ESG & Work from Anywhere

The coronavirus pandemic changed the world of work. Working from home and more flexible working patterns will continue to play a significant role in the future. Companies are still acting reactively to the demands of their employees for more flexibility in working hours and locations. But in the longer term, for many companies, the question will be how they can best exploit the demand for flexible working practices to their advantage - including and especially as part of their ESG strategy.

“Work from Anywhere” can be a beneficial approach for all areas of company’s ESG strategy. By getting rid of commuting time, reducing business travel and also reducing office space, the CO2 footprint of the company can be substantially reduced. Even more important are the social aspects (the S of ESG): Becoming more flexible opens up many new options, in particular in relation to equal opportunities, inclusiveness and diversity. This benefits employees and employers alike.

• Equal opportunities thanks to the ability to combine family and work: the parent who is caring for the children can work from home, making them better able to combine childcare and work. Foreign employees can work for short periods in their home country, allowing them to take care of a family member who is ill, or they can be permanently based in their home country.
• Inclusion of people with special needs, for example, people with restricted mobility working from home.
• Companies can increase their diversity by using flexible working practices to attract people in a variety of personal situations and from diverse backgrounds. Jobs are opened up to a wider pool of applicants, as not only people in the surrounding area, but those across the country, or even across the globe, can apply and may be able to do the job from abroad, in certain circumstances.

In order to reduce the compliance risks of these more flexible working patterns, especially when they involve cross-border aspects, you need to be aware of multiple sets of regulations. The tax aspects of this may include risks relating to establishing a permanent establishment, income tax, wage tax and social security as well as topics related to transfer pricing. The labour law aspects of a Work from Anywhere strategy include issues as welfare and registration requirements or data protection. 

Our experts can assist you both in analysing individual cases and in creating a complete Work from Anywhere strategy. With years of experience in the relevant compliance areas as well as in the fields of design thinking, business modelling, change management, project management, transformation and technology, we have developed a comprehensive consultancy approach that we then tailor to your particular situation.

The following four steps will enable you to create your Work from Anywhere strategy with us:

What are the needs in your company? Is Work from Anywhere sensible for your entire business or only for individual business areas or types of employee? What is the specific benefit to your company?

Development of an approach and evaluation of its implementation, with an impact analysis; drawing up a compliance matrix to evaluate risks.

Preparation of a detailed plan for the future, and its implementation, as well as an approval process that includes the impact on key roles and groups of stakeholders.

Implementation of a balanced and sustainable approach, with a focus on compliance and employee experience.

Interview with KPMG expert Tobias Preising in: "think about: Digitalisation" / Genius Thinkers GmbH