Australian small businesses are seen to be leading the way in terms of providing flexibility in the workplace.
The new Global Workforce Report from global HR platform Remote, which surveyed more than 4,000 business leaders of companies across 10 countries, including 506 leaders from Australia., found that 60 per cent of hiring leaders say their employers have lost employees to organisations who are less tied to traditional office hours and locations in the last six months.
Among its findings is the fact that in Australia, flexible working hours and remote work are offered by 39 per cent and 32 per cent of businesses respectively. However, small businesses and small-medium enterprises are significantly more likely to offer these perks.
In particular, most businesses with 1-9 employees (83 per cent) and 10-49 employees (72 per cent) offer flexible working hours, in comparison to only 41 per cent of businesses with 250-499 employees and 53 per cent of businesses with 50-100 employees.
Similarly, remote work is currently offered at 69 per cent of businesses with 49 employees or less, and less than a third of businesses with 250-499 employees (27 per cent) and 500-1,000 employees (33 per cent).
Benefits of flexible working highlighted
The report also highlighted that in the case of Australia, an increase in productivity (40 per cent) and improved business performance (29 per cent) were two primary benefits that respondents attributed to operating remotely. This stands in contrast to the view of some high-profile organisations who have introduced RTO (Return to Office) practices citing productivity as a reason for their move.
When asked about the impact remote working has on employees, 35 per cent of companies said it increased employee satisfaction and 28 per cent highlighted remote work as being crucial to an enhanced life-work balance for employees. In addition, 82 per cent were able to reduce office space due to implementing remote or hybrid models successfully.
Challenges of remote working bared
Despite the benefits, remote working also brought significant challenges. Finding candidates with the right skills is the biggest challenge for 31 per cent of Australian businesses. As such, remote companies are leaning more towards hiring freelancers, with 48 per cent looking for freelance or contractor talent in the last year as their workforce grew, in comparison to only 40 per cent of office-based businesses.
Other challenges noted include managing compliance issues with international labour laws (74 per cent), managing remote teams (78 per cent), increased costs associated with remote technology implementation (75 per cent), assessing cultural fit of remote candidates (77 per cent), and receiving AI-generated resumes with false information (77 per cent).
“We have only just begun writing the playbook on remote work and will need to work together to identify and tackle these challenges,” explains Job van der Voort, CEO and co-founder at Remote. “This data echoes what we hear from many of our customers – the benefits of flexible and remote work far exceed the challenges. We believe that distributed work is paving the way to a more successful, balanced and fair business world and are committed to helping other companies in adopting flexible work and attract great talent from everywhere.”
