Give your staff “work anywhere” freedom?
Many bosses are being asked if they could give their staff freedom to genuinely work anywhere, any time – including in another country.
It’s after AirBnB’s boss set five remote work rules that apply to all its staff. They now have huge freedom to choose exactly where they work.
“These rules are simple and very attractive for their staff. But I’m not sure how easy it would be for other businesses to be so flexible,” said local technology expert John Miller, of Smarter Technologies Ltd.
AirBnb, the company which lets people rent out their homes to tourists, has fully committed to a “live anywhere, work anywhere” philosophy.
It means staff can work in any location in their home country, and even work abroad for up to 90 days.
Its five remote work rules are:
- You can work from home or the office
- You can move anywhere in the country you work in and your compensation won’t change
- You have the flexibility to travel and work around the world
- We’ll meet up regularly for gatherings
- We’ll continue to work in a highly coordinated way
“You can see why AirBnB would do this,” said John Miller. “They’ve realised location flexibility is very important to staff these days. This helps them attract the best staff, retain them and encourage them to have a great quality of life.
“Today it might be difficult for businesses round here to adopt such a policy. For example, as a busy IT support company, we need our staff in the office some of the time.”
He added: “But in the future I think this is flexibility all companies must work towards. The pandemic created something that’s going to become more and more important to staff in the years ahead.”
