Despite being five years on from the lockdowns that sparked the ‘what is a workplace?’ debate in the first place, we’re still no closer to an answer.

Return-to-office (RTO) mandates have dominated the headlines globally.

Politicians and some of the world’s largest brands are bringing people back to their desks, while others like Spotify, Airbnb, and Pinterest are forging in the opposite direction with proactive work from anywhere (WFA) policies that further decouple work from the traditional office space.

For this latter group, the data is on their side with a raft of studies showing that happy workers with flexible working options are the most productive and likeliest to stay.

Research from the UK found over four in ten would like to be able to work from abroad, a large segment of talent businesses insistent on office attendance will miss out on. That same survey found only 3% want to work exclusively from the office – a blow for RTO advocates.

For multinationals, it’s long been commonplace for people to travel between cities and work from local offices, aided by existing infrastructure and policies.

However, like with so many other working patterns that have changed in the last five years, the opportunity to work from another country has become increasingly appealing to a larger cohort of workers. And, inevitably, increasingly complicated.

Enabling WFA isn’t easy and may not work for every organization, but there are benefits for those that get it right beyond employee satisfaction and productivity gains.

It encourages workers to immerse themselves in different cultures which supports diversity of thought, and gives their employers access to wider, international talent pools, something many are already exploring through other channels.

The devil is in the details with WFA

Before employees pack their bags, it’s vital to understand the logistical challenges involved so HR teams can be confident they have the right policies, protections and processes in place.

Firstly, regulations vary widely between destinations, so determining whether WFA is viable will be dependent on a workers’ home country destination, host destination, and an employee’s personal circumstances.

For example, an employee’s role, nationality, time zones, tenure – all these (and other) factors can come into play.

Their length of stay and where the employee will travel to and from may mean a visa or sponsorship is required – sometimes at a cost.

Immigration laws also dictate how long a remote worker can remain in a country, so these must be considered as a priority as it can differ from how long a tourist can stay.

Secondly, rights granted to employees in different countries need to be accounted for. They may dictate specific employee rights even for short stays.

For instance, in the European Union, workers from member states can work freely from anywhere in the bloc, but UK visitors would need the right permit through their employer. Unless they are travelling to countries such as Spain or Portugal, which offer ‘digital nomad’ visas.

Let’s take a realistic scenario. A UK business has two WFA requests – one to the US and one to a country in the EU.

Unlike the employee looking to travel to work in the US, the EU visitor would benefit from more worker-centric protections such as caps on their workweek and minimum paid-holiday.

Even though both workers are from the same home country, the HR team has two sets of laws to contend with just to authorize two employees to WFA.

And finally, for roles requiring regular collaboration, time zone differences can be a deal-breaker. A team leader 12 hours behind their colleagues may struggle to be effective, and working ‘home country’ hours wouldn’t be reasonable.

If communication is to be maintained while abroad, reliable internet is another must-have. If an employee’s dream destination is a digital dead zone, productivity would inevitably take a hit.

Devising the right WFA framework and tools

When getting started, you’ll first need to decide whether the arrangement will be allowed on a blanket or case-by-case basis. When taking the former route, companies need to create clear guidance for specific home-destination country combinations that serve as the basis of the policy.

Once established, employees’ personal circumstances can easily be checked against these guidelines to approve or deny requests.

Or, there could be an easily accessible ‘decision tree’ that lets employees see exactly how their requests are reviewed, giving them a greater understanding of the process and ensuring decisions are transparent.

The downside to this approach is that building and updating such a large framework can be costly and an administrative burden to maintain.

That said, businesses can employ third-party tech solutions that automate reviews of requests to ensure adherence to their policy, corporate structure, and overall risk tolerance.

This cuts out the time HR teams would need to spend poring over local labor laws and ensures accuracy and consistency.

It can also allow for an organization’s WFA policy to be easily managed and constantly updated as requests to work in new destinations come through, without burdening an entire team with getting up to speed with each new consideration.

A case-by-case approach is more appropriate for organizations that want greater oversight, however, allowing HR teams to weigh the risk associated with each request individually. This might be appropriate when requests are low volume, but it’s difficult to scale.

This approach becomes labor intensive if appetite for WFA rises, and without that broader framework it’s harder to lean on technology.

There’s also an argument that requests risk being accepted or rejected depending on the decision-maker on any given day.

Putting inclusivity and fairness at your WFA policy’s core

Whether opting for company-wide guidelines or taking an ad hoc approach, it’s important the policy is not just comprehensive, but inclusive too.

It can’t be that only the most senior staff or those in specific roles are able to have requests approved, or the policy risks alienating junior workers or those in more operational roles.

Offering resources, such as online tools that help employees understand legal and logistical requirements, can make the opportunity feel more accessible. This must be paired with transparent eligibility criteria to avoid misunderstandings.

By communicating the accuracy and consistency gains that come from automating reviews, employees can feel assured that people’s biases won’t get in the way of their requests, and they’ll be able to get clear feedback on why their request was approved or denied.

There are significant benefits to having a WFA program for organizations that implement them fairly and comprehensively.

When team members can live, work and learn in different environments and cultures, it can encourage diverse thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills that all businesses value.

Plus, a inclusive WFA policy could be that competitive differentiator in your employer value proposition – helping to cultivate a more engaged, productive and loyal workforce and attracting more talent keen to explore the world while working.