How to design a global benefits plan
Remote's experts outline how to design benefits that suit local needs while remaining globally competitive, how to meet compliance requirements as you expand internationally, and how to foster fairness and trust across your multinational team.
- How to establish an equitable global benefits programme
- How to maintain compliance with local employment laws
- How cultural norms and expectations across regions influence your benefits plans
- How to attract and retain top talent by offering competitive benefits for global workers
- When and how to provide benefits to contractors
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Looking to provide top global benefits but unsure where to begin?
Providing strong benefits and achieving parity across your workforce need not be complicated. At Remote, we hire in 70+ countries worldwide. In our free Global Benefits Guide, our experts set out what offering global benefits involves and provide practical steps to implement them so they align with your company’s specific needs and objectives.
Current landscape for remote and flexible working
Remote and flexible working has become indispensable in today's environment; which employees value these arrangements most?
Our 2022 survey of 10,000 full-time employees, covering different genders, industries, job functions, countries and parental statuses, reveals which employee benefits were most in demand. The highlights below offer an indication of the findings in the full research report:
- Our analysis determined private medical insurance to be the most important benefit in the USA
- For parents of one child, additional parental leave ranks as the most important benefit
- Employees in the Netherlands expect employer contributions to help cover home office setup
Research highlights
The Remote Global Benefits Guide shows which benefits employees value most.
Parents with one child place greater value on remote work than parents with multiple children
Parents with a single child are most likely to rate the option to work remotely as essential; however, most employees — regardless of family situation or future plans — view remote work as important. Remote working combined with flexible hours enables parents to plan work around their family’s needs.
Companies should recognise that many employees do their most productive work outside the traditional 09:00–17:00 window, often because of childcare or other external commitments.
Permitting staff to choose the hours that suit them can lower the risk of stress and burnout, reduce absences and improve overall job satisfaction.
Offering remote work and flexible hours increases employers’ chances of attracting highly skilled professionals with young children who are actively seeking roles with those provisions.
Remote work is valued most by employees in the Netherlands
Dutch employers are accustomed to staff working fully remote or in hybrid arrangements. The Netherlands had a flexible working culture even before the pandemic, which helps explain why respondents there are more likely than those in other countries we surveyed to consider remote work an important benefit. Employers hiring in the Netherlands should enable remote working to attract and retain top talent.
The UK, Germany and the USA trail the Netherlands, while employees in France are least likely to view partial or full remote work as important.
Remote work matters most for employees in advertising and IT roles
Employees in advertising roles place the highest value on full-time remote work, whereas those in IT prioritise part-time remote arrangements.
Across part-time and full-time options, employees in production and sales roles express markedly lower demand for remote work than other groups. Employers should explore ways to make remote working more feasible for these functions so those workers can also benefit.
This underlines the value of offering remote options at least on a part-time basis where the role permits. The most effective benefits packages reflect the employee mix and are tailored to the people they will serve.
Most important employee benefits when considering a job move
Our survey of 10,000 full-time employees across France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US examined which benefits workers regard as most desirable when weighing a job move, segmented by gender, parental status, role and industry. When employees contemplate changing jobs, they typically compare their current benefits with those offered elsewhere; that comparison helps them decide whether to stay and, if they opt to leave, which positions to apply for.
Whether an employer’s primary aim is to attract top talent or to retain it, flexible working hours, company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions, and early finishes on Fridays are the top three perks to consider including in benefits packages, according to our survey of 10,000 full-time employees in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. From a health-related benefits perspective, employees in the US place more importance on annual leave for self-care/mental health and on private and family 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 are an individual expense.
Consequently, employers should develop customised benefits packages that reflect what people value in each region. Providing medical insurance to help US employees with healthcare costs will demonstrate care and help maintain equity across a global team.
In almost every job function, employees want flexible work hours — especially HR
Flexible working ranks as the most important benefit across job functions except production and other roles. Organisations with many employees in production or in roles not specified in our survey may be better served by adding company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions to their benefits mix.
Further results show that access to dedicated breastfeeding rooms at the office matters most to employees in advertising roles.
Regardless of sector, employers should consider providing private, dedicated spaces for breastfeeding parents. This promotes inclusion, supports new parents returning to the workplace and is likely to attract a more diverse pool of high-quality candidates.
