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% 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
Gautam Sahgal, CEO of Perkbox comments: “Business leaders know there are challenges when it comes to going borderless, but these are not insurmountable. Successfully managing the transition to borderless working requires leadership to create a common identity and purposeful company culture - one that everyone feels a part of, no matter where they are. If businesses can create a true sense of shared connection amongst their people, employees will find it easier to work together and remove barriers to collaboration and communication as they arise.”
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% of business leaders admit technology is integral to building relationships with satellite workers.
Gautam continues: “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.
“This is why we developed our Global Reward tool. As a location-agnostic offering, it directly addresses the challenges business leaders face when it comes to celebrating, motivating and managing employees around the world. Technology such as this plays an important part in fostering recognition across the workforce and can make a huge difference to employee experience, helping people feel connected to and valued by their organisation.”