New research from SAP Concur reveals the extent to which UK employees are Working from Anywhere without telling their employer, with the majority (54%) agreeing it would be easy for them to incorrectly report the number of days that they work abroad.

Like other behaviours - expense fraud for example - this seems to be well known to violate rules but still perceived as socially broadly acceptable. This could well be due to a knowledge gap regarding the implications of WFA secretly as 10% of employees are concerned about penalties for themselves or their employer because they unconsciously neglected tax regulations whilst ‘Working from Anywhere’ for example. 

Employees that Work from Anywhere without telling their employer are tactically covering their tracks, with nearly two in five (36%) admitting they avoid social media activity to hide their location to colleagues. Almost half (44%) admit to applying a virtual background to cover up their real location, and a third (32%) work unsociable hours to account for time zone differences.

Key findings from the survey of 835 HR decision-makers, 835 finance decision-makers and 1,670 employees:  

Employees want to Work from Anywhere and do so secretly:

• More than half (59%) of employees would be willing to accept a reduction in salary to be able to permanently ‘work from anywhere’
• 46% cite ‘Work from Anywhere’ as a key perk in the workplace, with it ranked above other core benefits such as pension contributions (27%)
• With its value clear, employees are already doing it on the sly as over 1 in 3 (36%) - the highest globally (with second place at 28%) - employees have knowingly ‘Worked from Anywhere’ (i.e. remotely from a different country) without telling their employer over the past 12 months
• 6 days is the average number of days that employees have knowingly ‘Worked from Anywhere’ in the past year without telling their employer.

Business leaders are lacking the full picture:

• On average, leaders predict that 6% of employees in their company have ever knowingly ‘Worked from Anywhere’ without telling their employer – when in reality, nearly three times this number (36%) are doing so.
• In fact, 12% of leaders believe none of the employees in their company have ever knowingly ‘Worked from Anywhere’ without telling their employer.
• Over half of HR leaders (57%) and nearly three-quarters of finance leaders (74%) agree they are concerned about employees incorrectly reporting the number of days they are ‘Working from Anywhere’ each year. 

What can be done?

• Employees have a good understanding of their company’s WFA policies, as 65% of employees understand how often they are allowed to work remotely from anywhere, and the same number understand what they can and can't expense whilst working remotely from anywhere
• 70% of employees understand how they should be reporting the number of days they work remotely from abroad
• However, there is a gap in employee knowledge around the tax implications – with only 10% of employees considering penalties for themselves or their employer because they unconsciously neglected tax regulations whilst ‘Working from Anywhere’ as a top risk.  
• Leaders are far more concerned – with 71% of finance leaders concerned about employees ‘Working from Anywhere’ due to tax implications
• Leaders strongly feel that adjusted business processes and better expense management technology are required to allow employees to feasibly ‘Work from Anywhere’, with most HR leaders (66%) believing they need to roll out more training to make it feasible.
• 67% of finance leaders believe they would need to make significant changes to finance processes (e.g., tax and compliance) within the business to make ‘Working from Anywhere’ feasible.

Rob Harrison, Managing Director of SAP Intelligent Spend Solutions (SAP Concur), commented: "It’s clear that employees are itching to travel, with many happy to secretly ‘Work from Anywhere’ to do so. With this employee desire in mind, it’s easy to see why many organisations are implementing policies around it.  

“However, allowing employees to work from abroad presents not only exciting opportunities but also brings with it certain risks. There are immediate complications related to taxation, but considerations should go beyond that – with HR and finance teams also needing to consider data privacy or their duty of care regarding health and safety.

“To navigate these unchartered waters, organisations should look to automated travel and expense management technology providers who can help them to gain better visibility into expenses whilst ensuring compliance with policies and regulations. At SAP Concur we build on the expertise of a comprehensive partner ecosystem to offer the services companies need to navigate trends like WFA with confidence.”

SAP Concur’s ‘The Work from Anywhere employee benefit and its implications for business’ report features findings from 835 HR decision-makers, 835 finance decision-makers and 1,670 employees across seven markets.