Should commuting to your workplace count as work time?
It’s impossible to talk about the state of RTO without talking about commuting. Commute times (and generally unpleasant commuting conditions) have consistently been the biggest reason that many workers are unhappy about returning to the office.
“There’s not much office-thirsty CEOs can do to shorten those journeys,” writes Sarah Green Carmichael. “Even if companies decide to offer free transit passes to workers, they can’t make our buses, subways and trains run any faster or more reliably.”
But one idea that has kept popping up might be able to help: paying people for their commute time.
“If there is no logical reason to bring people back other than it’s a management preference to bring people back, then companies are going to have to figure out how to compensate for that,” said Ivey School of Business associate entrepreneurship professor Larry Plummer, speaking to the Financial Post.
The idea has started catching on, albeit in small, baby steps. South of the border, there’s been a 43 per cent increase in job postings that cite commuter benefits, according to one report.
In Canada, more companies are starting to get on board as well. Sandra Reder, president and founder of Vertical Bridge Corporate Consulting Inc. in Vancouver, told Benefits Canada that she knew of one law firm which allowed their employees to “begin their work day when they get on a Wi-Fi-equipped commuter train in the morning and end it when they disembark at their home station in the evening,” effectively building their commute time into their workday.
Other organizations are starting to experiment with giving workers money to spend how they see fit on transportation: the Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, for instance, offers to pay 25 per cent of an employee’s transit pass, or chip in some cash to help fund the purchase of a bike or electric vehicle.
All of this will be music to many commuters’ ears, and for sectors battling for talent, the commute conversation is trending component of compensation negotiations. “This is going to really matter because it means employee turnover,” said Dorinda So in an interview with HRReporter. “It means that employees are now accounting for commuting as part of their own out-of-pocket expenses and that is going to factor into the total compensation conversation when you’re trying to keep talent or attract new talent.”
Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.