“It’s that notion of meeting people where they are,” says Fred Thiele, Microsoft’s vice president of global benefits and mobility. “Normally, we say that as a kind of metaphor but here it could mean meeting them literally where they are, a thousand, two thousand miles away.”
Ensuring its workers can tap into and have access to the company’s workplace benefits is a priority for employees located far from IBM's main campus in Redmond, Washington. “If we’re hiring talent that’s not in Redmond, that’s in Atlanta, that’s in Philadelphia, Chicago, do they feel a sense of affinity with their colleagues who might still be based in Redmond?” Thiele asked. “That’s all part of that, and our benefits obviously have to reflect that as well. We can’t have a benefits portfolio as if it were 2019.”