I see no real difficulty in making attendance at work events , meetings and even conferences contractual. Some issues arise sometimes with over night stays but that's about it. Most hybrid (or even home working) arrangements include a requirement to attend meetings that are reasonably requested by management.

Perhaps you could outline more of the issue you are facing?

Maybe make it part of their CPD or professional development objectives

One client has already heard employees saying they are not going to return for the annual company conferences as now working from home. So there is a potential issue with at least one of my clients in how they can make attendance mandatory.

But form the replies already best having good comms, then where someone is more difficult use the 'reasonable management request' line.

Couldn't make contractual due tot he nature that this company do overnight stays for their 2-3 day conferences. Employees were happy to do this previously as they were all office based, just now there is more resistance.

In reply to Simon Connors:

You can make pretty much anything contractual - especially when you are agreeing new contracts or new terms around home working. If you want to work 100% from home then this is the quid pro quo. I would have included it in the changed terms / letters if felt necessary.

In reply to Keith:

Clearly there may be people who can not attend conferences or stay away for very good reasons. But its likely they had these issues before hand and its nothing to do with hybrid or home working. You also need to consider why you need people to stay away. If you are in a BD/Sales role then there may well be an expectation of promotional activity that goes with the role etc.

I wonder Simon if folks might not have wanted to go away overnight pre-Covid and the hybrid / home working scenario is giving additional impetus to make this more overt and obvious than it was before.

I'd hope that if you are sensitive to your people and their out of work commitments, inclusive, communicate well in advance and the event is one that's productive and valuable then you have all the ingredients for people wanting to come rather than having to resort to legal means or making it contractual.

Some clients get a bit stuck in the mental space of mandating lots of things, perhaps you can handle the ones that don't want to come individually so everyone isn't impacted by what might be a few that don't want to play.

Hi Simon, we aren't putting hybrid working into the contract; only the company policy. We offer a whole range of flexibility such as carer's or parents who wish to work part-time three days then two days at home. We do expect them to attend company events, training, conferences or expos but of course give them expenses but would listen to them as their situation to find working solutions that suit their needs.  We haven't had any issues with staff not wanting to attend the odd day out.

Excellent Work!