How Agencies Should Look At Benefits And PTO With A Remote Workforce

Paid time off is a standard offering that agency professionals expect to be included in their benefits packages. As agencies looked for other ways to encourage retention over the past decade or so, more of them started to offer remote work options to further “sweeten the pot.”

Now that remote work has become the norm for most businesses that are able to offer it—and thus, yet another standard benefit job seekers have come to expect—agency leaders are feeling the need to revisit policies around paid time off and other benefits to determine if changes are needed.

If you are wondering what the best way to approach this endeavor is, read on to find out. Below, members of Forbes Agency Council share their best insights to help agency leaders determine what, if any, changes should be made to employee benefits and PTO with a remote workforce.

1. Take A Human Approach To Management

Given how brutal our industry is, agencies need to lead the pack in terms of benefits and PTO. We can’t always control live ad spend or client requests, but we can empower our staff to find happiness. We need to go beyond PTO to ensure parents are able to balance their schedules and teammates are able to go to the doctor without concern—frankly, we need to be more human in our approach to management. – James Dressing, KLIK

2. Foster Virtual Connections And A Positive Work Culture

The pandemic has shifted mindsets from workaholism to prioritizing work-life balance. Boosting your benefits and offering flexible PTO options is essential to being competitive and retaining employees, but beyond this, employees also need a positive work culture and want to be fulfilled by what they do. Fostering virtual connections with the team is imperative in the remote world. Sponsor these opportunities. – Jill Collins, Audacity Health

3. Cultivate And Strengthen A Virtual Community

Despite a majority preferring remote work, or a hybrid model at minimum, I still believe it is important to feel part of a community. A benefit that agencies can position themselves around in the future will be their ability to cultivate and strengthen this community through the screen. Weekly meetings and updates that involve and engage employees become important to any remote business. – André Jensen, LEAD Agency A/S

4. Allow Team Members To Make Choices

There are two types of agencies: those which evolved beyond the office space and those which did not. Most of the senior team members at our agency looked at remote capabilities as a benefit, in and of itself. And remarkably, as we’ve seen in the last two years, the ability to choose is one of the highest self-interests of the workforce (as it should be). – Aleksandar Sasha Jovicic, Executive Digital

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5. Be Ready To Negotiate To Win The Best Global Talent

We’ve found talented individuals in today’s remote workforce to be attracted to paid time off and retirement benefits. Now that corporations have largely adjusted to remote positions, hiring managers are able to target talent hundreds or thousands of miles away from their physical offices. This provides a great negotiating advantage for talented individuals who are in less competitive regions. – David Wurst, WebCitz, LLC

6. Figure Out How To Use An Incremental Workforce

Polywork and the 1099 economy are here to stay. Employers need to find a way to get things done using an incremental workforce, as the “instant gratification” generations get bored quickly and don’t like to be bound to one project, one workplace and one boss. They hold themselves accountable for benefits. They are smart and will figure out how to pay for their instant-gratification lifestyle! – Susan Akbarpour, Candou Ventures

7. Offer Mentorship, Flexibility And Autonomy

Now that they can’t rely on in-person tactics supplementing core benefits, leaders of workforces forced to switch to remote must take a hard look at what they offer. Invest in internal programming that focuses on mentorship and education as much as it does socialization; be flexible on PTO terms and in your overall language and policies so that employees feel a sense of autonomy. – Steph Lund, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment

8. Trust Teams To Work When And Where They Want To

As more workforces shift to a gig or freelancer economy, agencies need to be mindful that culture and benefits are critical to attracting and keeping great marketers. We should allow our teams to work where they want, and in some cases when they want, so long as the work is getting done right and on time. Trust in our teams is critical in the new economy. – Justin Buckley, ATTN Agency

9. Embrace Task-Based Employment Versus Attendance-Based

Agencies should understand that remote work is no longer regarded as a perk. Adding benefits such as a flexible workday and reorganizing to embrace task-based employment versus attendance-based employment are extremely logical and desirable steps to take. PTO should be easy to get, and additional PTO could be a reward for meeting objectives. A modern agency should shun inflexibility that shows a lack of trust. – Jayant Chaudhary, JLB USA

10. Offer The Same Benefits You Would For Any Full-Time Job 

My agency has been mostly remote for its entire 12-plus-year life span, and we have offered both benefits and paid time off just as we would for an in-person job. Given the expectation that employees will be focused on their role full-time, I don’t see any difference in how benefits and PTO should be treated. – Matthew Earle, Reputation.ca Ltd

11. Establish ‘On-Duty’ And ‘Unplugged’ Hours For Everyone

Above all, talent shouldn’t be penalized for working remotely. Establish “on-duty” hours for your team members that work for you, for them and for your clients. Also, establish “unplugged hours” when you commit to giving them time off. The remote workforce faces new types of stress, and you want to retain talent by working within everyone’s parameters, balancing compassion and productivity. – Nancy A Shenker, theONswitch & nunu ventures

12. Closely Guard Your Team’s Ability To Recharge

It can be tempting—and perhaps even justified—for an agency that accommodates remote work to change the way it views PTO. But it is extremely important to remember that time off, whether it’s for illness or vacation, is designed to help your employees recharge and return to work with greater clarity, creative energy and capacity. It is critical to guard that provision for your team. – Sara Steever, Paulsen

13. Use A Professional Employer Organization

Offering benefits is essential for employee retention but challenging for smaller agencies. We’ve found success by using a professional employer organization. PEOs pool many small organizations together so they can have the benefits of a large group. We recently switched to unlimited PTO for our full-time employees. Great ideas and innovations often occur when staff members take the time to recharge. – Heather Osgood, True Native Media

14. Increase Employees’ Access To Benefits Programs

I do not want to work with any agency that is considering rolling back benefits programs rather than increasing an employee’s access to them. These are unsettling times, and sadly, they’re only getting more unnerving by the day. People look to their agency leaders for comfort and guidance—management needs to act the part. – Andrew Roth, Meet the People

15. Consider A Monthly Mental Health Day And A Four-Day Workweek

Offering, at minimum, one mental health day a month in addition to the regular PTO is important and should be considered. A four-day workweek has always been part of the long-term vision for us, and we’ve always had a hybrid environment. Now, it’s just more globally accepted! Two days a week in the office and two days a week remote for most staff is our model. – Vix Reitano, Agency 6B

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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member