Key Takeaways
1. The COVID pandemic changed attitudes globally with companies everywhere looking to adapt to a more inclusive remote working structure. Even though the ability to work in offices has returned, companies are still offering in some capacity remote jobs to attract the best applicants.
2. A remote job is any job or form of employment undertaken from a location not associated with the hiring organization. This could be scheduled full-time, temporarily, part-time, or asynchronously.
3. There are five different levels of remote jobs that may be found across the open talent marketplaces. Each level represents remote working conditions in varying capacities. These include a remote work-friendly job, a temporarily remote job, a hybrid job, a remote-first job, and a fully remote job.
4. Employees who work remote jobs enjoy benefits such as better work/life balance, lower employment-related stressors, higher levels of wellbeing, and more choice towards how they want to work. Some benefits for employers who have remote jobs as part of their business operations include higher productivity from employees, cost-saving opportunities, lower staff turnover, higher appreciation from employees, and the ability to diversify the workforce.
5. A global PEO can support businesses to hire and onboard remote employees from anywhere around the world.
With the worst of the COVID pandemic behind us, the push for employers to offer remote job opportunities is still increasing sharply. Having some form of remote working strategy in place is more likely to attract top candidates and remain competitive in each respective industry. This shift in attitudes towards remote working is even creeping its way into policy, with the Netherlands recently passing legislation to make remote working a legal right. So what is a remote job? What once could be answered simply, is now met with different nuances as to what exactly it is. This article will take you through all the basics there is to know about what a remote job is.
What is the definition of a remote job?
A remote job is when the job in question, is undertaken from a location that is not operated or associated with the company itself. The locations could be anywhere including an employee’s home, a co-working space, or anywhere that is not considered part of the organization. The location could even be in a different state, province, or country from where the company is registered. Remote jobs are not just limited to contractors or freelancers, with many major companies onboarding and offering some form of remote working capability. A remote job may not always be undertaken in a full-time capacity, as these days, there are nuances to remote jobs.
Remote jobs can be found in virtually any industry or role where the role is primarily performed on a computer. Remote positions are particularly common when hiring social media managers or software engineers, for example.
What are the different levels or nuances of remote jobs?
You may or may not know, but when someone mentions they are working remotely, it could mean in any one of five different remote capacities. The different remote job levels are remote-work friendly, temporarily remote, hybrid, remote-first, and fully remote. The following will briefly explain each remote job type.
1. Remote Work-Friendly
A remote work-friendly workplace is when remote working conditions are optional. This indicates that a company is flexible and open towards how their employees organize themselves and schedule how they would prefer to undertake their work duties. There are a few remote-friendly strategies that you might find a company takes on to appease their workforce and allow remote working conditions. These can include but are not limited to:
- Work from home a few times a week
- Offer the ability to work remotely for an extended period annually, and from any location globally of their choice.
- To work outside traditional business hours (09:00 – 17:00). This could be in-office or from home, or in combination.
This type of remote working is slowly becoming one of the most common ways for companies to implement a remote working policy.
2. Temporarily remote
A temporarily remote job is a job or task that can be worked remotely, but only for a temporary period. This type of remote work is common in seasonal contracts or freelancing type work. However, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled companies to temporarily allow staff to work remotely, but quickly remote work began to take on more permanent nuances.
3. Hybrid
A hybrid remote job is when every employee in a company takes on remote working and on-site working conditions in a scheduled manner. This is different from a remote-friendly model as it offers less flexibility for employees to decide when and how they can work remotely. All employees will be expected to work in-house at the company’s office also which limits employees from working remotely from far-off locations. It is common though for companies to sometimes reference hybrid working conditions that better fit with remote-friendly strategies.
4. Remote-first
A remote-first job is when the company or organization has no actual physical office for employees to work from, even if they wanted to. If an employer is offering a remote-first position, and do have a physical office, the expectation is the employees will work from the office in a very limited capacity, if at all. All employees at this type of remote-job type, even if they do decide to work from an available office are afforded the same treatment and information as if from working in the office. This type of remote job is usually seen in new start-up companies that embrace remote-first as a culture and consider it the future of work in general.
5. Fully remote/Remote only
A fully remote job otherwise referred to as a remote-only job is just how it sounds, a role that is only remote. This means that no physical presence from an employee will ever be expected during working hours, and all job duties are completed remotely.
Benefits of Remote Jobs for Employees
As the world progressed through the pandemic, the benefits derived from allowing employees to work their jobs remotely became increasingly apparent. On top of remote working specific allowances, some benefits of remote jobs include:
- Better work/life balance opportunities
- Fewer stressors associated with work-life planning activities such as commuting, or taking time off for emergencies and sickness
- Feelings of inclusivity and freedom to complete work duties
- Higher levels of well-being, happiness, and motivation
Benefits of Remote Jobs for Employers
As an employer, the benefits experienced by employees by offering remote working as an option also extend to how they work. On top of these benefits, employers also experience employer-specific benefits including:
- Increased productivity from employees
- Financial savings on in-office working expenses such as rent, utilities, internet, or office supplies.
- Seen to have a better reputation (seen as more environmentally sustainable)
- High appreciation from employees
- Less staff turnover
- A globally distributed team adding diversity to the company
The Facts are Clear - Remote Jobs make Employees Happy
Top sites for Remote Jobs
Whether you are an employer or a prospective remote job seeker, the open market economy is developing rapidly. There are not many platforms where you can post and apply for remote jobs worldwide. The following will introduce and discuss some of the most popular remote jobs software.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs is one of the biggest job sites for remote job seekers to find remote, hybrid and flexible work opportunities. Employers can also use the platform to source and onboard high-quality candidates for remote positions.
Linkedin is a social media platform designed for professionals to network and finds or offer employment opportunities. Here you’ll find all types of jobs that are offered as on-site opportunities, or any level of the remote working types mentioned here.
We Work Remotely
We Work Remotely is quickly becoming the go-to site to find qualified remote working candidates as employers, and to find remote job opportunities as prospective applicants.
Conclusion
With remote working becoming more accepted, now is a great time for companies to expand their radar when looking to hire top candidates. A global PEO or Employer of Record such as Horizons can help support employers offering remote jobs, to find top candidates from all over the world. referencing Horizons’ support employers offering remote jobs. Horizons are experts in making sure all matters of compliance are met in any country where an organization is hiring remote jobs. Contact us today if we can help hire your employees to remote jobs.
Frequently asked questions
This comes down to the industry and specific remote job undertaken. It is becoming more common for employers to offer a lower salary threshold to give employees the flexibility to work completely remote, or in a remote-first strategy. In remote-friendly conditions, sometimes employees can opt-in to take a slight pay cut to have more days working remotely.
Some of the best remote jobs include software development, graphic designer, website developer, writing or editing, technical support consultant, virtual assistant, or online coaching. This list is not exhaustive though, as many jobs are slowly being able to be worked online due to innovative technologies being developed to aid in changing the nature of how we work.
