The Global Workforce Revolution report, which launches today from Remote, identifies the key priorities for companies looking to extend remote and flexible working practices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research found that remote working raises issues around pay equality, with forty nine per cent believing that pay and benefits should be based on ability, regardless of where an employee is located, thirty per cent still agreeing that pay and benefits should be adjusted based on local cost of living and twenty one per cent believing it should be a combination of the two.
With many companies traditionally providing weighted salaries for those working in Greater London, this highlights the need for the introduction of carefully thought through remote working policies.
The data also uncovered the workplace benefits most desired by remote workers, with pension schemes coming in top with forty one per cent of workers choosing this as important, thirty nine per cent selecting home office allowance and thirty six per cent choosing healthcare (respondents were asked to pick their top 3).
What’s more, seventy per cent of people confessed they would stay with their employer at least one year longer if remote working was an option; 1 in 5 (twenty two per cent) said they would stay 10+ years longer.
Job van der Voort, Co-founder and CEO at Remote, commented: “Going remote is not just a matter of replicating physical work processes in a virtual environment. Remote working can be transformational for a business and its employees, but there are different considerations. Equality of pay, clear benefits and connectivity are all key for remote workers.”
The report also reveals that workplace culture is key to hiring and retaining the best talent, with forty seven per cent agreeing culture is important for hiring whilst forty eight per cent agreed it was a crucial factor in retaining talent. For professionals over the age of 55, trust was considered to be the most important factor (fifty three per cent).
The biggest perceived barriers to remote working are uncovered within the report as time differences (thirty five per cent), IT set-up (thirty four per cent), lack of face to face contact (thirty one per cent), language barriers (thirty per cent), challenges with compliance to local labour laws (twenty five per cent) and set-up and management of new legal entities (twenty per cent).
