Recently, Salesforce announced its new "Work From Anywhere" flex work options, where employees will have a variety of choices in how and where they work. They stated it should "help improve equality and diversity at the company — since workers won't be required to report to an office in places like San Francisco and New York, Salesforce can broaden recruiting to new areas."

According to a recent article in Business Insider, "Following the pandemic, more than half of Americans want to continue working remotely, while two-thirds of companies may render their current work-from-home policies permanent." From Nationwide Insurance, to Google, AirBnb and more – many companies are moving towards employee-led choices in terms of working from an office space, home or enjoying a hybrid approach of both. This will lead to larger culture shifts in both the work experiences of their employees and around flexible work.

As these workplace norms shift, a question we should ask ourselves is, "How do we ensure this new way of working–in person, remote, flexible or hybrid–is inclusive and promotes well-being?" I am sharing three tips for how organizations can approach remote work to ensure it is inclusive, effective and promotes well-being among its workers:

Permanent vs. program

One thing to note is that "working-from-home during a pandemic" and flexible work are not the same thing. The first was forced on us and the second is being intentionally created as an ongoing work experience. The American Psychological Association noted psychologists' research finds, "When it's done right, telework can improve employee productivity, creativity and morale."

I absolutely believe remote work will be the way of the future post-pandemic and any organization who is not prepared to accept this new reality runs the risk of being left behind when it comes to finding and retaining top talent. Organizations who rethink their approach to making it the way people work versus a program only certain people in certain locations or with certain jobs can benefit from will be more successful.

According to a 2017 State of Remote Work report, Owl Labs noted that "Companies that allow remote work have 25% lower employee turnover than those that don't. [and] As more and more companies begin to offer remote work as an option, employee satisfaction and loyalty will increase." Additionally, in a 2020 FlexJobs survey an impressive 81% say they would be "more loyal to their employer if they had flexible work options with 27% of workers say that the ability to work from home is so important to them that they are willing to take a 10% to 20% pay cut to work remotely."

Overall, creating a permanent flexible work experience helps create a more inclusive culture as all employees benefit versus only a select few.

Focus on flexibility and access

The aspects of remote work that relate to inclusion typically revolve around more access and support for people with disabilities, neurodiversity, caregiving, working parents and other individually specific situations. Organizations should offer work patterns that enable all people to work flexibly to help support staff, retain talent, and create a happy, mentally healthy workforce.

According to Buffer, "40% of people feel that the greatest benefit of remote work is the flexible schedule … while also allowing for a better work-life balance and greater employee satisfaction." In a 2019 Annual Survey, FlexJobs supported this with research noting, "76% of workers would be more willing to stay with their current employer if they could work flexible hours."

We are at a unique intersection of work and life. When done well, remote and flexible work enables people to manage career, home and family. We are all humans, and we all have different needs, goals and challenges. As we ask our people to bring their whole selves to work – flexibility and access can help us all balance our shifting priorities.

Commit to investing in coaching and resources

This type of shift is not without its challenges – for both organizations and employees. In many cases, due to the speed of forced remote work, employees are failing to put boundaries in place and as a result are finding themselves working round the clock and feeling resentful about it.

Investing in your people is priceless. As leaders, we need to commit to investing in programs and efforts that can help ease the burden that employees have been carrying since the onset of the pandemic. Some efforts might include:

• Coaching - whether in a group or one on one, digital or in person;
• Offering abundant resources - a menu of options for your people to choose from as it relates to flexible work;
• Offering flexibility - Encouraging flexible work schedules for all employees – rather than enforcing traditional work hours, normalize the option to log in when it best suits the employee or support breaks for exercise throughout the day:
• Workshops - on a variety of topics such as "unplugging" or "caregiving while working" that support your people and with accessibility and well-being at the core.

Investing in these types of efforts takes significant commitment but will also reap tremendous rewards for both the company and employees. Research from 2015 shows that businesses lose $600 billion a year to workplace distractions, and that remote workers are 35% to 40% more productive than their in-office counterparts. In 2020, CNN reported on performance-based remote work statistics, noting "94% of surveyed employers report that company productivity has been the same (67%) or higher (27%) since employees started working from home during the pandemic."

The pandemic is offering us the chance to overhaul how we define the employee work experience. Yet this type of seismic, cultural shift to focus on the overall employee experience is going to require organizations to do the heavy lifting in 2021 and beyond–to rethink the way work is done and to increase flexible and work options as the needs of employees continue to evolve over time. The constant is that flexible work has to be fully inclusive and promote well-being for the long-term success of the company and individual.

Read more: 

• Continuing to cultivate a company culture during remote work
• The Panama Canal and the employee benefits experience
• Remote work in 2021: 4 considerations for employers