Experts to speak about employee experience and hybrid work at HRD's National HR Summit
As remote work models continue to thrive, companies that can evolve their methods of connecting and rewarding employees will be best placed for success.
Old methods of working, socialising, engaging with others and communicating have changed so much in recent years. And much of the population doesn’t want to return to the previous norm.
A one-size fits all guide to employee benefits doesn’t work in today’s remote and hybrid work environments, and employers should be open to adjusting conditions and salary packages to keep top performers from taking up offers elsewhere, said vice president of onboarding and mobility at Remote, Paula Dieli.
“We talk about it as a level playing field, as everybody’s working remotely,” Dieli said of her business, which employs roughly 1,000 people across 70 countries without a physical base. “And one of the most important mechanisms you can have at your disposal as an employer is flexible work conditions. Employees expect that; employees want that.”
Not just flexible hours and flexible locations, but flexible benefits, said Dieli, who will deliver a keynote talk at HRD’s National HR Summit at Luna Park Sydney on 22 March.
“The old way of doing things, where you might have consistent benefits around the world, we’re finding in a remote work context, that doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Benefits need to be locally competitive and globally compliant.”
For example, in the US, healthcare is expensive, so healthcare options and a dental plan are critical, said Dieli.
“In the UK, healthcare is provided by the NHS so a medical plan is ‘nice to have’ but not a must. In India, bonuses are a big part of compensation.”
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Trading salary for flexibility
But such is the desire to work remotely that prospective employees may wish to sacrifice money for increased flexibility and convenience.
Remote’s chief revenue officer Chris McNamara said research from Stanford University suggests employees are prepared to trade between six to seven per cent of their salaries to be able to work remotely.
“From an employer’s perspective, this can obviously deliver lower cost.”
He said flexibility has “real tangible value” for employees and employers, and there are tremendous benefits to distributed work. These included inclusivity and diversity.
“There are many under-represented groups that find it difficult because of conscious or subconscious biases that exist in the hiring process,” McNamara said. “And there’s recent research that suggests that some of those groups, with disabilities for example, have benefited tremendously from COVID and the fact that the workplace is now accessible to them in their own home environment. We think that’s a very exciting development.”
He doesn’t foresee the underlying trends that have driven remote work and the preference for distributed work models waning any time soon, despite publicity around a few high-profile companies calling for employees to return to physical offices.
“What started as a reaction to the pandemic has become a sort of awaking to the benefits of remote work for employees and employers, and there’s a stack of research that indicates these models result in more engaged, diverse and productive employees,” McNamara said, noting the demand for remote employment was “massively outstripping supply”, evidenced by the percentage of online job searches versus availability.
Tradeoffs to remote work
However, he conceded there are trade-offs, alongside differences, and employers needed to put careful thought into how they address these to develop contented and ambitious staff.
“We can’t leave it to chance that different teams and different functions across the business will have a thorough appreciation for the strategy roadmap,” said McNamara. “And we need to be deliberate in articulating the strategy and plans for each of those groups because we know there’s not going to be the water cooler chat and the kind of casual conversation that happens organically when you’re in the same place at the same time.”
Connecting employees is an important task for leaders. And clearly when people are working remotely, connectivity doesn’t revolve around end of week drinks in or around the office, long-winded meetings in the boardroom, Melbourne Cup lunches or birthday morning teas. Many office managers have long ditched these anyway.
“I think in a traditional office environment, the belief is that connection comes from FaceTime or socialising, connection comes from pizza and beers on a Friday, but I’m not convinced that’s where true connection comes from, and some environments can be exclusive to certain groups of people,” the CRO said. “In my opinion, connection comes from understanding, from empathy, from kindness, from shared vision and values.”
At HRD’s National HR Summit, Paula Dieli’s March 22 presentation, “Retaining Top Talent through Employee Experience,” will contain advice and tactical insights on:
- How business leaders make a lasting impact on remote staff retention rates
- How to create a strong and supportive remote work culture
- How to incentivize and motivate elite performers
- Guiding principles to building a successful and sustainable global team