How to create a global benefits plan
Remote's specialists explain how to provide benefits that are locally relevant yet competitive worldwide, how to meet compliance requirements as you expand overseas, and how to foster fairness and build trust across your multinational team!
- How to develop an equitable global benefits programme
- How to make sure you comply with local employment laws
- How cultural norms and expectations can affect your benefits plans
- How to attract and retain top talent with strong benefits for global workers
- When and how to provide benefits to contractors
Download the guide · research/permanent-establishment-risk-guide
Download the guide
Keen to offer the best global benefits but unsure where to start?
Putting strong benefits in place and ensuring fairness across your team can be straightforward. At Remote, we hire in 70+ countries around the world. In our free Global Benefits Guide, our experts explain what offering global benefits involves and how to implement them so they fit your company’s specific needs and goals.
Current landscape of remote and flexible working
Remote and flexible working have become indispensable in today’s workplace — which employees value these arrangements the most?
By surveying 10,000 full-time employees across genders, industries, job functions, countries and parental statuses, we've identified the most sought-after employee benefits in 2022. The following highlights offer a snapshot of what the full research report reveals:
- Research results indicate private medical insurance ranks highest in importance in the USA
- Parents of one child rate additional parental leave as their most important benefit
- In the Netherlands, employees want employer contributions towards home office setup
Key research highlights
The Remote Global Benefits Guide explains which benefits employees value most.
Parents of a single child rate remote work higher than those with multiple children
Parents of a single child place the highest value on remote working, but most employees — regardless of family status or future plans — agree remote work is important. Remote work combined with flexible hours lets parents organise their work around their family’s needs.
Employers should recognise that many people do their most productive work outside the traditional 9 am – 5 pm window, often because of childcare or other external commitments.
Letting staff choose hours that suit them can reduce stress and burnout, lower employee absences and improve job satisfaction.
Offering remote work and flexible hours makes it easier for employers to attract highly skilled professionals with young children who are actively seeking roles with these benefits.
Employees in the Netherlands place the highest value on remote work
Dutch companies are accustomed to staff working fully remote or in hybrid arrangements. The Netherlands had a flexible working culture even before the pandemic. That background may explain why Dutch employees are the most likely among those surveyed to regard remote work as an important benefit. Employers recruiting in the Netherlands should enable remote options to attract and retain top talent.
The UK, Germany and the USA follow the Netherlands, while employees in France are least likely to say remote work is important, whether offered part-time or full-time.
Remote work matters most to people in advertising and IT roles
Employees in advertising value full-time remote work most, whereas those in IT prioritise part-time remote arrangements.
Whether part-time or full-time, remote work is noticeably less sought after by people in production and sales roles than in other areas. This suggests employers should make remote options more accessible for those functions so they too can experience the advantages remote working brings.
This underlines the importance of offering remote work at least part-time when it suits the role. The most effective benefits packages take into account the types of employees they will serve and are tailored accordingly.
Most important benefits when considering a job change
Our survey of 10,000 full-time employees across France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US identified which benefits people value most when weighing a job move, broken down by gender, parental status, job role and industry. When employees consider changing jobs they typically compare their current benefits with those on offer elsewhere. That comparison helps them decide whether to stay or leave, and once they opt to move, shapes which roles they choose to apply for.
Whether an employer’s priority is attracting top talent or retaining it, flexible working hours, company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions, and early finishes on Fridays were the top three perks in our survey of 10,000 full-time employees in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. From a health-benefits perspective, employees in the US place greater importance on annual leave for self-care/mental health and on private and family private medical insurance than respondents in the European countries we surveyed. Residents of France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK all have access to universal healthcare, whereas in the US medical fees fall to the individual.
So employers must develop customised benefits packages that reflect what matters most in each region. Offering medical insurance to help US employees with healthcare costs will show you care and help maintain equity across your global team.
Employees want flexible hours in almost every job function — especially HR
Flexible working was also the highest-ranked benefit in every job function except production and other roles. Organisations with many staff in production or in roles not listed in our survey may be better served by adding company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions to their benefit packages.
Further analysis shows that access to dedicated breastfeeding rooms at the office is most important to employees in advertising roles.
Regardless of industry, employers should consider providing private breastfeeding spaces for parents. Alongside promoting inclusion, this helps welcome and support new parents returning to the workplace and is likely to attract a broader range of high-quality candidates.
