How a working from anywhere can drive business growth and innovation
In this blog we speak with John Lee, an expert in global business and remote work, to explore the benefits and challenges of working from anywhere and global hiring strategies.
By John Lee
CEO and Co-Founder, Work From Anywhere
16th Sep 2024
• 5 minutes
In this blog we speak with John Lee, an expert in global business and remote work, to explore the benefits and challenges of Work From Anywhere (WFA) schemes. John, who speaks six languages and has travelled to over 70 countries, brings a unique perspective from his 20 years of international experience living in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Thailand. As the co-founder of CultureMee, an award-winning intercultural communication platform, and a former senior finance executive at CRH Plc, John has firsthand knowledge of navigating corporate and individual tax, employment law, and cross-border operations. He’ll be sharing his insights on how WFA policies can transform businesses, making them more agile, diverse, and competitive in the global marketplace.
In this blog, we speak with John Lee, an expert in global business and remote work, to explore the benefits and challenges of working from anywhere in the world. Before we start, it’s important to recognise the difference between work from anywhere (WFA) schemes and globally remote hiring from anywhere.
With WFA schemes, employees are hired to work for a company based in a specific location but are given the flexibility to work from different places for a set number of days or weeks each year. On the other hand, remote hiring from anywhere refers to employees who are hired without any requirement to live in or be based in a particular location. These employees can live and work permanently from any country or region, with no need to visit a physical office or be tied to a specific city or headquarters.
In this blog, John will discuss how companies can embrace a global hiring strategy and navigate the opportunities and challenges that come with it.
We have all become more and more accustomed to the era of Work From Anywhere (WFA), where your next colleague might be coding from a café in Bali or strategizing from a chalet in the Swiss Alps. Maybe they might be taking a workation abroad to care for a sick grandparent for a few weeks. There are many different nuances to working from anywhere.
Companies like Spotify and Airbnb have discovered that WFA isn't just a nice-to-have – it's a powerful business strategy that's reshaping their competitive landscape. So how can you make the business case for a WFA policy? Whether you’re a HR leader or a decision-maker who is trying to influence your business towards implementing a more flexible international remote work policy.
The Spotify WFA rollout
Let's start with Spotify. In 2021, they rolled out their "Work From Anywhere" model, allowing employees to work from any location wherever Spotify has a registered entity. The results? Nothing short of transformative.
Spotify saw a 15% decrease in employee turnover between 2021 and 2022. In an industry where top talent is constantly being poached, that's a game-changer. It turns out that giving employees control over their work environment is a powerful retention tool.
But the benefits don't stop there.
Spotify's time-to-hire dropped from 48 to 42 days, making their recruitment process significantly more efficient.
And here's where it gets really interesting: about 50% of Spotify's hires since launching their WFA framework came from outside their US hubs in New York City and Los Angeles. This not only gave them access to a deeper, more diverse talent pool but likely resulted in cost savings too.How Airbnb pivoted their business to WFA
Now, let's talk about Airbnb. In 2022, they announced their "Live and Work Anywhere" program, allowing employees to work from over 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location.
The impact? Nothing short of seismic.
Airbnb saw an almost doubling of visitors to their careers page when they launched the program. Two years later, they're still seeing structurally higher visits to their careers page, with over 850,000 visitors in January 2024 alone. Talk about a boost to your employer brand!
But it's not just about attracting talent. Airbnb's Chief Financial Officer, Dave Stephenson, reported that "the business has actually never performed better since we moved to this program." He noted that their attrition rate has been lower than ever, and the diversity of their workforce has improved, with underrepresented minorities now making up over 16% of their population.
The program has also had a profound impact on Airbnb's core business. CEO Brian Chesky reported in their 2022 full-year results that "Guests continued to stay longer on Airbnb. Gross nights booked in Q4 2022 for more than a week are 40% higher than Q4 2019."
This trend towards longer stays aligns perfectly with their WFA policy, creating a virtuous cycle between their employee policies and their product offering.The challenges faced building a WFA policy
But let's not kid ourselves – implementing a WFA policy isn't all sunshine and rainbows.
Both Spotify and Airbnb had to grapple with new challenges.
Spotify, for instance, found that onboarding new employees, especially those new to the workforce, required some refinement. They've adjusted their approach to include more in-office presence for the first few months to ensure new hires feel integrated and supported.
Airbnb, on the other hand, had to navigate complex tax and legal issues.
As Q Hamirani, former Head of People Operations at Airbnb, noted, they designed their program to navigate these complexities with support from experts. They implemented a rigorous approval process for travel requests, conducting a "very strong cross-functional analysis which determines the risk" before giving the green light.Every organisation will have a different WFA risk appetite
The business case for WFA is compelling, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Very often it comes down to your company’s risk appetite, where for example highly regulated banks may have quite a low risk appetite, and so may not allow WFA at all, or if they do, only for very limited periods. Whereas a startup in the technology space might have a much greater risk appetite, as the consequences of having an overly conservative WFA policy might mean they lose access to critical talent, which itself poses a considerable business risk.
It all comes down to looking inwardly first, to understand what level of risk you’re willing to take on.A traffic light approach to countries
Once you do settle on your compliance risk appetite, something we have seen works really well is for companies to have a traffic light approach to cases, and this begins with identifying which countries are red (i.e. never allowed), orange (i.e. case by case analysis) and green (i.e. allowed within limits). Together with the right technology, and with the right advisors to support you, you might find that there are ways to structure your policy to mitigate your risks (and boost the business case of implementing a WFA policy).Building a WFA policy
We put together a helpful Workation Policy Builder here which includes many of the items above, and much more, as well as other best practices we have observed amongst the roster of Fortune 500 clients we serve around the world. Feel free to download it as it may be helpful in building the internal business case for having a WFA policy.Conclusion
According to a Mercer survey, 78% of companies allow international remote working. It is easy to see why. For companies willing to take the plunge, the rewards can be substantial. We're talking about expanded talent pools, improved diversity, increased employee satisfaction, cost savings, and a powerful boost to your employer brand. Not to mention the potential to reshape your core business offerings, as Airbnb has demonstrated.
In a world where talent is the ultimate competitive advantage, WFA might just be the secret weapon that separates the winners from the also-rans. Companies like Spotify and Airbnb are showing us that with the right approach, WFA can be a powerful driver of business success.
So, as you ponder your company's future, ask yourself this: Can you afford not to consider a Work From Anywhere policy? In the emerging geography of work, the answer to that question might just determine whether your company thrives or merely survives in the coming decades.