How to build a global benefits plan
Remote’s specialists explain how to provide benefits that are locally appropriate yet competitive worldwide, how to maintain compliance when expanding internationally, and how to foster equality and build trust across your multinational workforce.
- How to develop an equitable global benefits programme
- How to ensure compliance with local labour laws
- How differing cultural norms and expectations can affect your benefits plans
- How to attract and retain top talent by offering outstanding benefits to international workers
- When and how to provide benefits to contractors
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Download the guide
Considering offering top-tier global benefits but unsure where to begin?
Providing strong benefits and promoting fairness across your workforce need not be complicated. Remote hires in more than 70+ countries worldwide. In our free Global Benefits Guide, our specialists outline what offering global benefits entails and how to implement them in a way that suits your organisation’s specific needs and objectives.
The state of remote and flexible working
Remote and flexible working are clearly important today, but which employees value these arrangements most?
Our survey of 10,000 full-time employees across genders, industries, job roles, countries and parental situations identified the most sought-after employee benefits in 2022. The bullets below offer a sample of findings from the full research report:
- The study found that health insurance is the highest priority for employees in the USA
- Parents with a single child rate extra parental leave as the most important benefit
- Employees in the Netherlands expect employer contributions towards home office setup
Research highlights
The Remote Global Benefits Guide helps you identify the benefits employees value most.
Parents with one child place greater value on remote work than those with several children.
The opportunity to work remotely matters most to parents with a single child, although most employees—regardless of family circumstances—agree that remote work is important. Remote working and flexible hours allow parents to arrange their work in a way that best fits their family commitments.
Companies should recognise that many employees are most productive outside traditional office hours, often because of childcare or other external commitments.
Allowing staff to select hours that suit them can lower stress and burnout, reduce absenteeism and improve job satisfaction.
Offering remote work and flexible hours increases the likelihood of attracting highly skilled professionals with young children who are actively seeking roles with these features.
Remote work is most highly valued by employees in the Netherlands.
Dutch employers are more accustomed to staff working fully remotely or in hybrid models. Even prior to the pandemic, the Netherlands had a flexible working culture, which may explain why employees there are likeliest to regard remote work as an important benefit. Employers hiring Dutch workers should facilitate remote working to attract and retain top talent.
The UK, Germany and the USA follow behind the Netherlands, with employees in France least likely to say remote work is important whether offered part-time or full-time.
Remote work is most important for employees in advertising and IT roles.
Full-time remote work is especially important to those in advertising, whereas part-time remote work is more valued by employees in IT.
Employees in production and sales roles show significantly less demand for part-time or full-time remote work than other functions. This suggests employers should consider ways to make remote options more accessible for these roles so they can also benefit.
This underlines the value of providing at least part-time remote work where the role permits. The most effective benefits packages are those tailored to the specific employee groups they are intended for.
The most important employee benefits when considering a job move
We surveyed 10,000 full-time employees across France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US to establish which benefits are most valued when contemplating a job change, taking account of gender, parental status, job role and industry. When thinking about leaving, employees compare their current benefits with those on offer elsewhere to decide whether to stay or to apply for other roles.
Whether an employer’s aim is to attract or retain talent, flexible working hours, company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions, and early finishes on Fridays emerged as the top three perks in our survey of 10,000 full-time employees across France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. From a health-benefit perspective, employees in the US place greater emphasis on paid time off for self-care or mental health and on private family health insurance than employees in the European countries we surveyed. Residents of France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK generally have access to universal healthcare, whereas in the US medical costs are typically an individual expense.
Employers should therefore develop customised benefits packages that reflect what is most valued in each business region. Providing medical insurance to help US employees with healthcare costs demonstrates care and helps maintain equity across a global workforce.
Flexible working hours are desired in nearly every job function, particularly in HR.
Flexible working is the top benefit across all job functions except production and some other roles. Employers with many staff in production or in roles not specifically listed in our survey may be better served by adding company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions to their benefits packages.
Other survey findings show that employees in advertising value access to dedicated breastfeeding rooms in the workplace most highly.
Nonetheless, regardless of industry, employers should consider providing dedicated private spaces for parents to breastfeed. Beyond promoting inclusion, this supports new parents returning to work and is likely to attract a broader range of high-quality candidates.
