For These 4 Companies, Remote Benefits Are Here to Stay

The numbers are out: People like the ability to work remotely, and if they can’t continue to do so, they’ll find a job where they can. 

That’s according to a recent survey that polled 1,000 U.S. employees about transitioning back to the office. More than 80 percent of the participants said they enjoy working remotely, and 29 percent said that they’d quit their job if they were no longer allowed to work from home (WFH). Another 62 percent said when looking for their next career move, they will favor employers who offer WFH options. 

So how can companies keep their employees and attract new ones in a (hopefully) soon-to-be COVID-free environment?

Offering flexible work policies that include remote options is one way, but that’s far from the only benefit that employees grew accustomed to in 2020. 
 

29% of respondents said that they’d quit their job if they were no longer allowed to work from home.”

Domino Data Lab, for instance, introduced a $500 wellness stipend last year to encourage employees to focus on health and quality time away from the computer. Looking ahead, that stipend, alongside another to make office spaces at home more comfortable, is here to stay. 

“The response to these benefits has been amazing and they are in line with our holistic approach to employees’ well-being,” said Camila Leahy, an HR senior manager at the machine learning ops platform. “We want to give flexibility to employees to choose the well-being activity or experience that fits best with their individual lifestyles.”

Here’s how four Bay Area companies have evolved their benefits over the past year and why many pandemic-era perks will remain available. 

 

How have Domino Data Lab’s benefits changed over the last year of working remotely?

When we moved to working from home, we quickly put systems in place to solicit feedback through a workplace sentiment survey, our one-on-ones, team meetings and company forums.  The survey helped us identify our employees’ main concerns and define our priorities through three main pillars: wellness, employees and their families, and making work from home more comfortable. For wellness, we introduced the Calm app, a $500 annual wellness stipend, no-meeting Thursdays, food vouchers for employees impacted by COVID-19 and a monthly wellness program. 

For our working parents, who make up 30 percent of our team, we provided a one-time monetary contribution. For everyone, we rolled out Domino Days, a monthly, additional companywide paid holiday. Lastly, to make remote work more comfortable, we introduced a one-time $500 home office stipend. 

What’s a benefit you had pre-COVID that you’ve doubled down on since going remote?

We offer unlimited time off in the U.S. and generous policies across our international locations. We have a couple of guidelines for the unlimited vacation, and one is that people must take at least two weeks of vacation per year. 

Zoom meeting fatigue became a very real side effect of working remotely, in addition to the lack of separation between work and life. So we implemented some programs to equip employees with quality time to focus on work and quality time to recharge while not working. 

One of our most successful was the rollout of Domino Days, a monthly holiday that encourages everyone to disconnect from Zoom calls and spend time with their families. No-meeting Thursdays were our response to employees’ need to focus without interruptions, and some teams, such as our engineers, added a “no-meeting week” every month. 

What’s a new benefit you’ve added since the transition to remote work that you plan to keep after your team returns to the office? 

We will continue offering the wellness benefit and the WFH stipend to new hires once we are back at the offices. The response to these benefits has been amazing and they are in line with our holistic approach to employees’ well-being. We want to give flexibility to employees to choose the well-being activity or experience that fits best with their individual lifestyles. That could be a gym membership, a yoga app or home gym equipment. As we scale and discuss the possibilities around flexible work arrangements, we will continue providing a home-office stipend to ensure employees have a comfortable remote work environment.

 

How have Coinbase’s benefits changed over the last year of working remotely? 

Immediately following our shift to all employees working from home last March, we implemented a variety of new resources, policies and programs. Our temporary employee support team, which consists of members of HR; belonging, inclusion and diversity; accommodations; workplace; and benefits, formed to triage individual employee requests, concerns and special needs.

We also hired an ergonomist, hosted large-scale training sessions, developed materials and offered one-on-one assessments for employees with recommendations to assemble ergonomic WFH setups. 

We implemented a monthly WFH stipend for any expenses employees might incur, such as for new furniture, healthy snacks and office supplies. To help employees unplug and rest, Coinbase instituted regular Refresh Days by coordinating PTO across the majority of the company. 

Not only is remote-first work aligned with the decentralized principles of crypto, but it also opens up access to the greatest talent all over the world.”

What’s a benefit you had pre-COVID that you've doubled down on since going remote? 

One of the greatest challenges about working remotely has been building and maintaining connections between employees, especially the hundreds who have joined since last March. While we held social events and worked to build these connections before going remote, this work has become even more important. Our office managers are now “workplace experience managers” who are responsible for driving this effort, including hosting virtual regional social events every month and global holidays. They also lead our virtual coffee program, which includes a stipend for every employee to remotely connect, meet and socialize with their colleagues, especially those they don’t normally work with. 

What’s a new benefit you’ve added since the transition to remote work that you plan to keep after your team returns to the office?

The biggest benefit by far is that Coinbase is now a remote-first company. That means 95 percent of our roles here have full flexibility to work in our offices, at home or a mix of both. We made this decision after a few months of working remotely. We recognized that not only is remote-first work aligned with the decentralized principles of crypto, but it also opens up access to the greatest talent all over the world. Plus, remote work didn’t slow us down at all.

For this new normal, we set up a team to reimagine and redesign the employee experience, keeping in mind the design principles of flexibility, equity and trust in employees. 

 

How have PagerDuty’s benefits changed over the last year of working remotely? 

Many PagerDuty employees, or Dutonians, adapted quickly to working remotely for the first time. With that shift came new challenges: balancing work with family in a shared space, assisting children with remote learning, and coping with stress, isolation, and burnout. We listened to our employees’ concerns and evolved our benefits to increase our focus on mental wellness. In addition to our existing Employee Assistance Programs, we implemented a new mental health application for on-demand emotional support, live behavioral coaching and counseling that’s easy to use and available 24/7 from the privacy of an employee’s smartphone.

We also provided a reimbursement allowance to assist with creating functional and ergonomic work-from-home spaces, rolled out unpaid time off to address flexible work needs and temporarily introduced Dutonian Wellness Days, company-wide paid days throughout the pandemic where all employees unplugged and focused on their well-being through rest and recharging activities. We also implemented additional PTO for COVID-19-related illness and caregiving needs, even when not required by legislation, because we knew it was the right thing to do.

What’s a benefit you had pre-COVID that you've doubled down on since going remote? 

Pre-COVID, we offered employees a paid membership to a digital network for family needs such as child care, senior care, special needs care, pet care, housekeeping and tutoring services. Due to the unpredictability of the last year, we enhanced that benefit by adding access to expert assistance and personal network features. These changes help employees find care more easily, use their preferred providers and help cover unexpected costs.

With the shift to a 100 percent remote and dispersed workforce during the pandemic, we also changed our strategy in terms of how we approach benefits enrollment education and engagement. We doubled down on education and technology by holding virtual information sessions and a virtual benefits fair for our vendors to showcase their offerings. We also implemented a new online benefits counselor tool to deliver customized recommendations to employees.

The past year changed how we think about the office. We understand now more than ever that digital business is here to stay.”

What’s a new benefit you've added since the transition to remote work that you plan to keep after your team returns to the office?

The past year changed how we think about the office. We understand now more than ever that digital business is here to stay. While the pandemic has presented many challenges, it is an opportunity to reinvent how and where we work. Moving forward, we plan to be “distributed by design,” meaning we will offer the ability to work across a variety of geographies and workplaces so our employees can do their best work for our customers. It’s always been about productivity over just being present. We’re leaning in to trust our Dutonians to decide if they will work in the office, hybrid or remotely from wherever they feel most comfortable.

While we have adopted a flexible working strategy, there are some roles that need to be in an office, or benefit greatly when individual work is conducted from an office. We make sure in those cases that expectations are clear to both employees and candidates.

 

How have Sentry’s benefits changed over the last year of working remotely? 

While adapting to working remotely, we have provided generous home office setup and internet stipends, as well as flexible working arrangements. We have always had monthly wellness stipends and increased our reminders for employees to take advantage of these benefits, especially during this last year. This year, we also updated our parental leave benefits and perks by adding more paid time off, flexible transition plans for returning to work, a new parent buddy program, manager guides for providing updates to returning employees, meal delivery stipends and more.

We’re ready and willing to help people make juggling all of their life commitments possible. ”

What’s a benefit you had pre-COVID that you’ve doubled down on since going remote? 

We have always offered paid holidays and a flexible PTO policy, but since COVID, we have added five paid holidays to help our employees find more time to recharge collectively. We know that our employees have had to add a variety of responsibilities to their time, so we’ve been extra communicative with managers and employees about flexible work arrangements. We’re ready and willing to help people make juggling all of their life commitments possible. 

What’s a benefit you got rid of after going remote that you plan to bring back once your team returns to the office, and why?

One benefit we removed during our transition to remote work this last year was our commuter benefit. After all, our commutes were reduced to walking to our couches, home offices or kitchen tables. When we return to our offices, we will offer this benefit again. Additionally, we’ve updated our one WFH day a week policy to a hybrid model that allows employees to work three days in the office and two days at home.