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Businesses have benefitted from remote working in a variety of ways – being unleashed from geographical shackles and recruiting from a wider talent pool, and for the most part, lack of commuting time and better work-life balance leading to a more content workforce.
And now, one of the world’s most well-known firm has realised an even more important by-product of embracing the hybrid model – an uptick in inclusivity.
As reported by the Washington Post, Meta’s Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams said offering remote work to candidates had helped the firm recruit and retain workers from underrepresented groups.
The company, recently branded from Facebook, found in its annual diversity report found that its US-based remote job offers were more likely to be filled by people of color, people with disabilities and veterans, according to Facebook’s annual diversity report. And around the world, more women were likely to fill remote roles.
The precise reasons behind remote work’s impact on inclusion isn’t entirely known, but Facebook’s report speculated that diverse workers were more likely to seek roles that allowed them to work from wherever they felt most comfortable.
Williams told The Post: “Silicon Valley was never a place where Black people were predominant.
“So you are seeing people choose places like Atlanta, New York.”
WFH's impact on diversity & inclusion
Data released earlier this year indicated that organisations that have committed to supporting remote work seem to be carving out more inclusive work experiences for staff members.
The latest analysis from Glint – which looked at aggregated data from millions of staff engagement surveys from over 600 global firms – found that staff members at remote work-friendly organisations were 14% more likely to say that they felt safe to speak their minds.
Elsewhere, nine per cent were more likely to state that their leaders value different perspectives, compared to peers in organisations that haven’t enabled remote work.
Glint’s study also highlighted that virtual work can create a range of opportunities that can help to strengthen feelings of inclusion among employees.
For example, the data stated that virtual ways of working can provide increased flexibility for those with caregiving responsibilities and bypass location bias among other things.
Steven Buck, Head of People Science, EMEA, Glint, said: “In many ways remote work has equalised opportunities for employees to be heard and seen. In a virtual-work environment, every meeting looks the same, and each person takes up the same screen real estate, from the CEO to the intern.
"As organisations re-examine how to foster diversity, inclusion and belonging in the new world of work, early signs indicate they’d do well to build on virtual work and expand habits, programmes and tools that help people bring their authentic selves to work.
"The way we work changed drastically in 2020. Employees want more from their employers now than just a pay packet. They want to be challenged, they want to work in a space where they can bring their whole selves, and they want leaders to mean what they say and say what they mean.”
