After two years of lockdown, here is our relationship with Zoom, Teams and similar online video platforms. But while researchers now know that Zoom fatigue is real – a fact confirmed by academics from Stanford University more than a year ago – our ability to easily work anywhere is changing the bar for employers considering consider flexible employment policies.
A recent study from Accenture about the future of employment found that 63 percent of high-growth companies have already adopted the “productivity anywhere” model of workers. With the right resources, the report states, people can be productive and healthy in any environment – remote, onsite or a hybrid model.
Laetitia Caron, Senior Digital Acquisition Strategist at ServiceNow, with her toy poodle Teddy, who she regularly accompanies when she works from home.
ServiceNow is a company ready to take flexibility to the next level. From 2022, the Work from Anywhere benefit means ServiceNow employees are allowed to work up to 30 calendar days a year from any location in Australia, New Zealand, or a country where they have citizenship.
Senior digital acquisition strategist at ServiceNow, Laetitia Caron, joined the company in August 2019. Her role is now more home-based than pre-COVID, and she has colleagues based across Australia and Asia.
Caron was so enthusiastic about his employer’s Work from Anywhere policy that he took the opportunity to work from his home country, Belgium, for two weeks.
“It’s amazing that I can go home and be with friends and family without having to take an annual vacation.”
The policy emerged due partly to a change of mind from managers in response to the trust gained by employees working through lockdowns.
“ServiceNow understands that it’s been two and a half years, and I think they know that once the borders open, we all want to be with families and loved ones again,” Caron said.
Since he already works on an international team, Caron has become accustomed to managing time differences. He did not expect the challenges of working from Belgium.