How HR can level the playing field for remote and in-person workers

As the hybrid workforce has grown, so has the friction between in-person and remote employees.

Some 74% of in-person employees think working in the office may give them an advantage over their remote colleagues when it comes to promotions, and 72% agree or are on the fence that they should be paid more than their remote counterparts, according to a Checkr survey of 3,500 Americans who work in an office four or more days per week.

There’s an element of “proximity bias” here, said Sara Korolevich, head of digital content at Checkr. “[It’s] the visibility of managers seeing workers [physically] and seeing how they’re being productive” that leads in-office workers to feel like they’re more valuable than remote workers.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. One people leader offers insight into how HR teams can alleviate any location-based rivalries.

Crystal clear. HR leaders should set clear expectations for how many days employees should work in-office. Travel management company TravelPerk, for example, offers its nearly 1,200 global employees the option to work remotely two days per week, said Felicia Norman-Williams, the firm’s interim VP of people.

“Have that expectation clear out there, so that nobody feels like there’s preferential treatment either being in-person or being at home,” Williams told HR Brew. “The faction[s] feel a bit less intense, because everyone has the ability to work in the same way, so you don’t feel like you’re further ahead or left behind.”

If some employees feel as though they are more worthy of promotions, raises, or other rewards due to where they work, Williams recommended that HR teams reassess how the organization measures success, and communicate what success looks like to employees.

Level the playing field. One way to ensure a level playing field for in-person and remote workers is by having all 1:1 meetings between managers and their employees in person, Williams said. Ensuring everyone has the same amount of face time with the boss can help create a more equitable environment.

When it comes to bigger meetings, Williams recommended that everyone join “individually on their own laptop…There’s one camera, one person, and that evens the playing field.”

“In one-on-ones and in team meetings, provid[e] that opportunity for connection, even the first five to 10 minutes of your call, having some interpersonal connections, where you can get to know each other,” Korolevich said. “Support those conversations that you would normally have in-person, but you can still do with technology.”

As a manager herself, Korolevich said her team has time for “Ps and Ps,” where everyone shares a recent personal and professional accomplishment. “It helps everybody to get to know each other on both levels” and share what they’re working on at work and in life, which ranges from “a home improvement project to getting my hair cut.”

Change is not going to happen with one decision, so Williams said HR leaders need to constantly check with all employees to make sure they’re being supported in the best possible way.

“There’s definitely no silver bullet with [this],” she said.