Employers struggling with the world’s most entrenched skills shortages have already developed the most attractive remote working HR policies, according to a new quarterly global analysis*.
The rankings show that companies in IT hot-spots such as San Francisco, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, now offer the most complete remote and flexible working packages to attract the in-demand skills they need to thrive. Among large and scale-up employers (with more than 500 employees), Deel, the San Francisco-based payroll and compliance provider, comes top of the new rankings. HubSpot, a developer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service located in Cambridge, Mass. comes in second place.
For startups and smaller companies – those with fewer than 500 employees – SafetyWing, located in San Francisco and Oslo, Norway, comes top. In second place, Awesome Motive – a software and media company with over 21 million websites using its software – has abandoned an HQ model in favour of a fully decentralised employment paradigm.
Talent shortages remain high on the list of challenges for businesses in 2023, despite recent reports of layoffs.The problem is long-term. Analysis of census and workforce data in the US shows the labour pool has actually been shrinking in the 16-24 and 45-54 age groups since 2010, despite overall population growth. In Germany, a recent report from the Economy Ministry noted skills shortages are “acutely affecting” many companies’ growth. Companies in Taiwan are going to find it difficult to hire quality candidates in 2023, according to the Salary Survey 2023 from the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT). And in the UK, despite a slowing in the number of vacancies, latest figures show well over a million unfilled jobs, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Based on Jobgether’s TOP100 rankings, the companies leading the way in terms of offering flexible working arrangements are all in tech related industries: computer and software, information technology and services, internet, and fintech. These are followed by other knowledge-based sectors, management consulting, edtech, e-learning, financial services, and e-commerce. Similarly, in a separate analysis of job offers on its site, Jobgether found that the greatest number of remote jobs are available in computer software/SaaS, fintech, and gaming.
Arnaud Devigne, co-founder and co-CEO at Jobgether says: “With talent still in short supply, standing out from other companies in the world’s talent deserts is a must. Remote work is one of the most powerful employment incentives to achieve that and the fastest-growing companies are already well ahead. The Jobgether TOP100 Flex companies rankings reveal companies with the strongest growth profiles are more willing to adapt their HR policies to attract remote talent from around the globe.”
The rankings also confirm that companies from mature markets are more likely to embrace flexible working arrangements. The vast majority of large & scale-up companies in the TOP100 Flex companies ranking have their headquarters in the US (68%). Then comes the UK (8%), Canada (4%), France (3%), Germany (3%), Ireland (3%), the Netherlands (3%). The locations of startups & SMBs are more diverse. However, the majority are headquartered in the US, Germany, the UK, and France, with only 8% of companies located in emerging markets.
Jobgether assesses employers’ remote HR policies based on its “Flex Score”, an independent, objective calculation based on their remote and flexibility policies. Flex Score considers 30 different criteria, split into three pillars covering remote frequency and flexibility over the designated geographical area; flexibility on factors such as the number of working days, hours, a 4-day week and holiday periods; and the type of contract offered.
Other companies in the large and scale-up top-10 are Oyster, Automattic, GitLab, PandaDoc, Remote, Spryker, GiveDirectly and Airbnb. In the startups and smaller companies category, the top-10 is completed by Zapier, DuckDuckGo, Hugging Face, Shogun, Novakid, Polygon Technology, Time Doctor and Carrot Fertility.
Additional findings from Jobgether’s analysis of searches by 2 million job-seekers over six months to the end of February 2023 reveal that:
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The biggest volume of searches for remote jobs came from talent based in India, Spain, the UK, France, and Brazil.
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36.1% of talent searching on Jobgether for remote jobs is specifying “worldwide”, proving that location flexibility remains the key tool to address skills shortages.
