Contents
- Hey! Welcome Back -
- Business Insider: The WFH Hero We All Needed
- Forbes: A Boost for Diversity Inclusion
- Remote Perks: The New Culture Builder
The CEO who champions remote work, how WFH makes businesses more diverse, and a series of unconventional remote perks - this week on Out of Office.
😎 Business Insider: This CEO changed his mind about remote
🤴🏽 Forbes: WFH inspires diversity & inclusion
🦄 Waco Tribune Herald: Unconventional remote perks
Hey! Welcome Back -
It’s great to have you here for the 6th installment of Out of Office.
In today’s episode I explore which companies are offering the best remote perks, along with some refreshing news from Silicon Valley, sprinkled with some insights on remote workplace culture.
I’m your host Andrew Allen, let’s get stuck in.
Business Insider: The WFH Hero We All Needed
In a surprising twist, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has done a total 180 on remote work.
To the collective relief of everyone at Amazon, in January of this year he canceled the return to office plans he had in place.
Jassy confirmed the shift, saying that employees can decide to work from home, while the office will be used for individual teams.
Matthew Loh writes -
"We have to deliver the right results for customers, and people understand whether they work remotely or in an office that that has to be the number one priority."
That was my favorite line in his statement. It’s awesome to see a Silicon Valley CEO embrace the data on remote work productivity.
How long will it take for his peers to catch up I wonder?
Forbes: A Boost for Diversity & Inclusion
In another top story this week, Forbes reported on one of the most prominent benefits of remote work - its ability to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Chase Harrington writes -
“Many businesses also face logistical hurdles to enacting their well-intended policies, including a lack of diversity in a geographic area or a talent pool.”
Remote work provides an excellent solution.
The World Economic Forum has backed this data in its own piece, stating that companies who are clinging to their local, national and in-person work style are losing out in a big way.
Theoretically speaking, remote jobs allow companies to attract and hire top talent from anywhere in the world.
As this shift naturally occurs, some questions are cropping up.
Remote Perks: The New Culture Builder
The biggest question among these seems to be about workplace culture.
How does a company create a strong culture within remote teams?
When there’s no ping pong table or beer fridge, what do perks even look like?
🤩 Here are some unconventional perks offered by remote companies:
- Adobe pays for childcare
Every parent knows that your kids need attention during the day, and that isn’t something that you can multitask with work.
What an incredibly helpful and relevant perk.
- Buffer covers coffee
- Salesforce bought a 75 acre ranch where it hosts amazing team building events
- Airbnb and Microsoft cover everything from holidays to fertility treatment
These kinds of perks beat a full time head office any day.
The question is what kind of perks would you find meaningful?
Would coffee be enough for you?
It’s something we should all be thinking about.
That’s it for now, see you next week for more breaking news.
And remember - the future of work is Out of Office.
Andrew