How to build a global benefits plan
Remote's experts explain how to provide benefits that are locally relevant yet globally competitive, how to maintain compliance when expanding internationally, and how to foster equity and build trust across your multinational team!
- How to design an equitable global benefits program
- How to ensure your compliance with local labor laws
- How varying cultural norms and expectations can affect your benefits plans
- How to attract and retain top talent through outstanding benefits for global workers
- When and how to provide benefits to contractors
For your reference: Download the guide · research/permanent-establishment-risk-guide
Download the guide
Would you like to offer best-in-class global benefits but are unsure where to begin?
Providing excellent benefits and promoting equity across your organisation need not be complex. At Remote, we hire in 70+ countries worldwide. In our free Global Benefits Guide, our experts explain what offering global benefits entails and outline how to implement them in ways that align with your company’s particular needs and objectives.
An overview of remote and flexible working
The importance of remote and flexible working is undeniable today, but which employees value these arrangements the most?
In 2022, we identified the most in-demand employee benefits by surveying 10,000 full-time employees across genders, industries, job functions, countries, and parental statuses. The highlights below offer a preview of insights available in the full research report:
- Our research found that health insurance is considered most important in the USA
- Additional parental leave is the top benefit for parents of one child
- Employees in the Netherlands want employer contributions toward home office setup
Research highlights
The Remote Global Benefits Guide helps you identify the benefits that employees value most.
Parents with one child place greater value on remote work than those with multiple children
The option to work remotely matters most to parents of one child; however, most employees—regardless of family situation or future plans—agree that remote work is important. Remote work combined with flexible hours enables parents to perform their roles in ways better suited to their family circumstances.
Companies should recognise that many employees' most productive hours fall outside the traditional 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM timeframe, often because of childcare or other external commitments.
Allowing staff to select hours that suit them can lower the risk of stress and burnout, reduce absences, and enhance 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 these provisions.
Employees in the Netherlands place the highest value on remote work
Dutch employers are more accustomed to their staff adopting fully-remote or hybrid working models. Even before the pandemic, the Netherlands had a highly flexible working culture. This may explain why, among the countries surveyed, employees in the Netherlands are most likely to regard remote work as an important benefit. Employers hiring Dutch workers should enable remote work to attract and retain top talent.
The UK, Germany, and USA trail the Netherlands, while employees in France are least likely to consider remote work important, whether offered part-time or full-time.
Remote work is most important to employees in advertising and IT roles
Full-time remote work ranks highest for employees in advertising roles, whereas part-time remote work matters most to those in IT roles.
Whether part-time or full-time, remote work is much less desired by employees in production and sales roles than in other functions. This suggests employers should consider ways to make remote work more accessible for such roles so these workers can also benefit from remote arrangements.
This underscores the value of offering remote work at least part-time when it suits the role. The most effective benefits packages consider the specific types of employees they will serve and are tailored accordingly.
The most important employee benefits when considering a job move
We surveyed 10,000 full-time employees in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US to discover which benefits are most desirable when contemplating a job change, across genders, parental statuses, job roles, and industries. When thinking about a move, workers tend to compare their current benefits packages with those offered by other employers. This comparison helps them decide whether to stay or leave, and once they choose to leave, guides which positions they consider applying for.
Whether an employer’s primary aim is to attract top talent or 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 their benefits packages, based on our survey of 10,000 full-time employees in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. From a health-benefit perspective, employees in the US consider paid time off for self-care/mental health and private and family health insurance more important than employees in any of the European countries we surveyed. Residents of 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 develop customised benefits packages tailored to what employees value most in each business region. Offering medical insurance to support US employees with healthcare expenses demonstrates 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 in every job function except production and other unspecified roles. Employers with many staff in production or roles not covered by our survey may be better served by including company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions in their benefits packages.
Further survey results show that access to dedicated breastfeeding rooms in the office is most important to employees in advertising roles.
However, regardless of industry, employers should consider providing dedicated private spaces for parents to breastfeed. Beyond promoting inclusion, this supports new parents returning to the workplace and helps attract a more diverse pool of high-quality candidates.
