How to implement remote work in a company

More and more SMEs are offering remote work, whether full-time or in a hybrid model of a few days at home and the rest in the office. Done well, it improves work-life balance, cuts office costs and helps retain talent. Done badly, it turns into chaos, legal breaches and disconnected teams. The difference lies in taking a few orderly steps from the outset. In this guide we explain how to implement remote work in your company in a practical way and in line with current regulations.

1. Sign the remote work agreement

Remote work is not something you improvise with a quick “fine, stay home”. Under the Ley 10/2021 de trabajo a distancia (Spain’s remote work law), when an employee works remotely on a regular basis (at least 30% of their working hours over a three-month period), it is compulsory to sign a written agreement before they begin.

That document must set out, as a minimum:

• The inventory of equipment and resources provided by the company (laptop, mobile, licences, etc.).
• The reimbursement of expenses arising from working from home (electricity, internet, furniture).
• The working hours and the availability windows.
• The percentage of on-site days and remote days.
• The assigned workplace and the location where remote work is carried out.
• The duration of the agreement and the procedure for reverting remote work.

Without that signed agreement, any inspection will treat it as a serious infringement. Signing it properly from day one saves you problems and makes the ground rules clear for both parties.

2. Provide the necessary tools

An employee at home needs exactly the same capabilities they would have in the office. Before sending anyone off to work remotely, make sure you cover three fronts:

• Internal communication: a messaging and video-call tool (Slack, Teams, Meet) so the team doesn’t lose touch.
• Work management: a project or task manager where everyone can see who is doing what and the status of each item.
• Human resources: software where the employee can clock in, request holiday, check their payslips and access their documentation without depending on someone being physically in the office.

This last point is the one most often forgotten. If your HR management relies on paperwork, stray emails and Excel spreadsheets on an office computer, remote work turns everything upside down. Centralising it in a tool such as the LapsoWork app makes the administrative side work the same regardless of where the employee is.

3. Train your team

There is no point in providing the best tools if nobody knows how to use them. Training is key so that remote work doesn’t translate into constant calls of “I don’t know how to do this”.

Take the time to make sure each person knows how to:

• Use the communication, task management and HR tools.
• Handle the internal processes that change when working remotely (how to report hours, how to request absences, how to share documents).
• Follow good practices in personal organisation and basic cybersecurity.

A well-run initial training session avoids weeks of friction and makes the team feel supported rather than left to fend for themselves.

4. Track the hours worked

Time recording is compulsory in remote work too. The flexibility of working from home doesn’t exempt anyone from clocking in: start times, finish times and breaks must be recorded just as they would be in the office.

The good news is that remote time tracking is easier than ever. With clock-in software, the employee records their working day from their mobile or computer and the system logs everything automatically with a timestamp. No “I’m starting now” emails, no Excel sheets filled in at the end of the week (which, on top of everything, aren’t legally valid).

This gives you two things at once: you comply with the law and you get a real picture of the hours worked without having to chase anyone. Time tracking software resolves this point with barely any effort for the employee.

Watch out for the other side of the coin: the right to digital disconnection (derecho a la desconexión digital). Tracking hours doesn’t mean demanding permanent availability. Set clear working hours and respect the fact that, outside them, the employee has no obligation to answer emails or messages.

5. Make the objectives clear

The biggest mindset shift in remote work is moving away from measuring “hours in the chair” towards measuring results. When working remotely you can’t see the person working, and that forces you (for the better) to set concrete objectives.

From the outset, every employee should be clear about:

• What is expected of them and by when.
• Which tasks are a priority and which can wait.
• How and when the completed work is reviewed.

When objectives are defined, productivity doesn’t depend on surveillance but on agreement. The employee gains autonomy and the company gains predictability. Regular follow-up meetings (short and with an agenda) help keep things on track without falling into micromanagement.

In summary

Implementing remote work well in your SME comes down to five steps: signing the agreement, providing the right tools, training the team, tracking working hours and working towards objectives. None of them is complicated, but skipping any one of them soon becomes obvious.

The administrative side (agreements, clock-ins, holiday, payslips and documentation) is precisely what tends to get out of hand when the team disperses. Centralising it in a single tool changes everything. If you’d like to see how LapsoWork helps you manage remote work from start to finish, you can try it free for 30 days or take a look at our plans and pricing.