Pinterest is moving to give its staff more lifestyle flexibility via an expansion of its ‘PinFlex’ employee incentive program.
As of July 1st, Pinterest will allow eligible full-time employees to spend up to three months working outside of their country of employment, over a rolling 12-month period.
As explained by Pinterest:
“We listened to feedback shared by employees and added this flexibility to empower everyone to do their most impactful and inspired work. Our Pinners are global, and we know that having worldly perspectives in our company to support them – both at the technological level and the human level – will enable us to deliver on our mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love.”
The new benefit will be available to all Pinterest employees who’ve been at the company for at least six months, while those who’ve been with the company for less than six months will be able to work outside of their country of employment for up to 30 days in total.
That will provide a heap of opportunity to travel and continue to work, which further leans into the new norms of the modern workforce, with the pandemic-induced work-from-home shift opening new doors for consideration on this front.
Which, really, all businesses and governments should be exploring. Many of the most significant environmental and infrastructure challenges of modern society are based on centralized labor, with the majority of workers congregating into metropolitan hubs in order to maximize career opportunities. But again, as the pandemic has shown, many jobs can be done from home, which, if that were to become the norm, could reduce traffic congestion, bring down property prices, lessen employee expenses, etc. That could also lead to new opportunities for regional towns, and reinvigorate more areas of the economy. There are impacts and benefits to assess in all elements, but it seems like a worthy push for governments to consider as they seek ways to democratize opportunity and growth.
Which is where Pinterest’s new initiative could be truly beneficial, not just to its employees, who can now work from the beach for three months of the year, but also to the transient towns that could benefit from ongoing business.
It’s an interesting concept, which again leans into broader workforce trends, and could lead the way for other businesses.
