Guide to creating a global benefits plan
Remote's experts outline how to provide benefits that are locally relevant yet competitive worldwide, how to maintain compliance as you expand internationally, and how to foster equality and build trust across your multinational team!
- How to design an equitable global benefits programme
- How to secure compliance with local employment legislation
- How varying cultural norms and expectations affect your benefits plans
- How to attract and retain top talent by providing outstanding benefits for global workers
- When to offer contractors benefits and how best to do so
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Download the guide
Want to offer top global benefits but are unsure where to begin?
Creating strong benefits and promoting equality across your workforce need not be complicated! At Remote, we employ people in 70+ countries worldwide. In our free Global Benefits Guide, our experts explain what offering global benefits involves and outline how to implement them in ways that suit your company’s specific needs and objectives.
Current state of remote and flexible working
The value of remote and flexible working is clear in today’s world, but which employees prioritise these provisions most?
After surveying 10,000 full-time employees across genders, industries, job functions, countries and parental statuses, we identified the most sought-after employee benefits in 2022. The highlights below offer a snapshot of the insights available in the full research report:
- Our research shows private medical insurance ranks as the most important benefit in the USA
- Additional parental leave ranks as the most important benefit for parents with one child
- In the Netherlands, employees want their employer to contribute to home office setup
Research highlights
The Remote Global Benefits Guide explains which benefits employees value most.
Parents of one child value remote work more than parents with multiple children
Employees with a single child place a higher premium on the option to work remotely than those with several children, though the majority of staff—regardless of family situation or future plans—agree that remote work is important. Remote working combined with flexible hours allows parents to arrange their work around the realities of family life.
Organisations should recognise that many employees do their most productive work outside the traditional 9 am–5 pm window, often because of childcare or other outside commitments.
Allowing staff to choose hours that suit them can lower the risk of stress and burnout, reduce absence and raise job satisfaction.
By providing remote work and flexible hours, employers are more likely to attract highly skilled professionals with young children who are actively seeking roles that include these options.
Employees in the Netherlands value remote work the most
Dutch employers and workers are already accustomed to fully remote or hybrid arrangements. Even prior to the pandemic, the Netherlands maintained a flexible working culture, which likely explains why employees there are the most inclined of those we surveyed to view remote work as a key benefit. Employers recruiting in the Netherlands should enable remote working to attract and keep top talent.
The UK, Germany, and USA follow behind the Netherlands, with employees in France the least likely to say remote work is important whether offered partially or all of the time.
Remote work is most important to employees in advertising and IT roles
Full-time remote working matters most to employees in advertising, whereas part-time remote arrangements matter most to those in IT roles.
Across both part-time and full-time setups, staff in production and sales express markedly less desire for remote work than colleagues in other areas. This suggests employers should make remote options more accessible for these functions so those workers can also reap the advantages remote work delivers.
This underlines the value of providing remote work at least on a part-time basis where it fits the role. The most effective benefits packages are those tailored to the specific employee groups they are intended to serve.
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 identify which benefits matter most when thinking about changing jobs, and how preferences differ by gender, parental status, role and industry. When workers consider moving on, they compare their current benefits with those offered elsewhere to decide whether to stay and to shortlist suitable vacancies if they leave.
Whether an employer’s priority is attracting or retaining talent, flexible working hours, company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions, and early finishes on Fridays rank as the top three perks to include 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, staff 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 any of the European countries we surveyed. Residents of France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK typically have access to universal healthcare; in the US, medical costs are generally an individual expense.
It is therefore essential for employers to build customised benefits packages that reflect what matters most in each region. Providing medical insurance to help US employees with healthcare costs shows commitment and helps maintain equity across a global workforce.
In almost every job function, employees want flexible work hours - especially HR
Flexible working is the top benefit across nearly all job functions except production and other unspecified roles. Employers with large numbers in production or in roles not covered by our survey would be well advised to consider company-sponsored retirement plans or pensions as part of their offering.
Reviewing the remainder of the survey, access to dedicated breastfeeding rooms in the workplace is judged most important by employees in advertising roles.
Nevertheless, regardless of the industry, employers should think about providing private, dedicated spaces for breastfeeding. Doing so promotes inclusion, supports parents returning to work and is likely to attract a wider pool of high-quality candidates.
