Research from Perkbox, the global benefits and rewards platform, reveals almost half of businesses with borderless working (47%) are concerned it will impact company culture.
These concerns stem from perceptions around managing a globally distributed workforce and the challenges this can bring.
For example, a third of business leaders (33%) say different time zones make collaboration less effective.
Meanwhile, 31 percent state inconsistency in different employee expectations around benefits or working styles causes friction between borderless managers and their teams.
However, despite these concerns, businesses are ploughing ahead with the shift to borderless working as they seek to access international talent pools and meet employee demand for greater flexibility in work.
In fact, nearly two-thirds of businesses (62%) plan to increase the number of remote staff they hire outside of their main country of operations over the next year.
Steps to fostering a borderless culture
Fortunately, UK business leaders understand their responsibility here, with nearly four-fifths (78%) believing it is their responsibility to ensure all employees feel connected to the culture.
A core element of this will be empowering managers to reward and recognise their remote employees and teams. In fact, other than providing a fair salary (51%), empowering staff to recognise each other’s successes (40%) is regarded as the greatest contributor to a strong workplace culture.
Yet only half (53%) of those businesses who have gone borderless, have a rewards and benefits platform to support their new way of working. This is especially surprising considering 79 percent of business leaders admit technology is integral to building relationships with satellite workers.
Gautam Sahgal, CEO of Perkbox comments:
“As we enter a tough economic period where employees will already be feeling uncertainty, it’s essential for leaders to ensure their people are engaged, committed and feel part of something bigger, if they’re to see continued success. And with a borderless workforce that’s distributed across multiple regions, technology is essential to achieving this.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
