b'COMPENSATIONpost-pandemic, and the remote workis viewed as a necessity to attract anddecisions have been negative, in some issue is going to be front and centre. retain valuable employees. cases with staff looking for positions else-where as a result.According to Jeff Hawk, AIRINCs viceIn a recent Forbes release online, it president, Americas region, compensationappears Google is waffling on its remoteHawk says the jury is still out on and remote work policies may ultimatelywork policyto the annoyance of somebringing employees back to work in be dictated by the employees them- of its employees. Experts feel Googlecorporate officesan approach being selves, especially if retention becomeswants to reduce or eliminate remotetaken more readily by traditional sectors a concern. One of the most importantworking and return to employees workingsuch as investment banking. Other issues for companies to consider is howand interacting at campuses, which are asectors are being somewhat more circum-their remote work policies and compen- key part of the companys culture. Applespect in their decision-making. sation are going to impact retention ofrecently announced that it was adoptingOnly time will tell which approach will current employees and recruiting newa hybrid approach combining remote andwork. The risk of an inflexible policy is employees, explains Hawk. Puttingin-office work. In each case, media havethe potential for losing talentedaside discussions on the real costs orreported that employee responses to thesehuman capital. savings associated with remote work, the success of retention and recruitment could become the true cost of the direc-tion companies decide to go onremote work.This may well be the new reality that companies across the countryindeed across the globeneed to face. As stated in an article in The Conversation, an online journal: Remote work is about more than just working from homeit means working differently. Because working from home may become much more prevalent even after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, its time to adapt employee evaluation and compensation schemes to address the new reality.MIXED RESPONSECompany decisions to date on retaining remote work as an option for employees post-pandemic are mixed. Many large corporations, including Facebook, Spotify and Salesforce.com, have adopted policies that give employees the option of remote work. Others, like Google and Apple, are struggling with these policies, which has sometimes put them at odds withtheir employees.Stephen Harrington, national lead, work-force strategy at Deloitte LLP, is studying this issue. Most companies, he says, are looking into blended models. The majority of our clients developing policies for remote work are pursuing hybrids of remote and in-office work, he notes. Despite the initial positive reaction of employees to working from home, there is a growing concern about the lack of social interaction to support innovation and creativity.According to Hawk, however, that concern will inevitably need to be tempered with the reality of attracting and retaining talent. We believe that remote working is here to stay, he says. Companies are either embracing it or tolerating it. Either way, remote working Fall 2021PERSPECTIVES21'