attendance records the day as WFH instead of present at office. Many companies set a monthly limit, such as four WFH days, and exclude roles that need physical presence, like a front desk or a production line. Some also ask employees to mark the start and end of work in the app, so the day is not blank in attendance.

WFH, remote work and hybrid work compared

WFH is day-level: an occasional or limited arrangement on top of an office-based job. Remote work is job-level: the role is based away from the office, often in another city, and the employee comes in rarely or never. Hybrid work is a planned weekly pattern, such as three office days and two home days. The difference affects expense rules, equipment, travel reimbursement and, for staff who live in another state, some state-level compliance questions.

Writing a fair WFH policy

A short written policy prevents most WFH arguments between teams. ZeniaHR supports work from home requests with a monthly WFH limit in self-service, and the work terms policy sets a default work model and WFH days per month.

Example: Kavya Reddy, a financial analyst in Hyderabad, is allowed four WFH days a month. In August 2026 she took WFH on 3, 4, 17 and 18 August to supervise work at her new flat, and her manager approved each day. Attendance showed them as WFH and fully paid. When she asked for a fifth WFH day on 25 August, the request was over her monthly limit, so her manager asked her to take earned leave instead.

See it on your own data

A 30-minute demo on a video call. We set up your departments, shifts and leave rules and show attendance, leave and payroll running for your team. Free for your first 50 employees.

Book a free demoSee pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is work from home counted as present in attendance?

Yes, an approved WFH day is a working day, so it counts as present and is fully paid. Most attendance systems record it with its own status, WFH, so managers and HR can see how many days each person worked from home. An unapproved day at home, with no request, is usually treated as absent until it is regularized.

What is the difference between WFH and remote work?

WFH usually means working from home on some days while the job itself is office-based, often with a monthly limit and approval for each day. Remote work means the job is designed to be done away from the office on a continuing basis. A remote employee does not apply for each day at home; a WFH employee typically does.