Remote yet Connected: Supporting your people working from home
Invest in “employee effectiveness”. We subscribe to the “Good Jobs Strategy” approach, which states that we should not under-spend in areas which support employee effectiveness, as possible within budget. It is an act of trust with your employees and it is a smart investment.
We researched what other companies offer that is a similar benefit. We found:
A one-liner about Automattic’s coworking reimbursement
Some anecdotal reports of the policies from other tech companies
Offer a one-time home office improvement budget. It is important to have work environments which are copasetic to creativity and productivity. They should be supported to make improvements which help them with their work. Examples include peripherals, monitors, chairs, ergonomic support, desks, headphones and mics. This does not include things like monthly internet (you probably already have that), coffee to drink at home, life size, velvet paintings of Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf or other aesthetic touches.
Create an employee effectiveness budget. Truss has always had an expense policy in place which stated that employees could spend Truss funds on some individual purchase which improves their effectiveness. In the past this has been used to purchase things like software, laptop accessories, etc. These purchases are completely within the employee’s discretion so long as there is a reasonable relationship to making the employee more effective. For example, having coffee while working from a cafe or a monthly subscription to a software tool that only that particular employee uses.
Check out the rest of our “Remote yet Connected” series on distributed work