In KR’s recent interview with Dr Mark Bussin, remuneration expert and speaker for the upcoming HR: The New Agenda conference,  we asked him to comment on his views of a leave policy in a post-covid and pro-hybrid working world. His answer may be surprising to the HR community, and certainly to employees everywhere. 

“If you leave your employer and go to Cape Town, or St. Francis, or the Maldives (a lot of people are going to the Maldives) is a leave form appropriate? My feeling is that it is not.” Dr Bussin then continued to say that the working relationship is set to alter completely in the remote workplace.

 “Basically, you are going to become almost like contract workers or contingent workers, and when you’re a contract worker, many of them do not get fringe benefits.”

Dr Bussin is not alone in this belief. According to CXC Contingent Workforce’s Global Trends report for 2020-2021, 77% of executives believe freelance and gig workers will “substantially replace full-time employees within the next five years.”(1)  With regards to leave and non- financial benefits in this capacity — Steve Knox, vice-president of global talent acquisition for the HR firm, Ceridian, has said that “We are seeing instances of, ‘I just want to go and work for 10 months, and then I want to take six months off to travel…’ People are really kind of questioning this commitment to a long-term employer.”(2) 

In the face of this emerging trend, hiring employees on a contract basis without leave may be a viable option for solving the remuneration for the remote work problem – an issue fresh on the minds of many organisational leaders. Many international companies, including America’s tech giant Facebook, are simply opting for pay cuts based on the location of their employees. The World at Work released a survey of more than 1,000 US based organisations and found that “of the 62% of organisations with existing geographic pay policies, 44% are considering modifying or have recently modified their policies due to the increase of full-time remote work.”(3)

Which would be your organisational preference? Would you implement a pay cut or abolish the leave policy?

To hear our full interview with Dr Mark Bussin, you can click here

If you’d like to hear more about Dr Bussin’s views on the leave policy and other remuneration issues in the post-pandemic world of pay, join us for the HR: The New Agenda Conference:

References

  1. Christie, B., 2021. Remote Work Raises Geographic Pay Policy Questions. [Online] Available at: https://www.worldatwork.org/workspan/articles/remote-work-raises-geographic-pay-policy-questions [Accessed 26 Oct 2021].
  2. CXC, 2021. 2020-2021 CXC Contingent Workforce Global Trends Report,
  3. Ceridian, 2020. THE 2020 FUTURE OF WORK REPORT