The findings from Altair Global’s Work From Anywhere pulse survey highlight that 68% of companies consider virtual work a key component of talent attraction and addressing these arrangements is crucial to remaining competitive.
Several CEOs and Chief Talent Officers are chatting up the Work From Anywhere (WFA) perk for employees. Those of us in global mobility know the mechanics and the reality can be quite different and know to read the fine print. Building on our July 2022 webinar when we explored virtual work policies and crafting a delivery model, this WFA pulse survey probed how remote and virtual work may be defined within a respondent’s organization, the relevant eligibility criteria being applied, and the role of global mobility. We hope that the guidance and industry data outlined in both the webinar and pulse survey findings provide you with concrete recommendations to inform your program and practices.
Responses were received from more than thirty companies from a wide range of industries including technology, consumer products, insurance, energy, aerospace and other sectors. The respondents included Altair clients along with other non-client organizations. The pulse survey was open for about two weeks and contained eight questions, with some of those eight permitting more than one response.
Remote and virtual work requests have inundated mobility teams throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and have largely not subsided. Organizations have needed to pivot to meet talent and business requests. More than two-thirds of all companies surveyed have already defined which roles are remote, hybrid or office-based. The top criteria applied when considering a virtual work arrangement include an employee request (97%) and having an existing legal entity in the requested virtual work location (84%).
Surprisingly, almost half of respondents (48%) review or change salary based on the remote working location if it is different from the hiring location. More than two-thirds (71%) of respondents advised that they withhold taxes according to the employee’s remote location. Most of the remaining companies (23%) determine on a case-by-case basis.
We found that in 68% of the organizations surveyed, global mobility conducts the risk assessment of the remote or virtual work arrangement request. One can deduce that while global mobility may or may not own the virtual work policy type, it is looked to for support and expertise.
Tax and immigration guidance are by far the most outsourced support at 58%, with labor law analysis a distant second at 16%. This ties in nicely with the July 2022 webinar poll results showing that immigration and tax are the major challenges associated with virtual work programs. Tasks related to virtual work are managed in-house by 32% of the companies surveyed.
If you missed it, please check out our webinar from July 2022 which provides additional information on Virtual Work/Work From Anywhere policies, by clicking this link:
https://www.altairglobal.com/webinars/webinar-leaning-into-the-future-what-mobility-experts-need-to-know/
Virtual and remote work may not align with the organizational culture of all companies, nor the nature of work done in all companies, but for most of us, this topic cannot be ignored or avoided. Global mobility has long been the function best positioned to understand the risks involved and bring the right subject matter experts into decision-making given the multi-disciplinary complexities involved.
Altair’s Global Consulting Services team has helped organizations of all sizes navigate the virtual work world by crafting new policies and programs to help guide them through this emerging way of working.
