How to build a global benefits plan
Remote's experts outline how to deliver benefits that are locally relevant yet competitive globally, how to maintain compliance when expanding internationally, and how to create equality and build trust across your multinational team!
- How to develop an equitable global benefits programme
- How to ensure compliance with local labour laws
- How different cultural norms and expectations can affect your benefits plans
- How to attract and keep top talent with excellent benefits for global workers
- When to offer benefits to contractors and how to do it
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Download the guide
Want to provide top global benefits but unsure where to begin?
Creating strong benefits and ensuring equality across your workforce doesn't need to be complicated. Remote hires in 70+ countries worldwide. In our free Global Benefits Guide, our experts explain what offering global benefits involves and how to implement them so they align with your company's specific needs and goals.
The state of remote and flexible working
Remote and flexible working are clearly important today, but which employees value these arrangements most?
By surveying 10,000 full-time employees across genders, industries, job functions, countries, and parental statuses, we identified the most in-demand employee benefits in 2022. The highlights below offer a preview of the insights available in the full research report:
- Our research found that health insurance is the top priority in the USA
- Additional parental leave is the benefit parents of a single child value most
- Employees in the Netherlands want employer contributions toward home-office setup
Research highlights
The Remote Global Benefits Guide helps you identify which benefits employees value most.
Parents of a single child place more value on remote work than parents with multiple children
The opportunity to work remotely matters most to parents with one child, although most employees, regardless of family status or future plans, agree remote work is important. Remote work and flexible hours let parents arrange work in a way that best suits their family’s circumstances.
Employers should recognise that many employees are most productive outside the traditional 9 am–5 pm timeframe, often because of childcare or other commitments.
Letting staff choose hours that suit them can reduce stress and burnout, cut employee absences and boost job satisfaction.
Offering remote work and flexible hours makes it easier for employers to attract skilled professionals with young children who are actively seeking roles with these benefits.
Employees in the Netherlands value remote work most
Dutch employers are accustomed to fully remote or hybrid working models. Even before the pandemic, the Netherlands had a highly flexible working culture, which may explain why employees there are more likely than those in other surveyed countries to see remote work as an important benefit. Employers hiring Dutch workers should support remote work to attract and retain top talent.
The UK, Germany and the USA follow the Netherlands, while employees in France are the least likely to say remote work is important whether offered part-time or full-time.
Remote work matters most to employees in advertising and IT roles
Full-time remote work is especially important for advertising roles, whereas part-time remote work is more valued in IT roles.
Whether part-time or full-time, employees in production and sales roles desire remote work far less than others. This suggests employers should explore ways to make remote arrangements more accessible for these job functions so those workers can benefit as well.
This underlines the value of offering at least part-time remote options when the role allows. The most effective benefits packages consider the types of employees they're aimed at and are tailored accordingly.
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 determine which benefits matter most when considering a job move, across genders, parental statuses, job roles and industries. When weighing a change of employment, workers typically compare their current benefits packages with those offered elsewhere. That comparison helps them decide whether to stay and, if they choose 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, based on our survey of 10,000 full-time employees in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. From an employee health perspective, employees in the US place greater importance on paid time off for self-care/mental health and on private and family health insurance than employees in the European countries we surveyed. Those living in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK have access to universal healthcare, whereas in the US medical fees are an individual cost.
Therefore, employers must create customised benefits packages that reflect what employees in each region value most. Providing medical insurance to help US employees with healthcare costs shows you care and helps maintain equity across your global team.
In almost every job function, employees want flexible work hours — especially HR
Flexible working is the top benefit across job functions except for production and other unspecified roles. Employers with many staff in those roles may be better off including company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions in their benefits packages.
Other survey results show that access to dedicated breastfeeding rooms at the office matters most to employees in advertising roles.
Regardless of industry, employers should consider private, dedicated spaces for parents to breastfeed. Alongside promoting inclusion, this supports new parents returning to the workplace and is likely to attract a more diverse pool of high-quality candidates.
