A strong argument can be made that the “future of work” is here and it’s all about flexibility. The Covid-19 global pandemic has shifted how we work, our culture, values and priorities – and these changes are reflected in what people want from their employers. In our annual Adapt survey the results show a high enthusiasm for flexible work, with 91% of employees agreeing “I should be able to work from wherever I want as long as I get my work done.” Many employees have proven remote work to be as effective as working in an office and prefer the work/life balance whilst others crave face-to-face interaction, collaboration and an office environment.
Flexible work arrangements aren’t just a perk reserved for employees, it’s also hugely advantageous for companies. When it comes to finding and developing the best talent, remote and flexible work provides opportunities to expand talent pools outside of competitive tech hubs or office locations and aso helps to support more diversity in the workforce. Some companies aim to offer as much flexibility as they can, and in order to prepare for the flexible working models are eager to put together policies to govern flexible working requests, which nowadays is above working from home and becoming “working from anywhere”. Whilst other companies are a little more hesitant, perhaps concerned with the many complexities and compliance headaches that come with it – managing payroll withholding, permanent establishment risk for those working from home, the new Schengen immigration rules for UK employees, all of which will be more complicated to manage for hybrid workers who chose to balance between office & remote work if their commute involves cross-border commuting.
Implementing remote and flexible work policies will require HR, Finance and Global Mobility teams to design a model that works for both companies and their employees. Having the right data and technology in place will be instrumental in the successful roll out of these new policies, being able to track all requests and ensure “working from anywhere” isn’t causing any compliance concerns.
Our Adapt Survey shows 28% of employees who have been working remote have actually worked in different states or countries than their home location. Two-thirds of those employees have failed to report all days working outside their home jurisdiction to their employees – and 24% failed to report any days at all. With Governments implementing tighter enforcement of cross-border movement, and audit rates being on the rise in an effort to recoup revenues from budget shortfalls, understanding employee working location is a crucial step in adopting a permanent flexible working policy. Relying on self-reporting models will always leave gaps because employees might not feel the urgency or see the need to report where they are because they don’t understand the why behind it. Location monitoring is a key player that can enable companies to take advantage of a truly distributed workforce without the worrying of breaching tax, immigration, social security, or other compliance regulations. The Adapt Survey shows 95% of employees are comfortable with employees knowing their country, state and city location, Topia Compass gives companies the tools to monitor and manage their employee footprint allowing individuals to work everywhere while keeping their companies compliant.
For insights into employee priorities in 2021 download the Adapt Survey here. You can also Join our upcoming webinar discussion, 29 April 2pm EST where alongside Cartus we’ll be discussing how to design flexible work policies that employees, HR and finance will love.