CEO at Topia, the leader in Global Talent Mobility.
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The holiday season is a time to celebrate, spend time with those you love and recharge before diving into the coming year. For many, that means making a trip home to visit family and friends or enjoying a much-needed getaway.
Last year, more than 110 million Americans traveled for the holiday season, and it’s likely that number will grow higher in 2022. In fact, with many people able to work remotely, we should expect to see particular growth in the number of “workcations”—extended holidays that combine work with R&R.
Instead of limiting holiday travel to just the allotted PTO, your staff may want to spend an extra week working from the in-laws or turn their five-day trip to the Caribbean into 10 days by working part-time during their stay.
This flexibility obviously has clear benefits for employees. Not only do they get to spend the extra time wherever and with whomever they choose, but they can also adapt their travel plans to save money, which is extremely valuable considering the high cost of flights and fuel. Instead of being forced to fly on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday evening afterward to get back to the office, they can depart on Monday of Thanksgiving week and return the following Wednesday, skipping the peak chaos at the airport and saving big bucks on tickets.
Of course, workcations aren’t without risk to the organization. Depending on where they go and how long they stay, employees could expose the organization to tax and compliance issues. Without the proper processes, employees could spend time working from a different state or country and not tell HR, making compliance even riskier. That’s why it’s important for organizations to act now—as employees are thinking about and starting to book their holiday plans—to put the proper policies, processes and tools in place to give workers the flexibility they want for the upcoming holiday season while protecting the organization’s interests. Here are some tips:
1. Establish a policy. If you don’t already have a remote work policy in place, don’t worry—it’s not too late. While most organizations work off an annual basis for allotting days, offering your employees 15 days of remote work for the rest of this year is a good place to start. This way people can begin planning and submit their requests now, so you’re not inundated come November.
2. Plan for next year, now. While you’re at it, now would be the right time to consider your remote work policy for the upcoming year and build that into your HR package to begin on January 1. In addition to PTO, sick days, etc., consider adding 30 or 45 remote work days that allow staff to take a workcation any time of year, at any approved location.
3. Deploy a system for managing requests. Because policies may have restrictions on the number of days, locations or job roles in which remote work is permitted, it’s essential to have a system in place to streamline the workflow. Develop an approach or system dedicated to the entire process where employees can submit their requests. Consider automating the process of flagging/denying requests that don’t meet policy requirements and for routing requests for supervisor or managerial approval. Create a game plan that allows HR to manage while retaining their sanity but also helps safeguard against compliance risk.
4. Trust and empower your employees to take ownership of their time. Giving your employees the freedom to work in a way that both fits their personal needs and meets their individual and overall business KPI goals can be a competitive advantage for your company. Adopting this blurred-boundaries approach as part of your culture gives employees the flexibility to support their productivity and mental health while also ensuring business performance and continuity.
Plus, being proactive with a remote work policy can deter employees from keeping secrets. Last year, my company found that two-thirds of employees failed to report all days they worked outside their home state/country to HR. Such a lack of transparency could expose companies to tax and compliance risks. There are larger implications of remote employees working in different states such as taxes and other laws. By making remote work easy and accessible, employees are more likely to adhere to company policy, which can lower corporate risk.
As the holidays approach, putting the policies and procedures in place now to enable workcations could benefit both your employees and your company. Preparing for greater remote work opportunities before the holiday season can be a key part of enabling that flexibility for this year, and for many years to come.
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