Mobile working offers flexibility and improves productivity and work life balance. Teams can work effectively from home, in a café or even abroad with the right setup.
Mobile working: Definition, differences to home office and legal issues
58% of all German companies now allow mobile working, whether from the office, in the home office, on the road or even abroad. In this article, you will find out how mobile working works today in legal, technical and practical terms.
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What is mobile working?
Mobile working is the ability to perform work from any location, usually with the help of a laptop, smartphone and internet connection. Mobile working can completely or partially replace presence in the company.
In contrast to traditional office work, there is not necessarily a fixed workplace in the company. In hybrid models, several employees often share a desk in the office at different times, as they otherwise work remotely.
As a rule, no specific work location is prescribed for mobile working. The only requirements are that there is a connection to the company, availability is ensured and the assigned tasks are completed.
What is the difference between home office and mobile working?
Mobile working is distinguished from the term home office in that home office generally refers to working from home. In fact, home office is a special case of teleworking.
In Germany, teleworking is formally defined (Section 2 (7) of the Workplace Ordinance) as a workstation permanently set up by the employer in the employee's private area. For this purpose, a fixed work location (usually the employee's own home) is contractually agreed and equipped with office furniture and technology by the employer.
Teleworking/home office is subject to the strict requirements of the Workplace Ordinance and occupational health and safety regulations; for example, ergonomic furniture must be provided and a risk assessment of the home workplace must be carried out.
Mobile working, on the other hand, is not regulated by the Workplace Ordinance. It mainly takes place outside fixed workspaces, in changing locations, and there is no legal definition for it.
In short: home office (teleworking) means working at a clearly defined location (the home office) with appropriate equipment provided by the employer, whereas mobile working offers a free choice of location.
Important: Even if no fixed office regulations apply to the workplace for mobile working, the general labour laws remain fully applicable. These include, for example, the Working Hours Act (ArbZG) with maximum working hours, rest breaks and the ban on working on Sundays. The Occupational Health and Safety Act also applies, i.e. the employer has a duty of care and must also protect the health of its employees during mobile working.
What legal regulations apply to mobile working?
There is currently no legal entitlement to mobile working (or home office) in Germany. This means that employees can express the wish to work from home or from other locations, but the employer decides voluntarily whether to allow this.
The employer may also informally reject a request for mobile working without giving reasons. In practice, however, many companies allow home office arrangements and mobile working in order to be more attractive to skilled workers and increase employee satisfaction.
Mobile working in the coalition agreement
In the coalition agreement of the last German government (20th legislative period, 2021-2025), it was agreed to introduce a "discussion entitlement" for mobile working. According to this, employees in suitable jobs should be entitled to negotiate home office/mobile working.
The employer would then only be allowed to refuse a request if there are operational reasons to the contrary and arbitrary refusals would be inadmissible. However, as of July 2025, there is still no specific law on this.
The following therefore still applies: Anything that is not regulated by a collective agreement, works agreement or employment contract remains a matter for negotiation between employer and employee. Employers are not obliged to allow their employees to work from home, nor can employees unilaterally insist on this. Conversely, the following also applies: employers cannot simply force their employees to work from home without a corresponding agreement. Both sides must agree.
What working hours apply to mobile working?
The statutory working hours must be observed for mobile working. The following applies:
A maximum of 8 hours per working day (up to 10 hours in exceptional cases)
At least 11 hours of rest between two working days
Overtime and work on Sundays and public holidays are only permitted within narrow limits
The employer may not demand constant availability outside of working hours
In practice, time recording in particular poses a challenge: Employers are obliged to provide a reliable system for recording working hours that also works for mobile working. As a rule, time recording software or trust-based working time with independent recording is used here. It is important that overtime and breaks are documented in a traceable manner, also for health and safety reasons.
Accident and insurance cover for mobile working
Since the Company Reform Act 2021, extended accident insurance cover has been in place for mobile working and working from home. Accidents at work in the home office or while travelling as part of mobile working are now insured in the same way as at work.
This means that if someone is injured while working at home or on the direct route to nursery school to drop off their child before starting work, statutory accident insurance covers them in the same way as if they were in the office.
However, purely private activities during working hours (e.g. an accident while cleaning during a break) are not covered. Overall, the new regulation has significantly improved cover for working from home.
Occupational health and safety for mobile working
The health and safety regulations also apply at home and at other workplaces. Although the Workplace Ordinance does not apply to mobile working, employers must assess hazards and instruct their employees on ergonomic and healthy working practices, even when working from home.
In fact, this is often done by means of questionnaires and voluntary commitments by employees, as employers are not allowed to inspect private homes without further ado and this would not be practical.
Who is responsible for data protection when working remotely?
Employers remain responsible for data protection and IT security in the case of mobile working. Companies must therefore ensure that no unauthorised third parties can access company data when working remotely.
This is achieved by using secure passwords, encrypted connections (VPN) and devices with fingerprint sensors or facial recognition. Employees must be trained accordingly, as the daily responsibility for compliance with data protection lies with the employees.
What applies to mobile working in the public sector?
There are special regulations in favour of mobile working in the public sector. According to § 16 para. 1 sentence 2 of the Federal Equal Opportunities Act (BGleiG), departments must enable employees with family or caring responsibilities to work from home, insofar as this is possible for official reasons.
This means that civil servants and employees in the public sector who are caring for children or relatives, for example, have a preferential right to home office/mobile working, provided there are no compelling official reasons not to do so.
In general, many public authorities are catching up on this topic: Numerous service agreements in federal and state authorities now regulate home office options. For example, some authorities allow mobile working for up to 4 days a week as long as the work processes allow it (there are differences depending on the authority).
What equipment do you need for mobile working?
The basic requirement for mobile working is a functioning mobile office, which usually consists of a laptop/computer, internet access and telephone (or smartphone). Headsets and possibly a portable WLAN router are also used, depending on where you are working from.
Who provides the equipment for mobile working?
Employers are generally responsible for providing the necessary work equipment. In traditional home office agreements, many companies therefore equip their employees with a laptop, screen, keyboard/mouse and sometimes an office chair. In the case of mobile working, the employer should at least provide the IT equipment or make financial contributions.
Some companies rely on the "Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)" principle, where employees use their private devices. However, appropriate compensation is required here (e.g. reimbursement of costs) and special security precautions must be taken (e.g. separate business profiles on the private device) so that data protection and company data remain protected.
Internet connection and software access
A fast and stable internet connection is one of the most important prerequisites for mobile working in order to be able to reliably handle video calls and cloud access to data and software.
Many employers support their employees here, for example by covering part of the internet costs or providing company data cards. There are no standardised legal regulations on this, so it is advisable to set out such issues in a company or remote working agreement.
On the software side, mobile employees should have access to all important applications. Cloud services and software for communication and collaboration (e.g. Teams, Slack, VPN access to the company network) are typical tools for working together from anywhere.
Tip: To ensure that those returning to the office from mobile working can reliably find a free desk, they should book this in advance using software.
Does the home office flat rate also apply to mobile working?
The home office allowance only applies to days on which you have worked predominantly in your home, i.e. for real home office days.
Since the 2023 tax year, you can claim €6 per day, up to a maximum of 210 days per year (max. €1,260), for tax purposes - if you mainly work from home.
The lump sum only applies to days on which the business activity is predominantly carried out in the home office, not if you are mainly travelling.
This is not deductible: Days on which you work on the road (e.g. in a café, customer visits, mobile work without a home office) do not count towards the home office allowance and are therefore not tax deductible.
Mobile working abroad and workation
A special case of mobile working is working from abroad, either for a longer period of time or as part of a so-called workation. Workation is made up of work and vacation. This means that employees work temporarily from a holiday location or from abroad without taking holiday days.
Example of mobile working abroad: An employee spends two weeks on holiday in Mallorca and then stays on site for another week to continue working normally from there before returning.
What is the maximum number of days German employees are allowed to work abroad on a mobile basis?
For tax purposes, there is a clearly defined limit for mobile working abroad: anyone who spends more than 183 days within a given year in another country and works there may be liable to pay tax there under the relevant double taxation agreement. This limit is internationally recognised and represents a legally binding threshold.
Caution is also required with regard to social security: The so-called A1 certificate applies within the EU. It ensures that employees remain in the German social security system during a temporary posting (maximum 24 months). Employers must apply for this certificate and ensure compliance.
National regulations also apply outside the EU: Among other things, work visas or residence permits may be required here if employees want to work locally for a longer period of time. Many companies therefore limit workation periods to a maximum of 30 to 90 days per year in order to avoid tax, labour law and insurance problems as far as possible.
In which industries and professions does mobile working occur?
Mobile working is particularly common in professions in which work can be organised in a knowledge-based, digital or location-independent manner. Typical sectors for mobile working:
IT and software development
Media, graphics and design
Marketing and communication
Advice and consulting
Finance and banking sector
Administrative office work
Research and education (e.g. e-learning, universities)
Customer service (e.g. via chat, email, telephone)
Sales and field service
These areas often only require a computer with an internet connection, which is why the place of work is of secondary importance.
Conclusion: Using mobile working correctly
Mobile working has developed from an exception to an integral part of modern work. It offers enormous advantages for employees: they can choose and organise their own working hours and location, achieve a better work-life balance and save time and commuting costs.
The advantages are higher productivity and satisfaction when employees can work at times and places of their own choosing. At the same time, however, mobile working also requires a great deal of self-discipline and demarcation in order to avoid slipping into permanent work or being distracted at home.
There are also opportunities for employers: motivated, well-balanced employees, less absenteeism due to commuting stress and savings on office space. Companies can also access a larger talent pool if they offer location-independent working, and skilled workers from more distant regions in particular can be considered as employees.
Companies can now use software to make the coordination of mobile working easier. This makes it possible to see which colleague is working from where. As mobile working and working from home reduce the workload in the office, the figures for office utilisation are also coming under scrutiny: if people are increasingly working from home, will significantly fewer desks be needed in the office?
With PULT, you gain insights into your office utilisation and team behaviour. The software records exactly how much the office is used and how many workstations you need to keep available at peak times. Your employees don't even have to log in: All they need to do is connect one of their devices to the company WLAN. You can find out more about this in PULT Presence.
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The most important facts in brief:
Mobile working includes home office, working on the go or abroad and is firmly established in many industries. There is no legal entitlement, but company regulations and a right to discuss the option often exist. Working hours, data protection and insurance requirements also apply when working remotely, with additional rules for work abroad. Employers must provide or subsidise the necessary technology, and employees can in some cases deduct costs for tax purposes. Successful mobile working relies on clear agreements, trust and good communication.
What is the difference between home office and mobile working?
Home office means working from a fixed workplace at home. Mobile working is more broadly defined, it can take place anywhere: at home, in a café, at a customer's premises or abroad.
How many days are you allowed to work from home?
There are no legal upper limits and, in principle, employers and employees can agree to work completely remotely.
Does mobile working have to be regulated in the employment contract?
It is not mandatory, but highly recommended. A clear regulation protects both sides when it comes to questions about working hours, availability, technology or insurance.
Can my boss prohibit mobile working?
Yes, unless there is an agreement to the contrary (e.g. in the employment contract or collective labour agreement). There is currently no general right to mobile working in Germany.
What working hours apply to mobile working?
The same legal requirements apply as in the office, e.g. a maximum of 10 hours per day and 11 hours of rest. Break regulations and documentation requirements also remain in place.
At PULT we're designing the future of the hybrid workplace for companies and their employees. Focused on SME and mid market customers in Eruope, I'm working on everything from Customer Discovery to Onboarding. I'm very passionate about new work and moved to Hamburg in 2024 even though I'm originally from France.
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Office Insights
Open-Concept Office: Pros and cons, design, and modern concepts
An open-concept office is an open workspace where many employees work together without partition walls. Noise, a lack of private spaces, and constant interruptions are considered the biggest drawbacks of open-concept offices. However, you can solve these very problems through zoning, well-designed soundproofing, and skillful space planning.
Open-concept Office: The Most Important Points at a Glance
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An open-concept office refers to an open workspace for multiple teams without fixed partitions and is one of the most common office concepts in companies that adopt a hybrid work model.
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The biggest drawback of open-concept offices is the noise level: noise and acoustic distractions are among the most commonly cited causes of loss of concentration and declining productivity in open-concept offices.
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Zoning, acoustic partitions, and sound-absorbing materials solve the core problems in open-concept offices because they physically separate areas for concentration, communication, and relaxation.
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PULT makes it possible to plan open-concept offices: Through Desk Booking and Office Insights, the software shows which zones are actually being used and provides occupancy data for space planning tailored to actual needs.
What is an open-concept office?
An open-concept office (or open-plan office) is a contiguous office area in which more than ten employees work in an open space without floor-to-ceiling walls. It differs from a cubicle office in its open structure and from purely open-space areas in that it has clearly defined functional zones.
How does an open-concept office differ from a traditional office?
Office types can be classified based on how the space is divided. From cubicle offices with individual rooms to combination offices and open-concept offices, the openness of the space increases gradually.
A modern open-concept office combines open workspaces with activity zones—areas each designed for a specific task. It is precisely this zoning that distinguishes this well-thought-out concept from a simple desk arrangement.
For hybrid teams, an open floor plan makes particular sense. When part of your workforce is working from home, shared workspaces allow for much more efficient use of space than permanently assigned individual offices.
What are the pros and cons of open-concept offices?
Open-concept offices offer short lines of communication and high space efficiency, but their main drawbacks are noise and a lack of private spaces. The balance between these two factors determines whether the space is productive or stressful.
What are the advantages of an open-concept office?
The advantages of an open-concept office lie in collaboration and cost savings. Teams can easily coordinate with one another; these discussions take place without the need to schedule appointments, and new employees are able to integrate more quickly.
Added to this is the financial benefit. An open-concept office with shared workstations significantly reduces per-capita office costs, especially in companies where a high percentage of employees work from home.
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Short lines of communication: Teams coordinate with one another without organizational hurdles.
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Greater space efficiency: Shared workstations reduce costs per employee.
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Greater transparency and visibility: You can immediately see who is present and what people are working on.
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Faster onboarding: New colleagues learn the processes by working closely with the team.
What are the disadvantages of an open-concept office?
The biggest drawback of open-concept offices is the noise level. Conversations, phone calls, and keyboard clicks all blend together, and it is precisely this acoustic distraction that is one of the most common reasons why concentration suffers in an open-concept office.
In a controlled laboratory experiment, a research team at Bond University demonstrated that typical open-concept office noise increases negative mood by 25% and the physical stress response by 34%—as measured by heart rate and skin conductance—after just eight minutes of noise exposure. In real-world office settings, where employees are exposed to these noise levels for hours on end, these effects are correspondingly more pronounced. (Sander et al., Journal of Management & Organization, 2021)
Open-concept office layouts also significantly reduce face-to-face communication. In two field studies conducted with Fortune 500 companies, the volume of face-to-face interaction dropped by about 70% after the transition to an open-concept layout, while email and instant messaging traffic increased sharply. People who are constantly visible to everyone tend to withdraw inwardly and turn to digital channels. (Bernstein & Turban, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Harvard Business School, 2018). The availability of private spaces is therefore an important factor in well-being.
How do I design a modern open-concept office?
A productive and employee-friendly open-concept office is created through spatial zoning based on activity, effective soundproofing, and space planning based on actual usage data. However, furniture and rules alone are not enough if the basic layout of the space does not suit the way people work.
How does zoning work in an open-concept office?
Zoning divides the open space into areas for different activities. This principle stems from the activity-based working concept, in which each type of work is assigned its own appropriate space:
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Quiet areas for concentration and quiet, independent work.
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Opportunities for collaboration.
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Customizable project areas for teamwork and time-bound projects.
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Quiet, secluded areas for breaks and relaxation.
This allows employees to choose a workspace that suits their current task and ensures they have the best possible conditions there.
What type of soundproofing is suitable for an open-concept office?
Effective soundproofing in an open-concept office is achieved through sound-absorbing materials and physical barriers. The combination of elements on the ceiling, on the floor, as well as room dividers and large plants reduces the noise level.
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Acoustic partitions between workstations block sound directly at the source.
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Large plants with lush foliage also act as natural sound barriers.
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Upholstered furniture and upholstered room dividers absorb sound.
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Floor-to-ceiling partitions in an open-concept office separate zones from one another both acoustically and visually.
Acoustic panels on the ceiling and walls, sound-absorbing carpeting and rugs, and enclosed phone booths for video calls significantly reduce noise levels.
In cases where noise levels remain high despite these measures, the cause usually lies in the use of the space itself.
How does Desk Booking help optimize space in an open-concept office?
Desk Booking provides the data needed to plan an open-concept office according to actual needs. Rather than relying on assumptions, booking and occupancy data show which areas are regularly in use and which, by contrast, remain empty.
This leads to specific ways to adapt the space that allow for the redistribution and management of its use. For example, if the area designated for quiet work is consistently overbooked while spaces for collaboration remain empty, this is a measurable indicator that the layout needs to be redesigned.
PULT provides the necessary occupancy data: This allows you to analyze the use of your office space, and employees can reserve their seats in the appropriate zone.
How to Turn Your Open-Concept Office Into a Productive Workplace
An open-concept office becomes productive through zoning based on activity, effective soundproofing, and space planning based on actual usage data. The open space is preserved, and its weaknesses are eliminated through the right structure.
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With PULT Office Insights, you can see which areas of your space are actually being used and plan renovations based on real data.
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Your employees can reserve a workspace in the appropriate zone and see where their colleagues are already seated.
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You manage capacity and attendance all in one place.
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Office Insights
Workplace Automation: What does it really mean for your office?
Workplace automation refers to the automation of daily, recurring office tasks, from desk reservations to visitor registration. For companies with a hybrid work model, the question arises as to which processes can be automated and how this can be done in compliance with the GDPR.
Workplace Automation automates recurring office processes—such as room and desk reservations, attendance tracking, and visitor management—based on rules, without requiring employees to manually initiate each step.
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You can identify office processes that are ready for automation by three characteristics: clearly definable rules, a high frequency of repetition, and a measurable susceptibility to errors when processed manually.
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SMEs must ensure compliance with three requirements before launching: GDPR-compliant data storage, involvement of the works council (Section 87 of the Works Constitution Act), and adherence to EU hosting standards to avoid issues related to the Cloud Act.
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PULT is an all-in-one office management platform that automates desk booking, room reservations, office analytics, and visitor management, and integrates fully with MS Teams, Personio, and Slack so your office runs without any manual intervention.
What is workplace automation
Workplace automation encompasses all software-driven office processes in which a defined rule or algorithm determines the next step.
This ranges from automatic booking confirmations to rescheduling meeting rooms when the number of participants does not match the room size. In this way, workplace automation goes beyond mere digitization measures. Digitization converts paper forms into machine-readable data. Automation handles the resulting tasks on its own.
Which office processes can be automated?
Processes that occur daily and always follow the same or a similar pattern are ready for automation.
Area
Manual Process
Automated version
Space & Workplace
Booking meeting rooms, spaces, and workstations by arrangement, via a list, or by email.
Self-booking with automatic confirmation
Space & Workplace
Identifying and Resolving Duplicate Bookings
Automatic detection and rebooking in the event of capacity conflicts
Space & Workplace
Send a reminder for your own desk reservation
Automatic push notification to the user
Space & Workplace
Coordinate Parking Assignments Using a Spreadsheet
Automatic assignment of parking spaces based on predefined booking rules
Visitor Management
Visitor Registration at the Front Desk
Paperless Self-Registration with GDPR-Compliant Data Collection
Visitor Management
Notify the host by phone when visitors are arriving
Automatic notifications via MS Teams or Slack
Office Evaluation
Track Office Utilization Using Handouts
Real-Time Analysis of Office Usage
Office Evaluation
Compile capacity utilization reports yourself
Automatically generated reports based on occupancy data
Human Resources Management
Manage Leave Requests via Email
Automated approval process with status notifications
Human Resources Management
Create and Send Onboarding Checklists
Automated task assignment and access granting upon admission
Attendance & Planning
Who is in the office and when? Check with them to find out.
Real-Time Automatic Attendance Overview
Attendance & Planning
Coordinate office days with the team via chat
Rule-Based Scheduling with Attendance Thresholds
IT & Access
Manually Set Up Access for New Employees
Automatic Assignment of Permissions via SSO and HR Integration
IT & Access
Access Control by Reception Staff
Automated access control via app or badge
Buildings & Facilities
Cleaning schedules based on a fixed weekly plan
Cleaning Based on Actual Room Usage
Compliance & Security
Manually Maintain Attendance Lists for Fire Safety
Real-time occupancy data as the basis for evacuation plans
How does automated room and desk booking work?
For example, an automated meeting room management system detects when two people book a conference room that is actually designed to accommodate 20 people. The system identifies the discrepancy and automatically rebooks the reservation into a smaller, suitable room.
This reduces the number of conflicts over available spaces and frees up time for office managers that was previously spent on manual adjustments. Workplace automation via Wi-Fi check-in takes this a step further: As soon as you log in to the office with your device, the system automatically reserves your desk without a single click.
What compliance considerations must a company keep in mind when implementing workplace automation?
Automating office processes always involves processing data. Therefore, three points must be clarified:
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GDPR Compliance: What data does the tool collect, how long is it stored, and who has access to it? Booking data and attendance records are considered personal data.
Hosting: EU hosting with a German or European data center circumvents the Cloud Act issues that arise with U.S. providers without an EU branch.
How do I get started with Workplace Automation?
To automate your workplace, start by identifying all the processes that, although they follow a very consistent pattern, are repeatedly carried out manually by employees. Review these processes and provide your team with software to automate them. The more processes a single software solution can handle, the fewer new tools you'll need to burden your team with.
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Identify processes: Which processes take more than 30 minutes each day or regularly produce errors? These are the first candidates.
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Examine the process: Is the current process already the best option? Or could it be streamlined?
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Select a tool based on its integration capabilities: EU hosting and integration with existing systems are important selection criteria.
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Roll out the changes gradually: Start with one feature—such as automatic room booking—and then expand to other areas after receiving positive feedback.
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Review KPIs after 4 weeks: How many booking conflicts remained? How much administrative time was saved? How has office utilization changed?
Here's how PULT puts your office management on autopilot
Your workplace automations work best when they're bundled into a single software solution rather than spread across multiple tools. You can bundle workstation and room reservations, presence detection, occupancy analysis, visitor management, and parking management into PULT:
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Desk booking, room booking, and office analytics are all handled in a single tool, without any integration issues between individual systems.
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Automatic presence detection via your existing Wi-Fi system.
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Office Insights provide data and analyses on office utilization.
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Full integration with MS Teams, Slack, Personio, and HiBob.
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Office Insights
Huddle Meetings: How to make daily team check-ins truly productive
A huddle meeting is a daily or regular team check-in that takes no more than 15 minutes to align priorities and identify roadblocks. The difference from a traditional status meeting lies in its structure and in what you consistently leave out afterward.
A huddle meeting is a regular team check-in limited to 10 to 15 minutes, with three set questions: What was completed yesterday? What's on the agenda for today? What's currently holding the team back?
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The Daily Huddle meeting format works whether held in person or virtually, without an agenda document and with a rotating spokesperson. Anything that goes beyond the three core questions should be addressed in follow-up discussions afterward.
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For hybrid teams, team huddle meetings require some ground rules: cameras on, a fixed time zone, a breakout channel for follow-up discussions, and GDPR-compliant policies for recording.
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PULT, the all-in-one software for hybrid office management, shows moderators in real time every day who is in the office and who is working remotely. This provides a reliable information basis for every huddle meeting before it begins.
What is a huddle meeting?
A huddle meeting is a short, structured team discussion of a fixed duration (10 to 15 minutes) that takes place daily. The goal is to coordinate efforts. Discussions should be held in separate follow-up meetings. Each team member answers the same three questions:
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What did I finish yesterday?
2
What do I have to do today?
3
What's holding me back right now?
The concept originates from Scrum, where the daily huddle is known as the daily standup. It is now also used by HR, operations, and sales teams, as well as cross-functional teams that coordinate across locations.
What is the proper format for a huddle meeting?
The huddle meeting format requires three key conditions to be effective: strict adherence to the schedule, the assignment of a facilitator, and a fixed list of participants.
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Duration and Timing. The Daily Huddle Meeting takes place at the same time every day. Exceptions weaken the routine. The maximum duration is 15 minutes. If you regularly go over that time, you should consider whether parts of the content belong in a separate format.
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Participants. Only individuals who are directly dependent on one another. Larger departments are divided into smaller subgroups.
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Facilitator's Role. A facilitator keeps track of time and consistently directs discussions toward follow-up conversations. Rotating facilitation fosters a sense of personal responsibility within the team.
Element
Standard
Remote/Hybrid
Duration
10 to 15 min.
10 to 15 min.
Format
While standing
Camera on
Moderation
Rotating
Specified
Follow-up meetings
Right after that
Breakout Channel
Minutes
Optional Note
Short Chat Log
What changes in the team huddle meeting in a hybrid office?
In teams where some members are in the office and others are working remotely, three issues arise that could undermine the format: remote participants become passive listeners, discussions in the plenary session get out of hand, or technical problems delay or prolong the meeting.
Checklist for Hybrid Team Huddle Meetings:
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Cameras are required for all participants, including office groups sharing a screen.
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Real-time chat in the team chat during the meeting.
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Breakout session or a fixed time slot on the calendar for follow-up meetings immediately afterward.
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A fixed meeting link and time zone in everyone's calendar.
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Facilitating from a remote setting to ensure that remote participants are on an equal footing in terms of structure.
Clear hybrid work policies are essential for this model to work for everyone involved.
What legal considerations must companies keep in mind during their daily huddle meetings?
Daily huddle meetings count as work time and must be documented as part of time tracking. This also applies to brief 10-minute check-ins.
If you record video huddles, you need a GDPR-compliant legal basis and must inform participants in advance. If the huddle format is used for regular performance monitoring, a company agreement may also be required.
How to Make Huddle Meetings a Permanent Part of Your Hybrid Team
A huddle meeting is only effective when time management, structure, and the facilitator's role work together seamlessly. In a hybrid work environment, a fourth factor comes into play: transparency about who is working, when, and from where. Daily check-ins help to improve the employee experience because coordination routines become reliable and transparent for everyone.
Use PULT to see where your colleagues are working
PULT shows you at any time who is in the office and who is working remotely. You can also see your colleagues' scheduled attendance and receive reports on your teams' attendance. Desk booking, room booking, visitor management, and office insights are all integrated into a single platform.
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