Today, competition for remote talent is fierce, as more and more remote companies are surfacing. Want proof? Go ask the companies that’ve listed their job positions on WeWorkRemotely on how they’re doing finding the right candidate for their openings. Chances are that 50% of companies would tell you that their positions have been open for over 3 months.
In fact, I’ve faced this problem myself. I’ve personally struggled finding the right candidate for a lot of our remote marketing roles, even though we advertise almost exclusively on remote job boards. We’ve often had to re-post our job listings with different descriptions to attract the right candidates. More often than not, the job perks make a huge difference in the number of applicants we get on our listing.
I was curious to know what job perks were most successful for companies in attracting the right candidates for their position. So I did some research. Over the last 1 year, I’ve been analysing remote job listings on various hiring portals to figure out the top perks other remote companies are using to attack the highest quality remote marketers.
The goal of this research was to figure out the most attractive remote job perks that I could use for my own job listings, but I thought I’d share the results of the research anyway on the blog. After all, we’re in this together! 🙂
After analysing 200+ remote marketing job descriptions, five perks seemed clear winners to me. And you know what’s even sweeter news? 4/5 of these perks don’t cost a lot!
You can choose to either read the article below or view the infographic or watch a ‘sick’ me explaining it on video.
1. Long term job stability
Remote workers biggest fear is that employers might think they’re not working and may fire them any time. Get rid of that insecurity by assuring them long-term job stability in the company.
2. Profit sharing > Equity stakes
If your company is profitable, profit-sharing is always more appealing to remote workers than equity stake. Plus offering equity to international team members can be complex & time consuming.
Here is a guide to profit-sharing (from a 100% remote company).
3. Learning & development stipend
Everyone values personal development and growth opportunities in their workplace today. In fact, Buffer (a 100% remote company) encourages all types of learning: core training, stretch learning, and holistic development.
Take the first step and offer them an L&D stipend.
| Some ideas: 1. 1 free Kindle 2. Monthly Kindle budget 3. Udemy (or any other e-learning platform) subscription 4. Yearly conference attending budget 5. Scheduled 1-1s every 4-6 weeks on their personal growth |
4. 40 Hour Work Week
It shouldn’t be crazy at work. Assure candidates that it’s in your company’s best interest to ensure great work/life balance for the team. Let them know that you only expect 40 hours of productive work every week.
Recommended reading: It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work (written by a 100% remote company)
5. All expenses paid team retreats
Remote team retreats offer a chance to get to know your team mates on a more human level. Not only are they essential to making a remote team work better, it is a really attractive job perk to list. Agree that they’re expensive, but come one – you’re saving a ton on office costs, spend some money here.
Depending on your business’s financial health, you can offer to do these annually, bi-annually or quarterly. If you can’t afford to pay for entire team’s expenses, offer to cover the costs at the location (& team can pay for their flights like how this company did).
Other interesting remote job perks worth mentioning
Some perks that you could try to differentiate yourself as a remote company that cares for it’s team:
- 2 mental health days allowance (just like sick days, remote workers often need to deal with their mental health too)
- Wellness stipend – cover the cost of running in a marathon or have a gym stipend
- Compulsory vacation days vs unlimited vacation (use your vacation days in a year or lose them)
- 1 month paid sabbatical every 3 years
- Co-working space stipend
- Business transparency across the board – everyone knows everything.
I created an infographic to sum up these top 5 remote job perks. Use it while crafting your remote job descriptions. All the best for your search for great remote candidates!
Ping me on live chat at the right bottom if you’d like to reuse this infographic on your own site.
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<p><strong>Please include attribution to RemoteMarketing.org with this graphic.</strong><br /><br /><a href='https://remotemarketing.org/remote-job-perks'><img src='http://remotemarketing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Top-remote-job-perks-1.png' alt='Most Attractive Remote Job Perks' 540px border='0' /></a></p>