Now it’s WFB!

... that’s Working From Beach as more than one in three firms say they now allow their staff to log in remotely from abroad

SOME bosses may politely suggest that working from home is already cushy enough.

But it appears many employers are letting staff experiment with even grander levels of corporate comfort – by allowing them to work from the beach.

Figures from accountancy firm RSM UK show 33 per cent of businesses are now allowing existing employees to work remotely outside the UK.

And, of those businesses that do offer any sort of flexible working, just 31 per cent have set any restrictions on the amount of time that they can do so.

The idea seems to be that giving workers the freedom to swap the sofa for the sun lounger will help convince them not to quit.

RSM’s figures show 88 per cent of firms are finding ‘employee turnover’ a challenge so they are under pressure to offer increasingly appealing and flexible terms. So with WFH – working from home – already commonplace, it might take WFB to hold on to employees.

Earlier this year it was reported that lender Zopa – which already allows employees to work 120 days abroad – was considering increasing that to 130, or half the working days in the year.

Rival fintech firms Revolut and Klarna allow staff to work from abroad for up to 60 and 20 days respectively.

A survey in March from Perkbox, an employee rewards platform, found that 62 per cent of UK workers would consider moving abroad to work remotely.

Initially, working from home spread when lockdowns forced firms to abandon the office. Later, many workers came to expect they would no longer have to trundle in every day.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday showed the average time spent working from home every day was 49 minutes in March.

That is down from the peak in March 2021 when it reached one hour and 9 minutes but little different from March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, when it was 47 minutes.

But many still want to see life starting to return to pre-pandemic norms.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt recently said that going into the office should be the ‘default’ option and that remote working risks damaging creativity.

Joanne Webber, global employer services partner at RSM UK, said: ‘It’s clear businesses recognise the importance of offering flexible working to attract and retain employees, and the pandemic has proved that this new way of working is possible, depending on the sector and the role.’

However she warned that while it seemed like a ‘great benefit’, working abroad could prove a ‘tax minefield’ - as employers could become liable for corporation tax in that country.

Ms Webber added: ‘There will be different tax rules depending on the country an individual chooses to work from, so employees venturing into “work from anywhere” arrangements need to set parameters for staff and have a clear company policy in place, so everyone understands the risks.’

The Harris Poll on behalf of RSM questioned 411 senior executives from mid- sized UK businesses between February and March this year.