Latest news with #remote work
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cities and states offer welcome mats — and pots of cash — to lure remote workers
Theresa Kaiser was working as an assistant dean for the University of Michigan Law School when she pulled up stakes and moved to Tulsa, Okla., lured by a $10,000 relocation grant from the city. 'I love working remotely,' Kaiser, 61, told Yahoo Finance. 'I'm not trying to climb the ladder anymore. I'm not trying to make a name for myself. So a lot of that pressure's gone for me.' Tulsa is among a handful of cities and states targeting remote workers to relocate from more expensive areas, even as many companies tighten remote working arrangements. For those workers who can land and hold onto a fully remote gig, the perks can be considerable. With its Ascend WV program, West Virginia offers $12,000 to remote workers who move to the state. The money is paid out over a two-year period. Applicants must work full-time remote jobs or own businesses outside of West Virginia that can be managed remotely. Other cities and regions with incentive programs for remote workers looking to relocate include: Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas, Columbus, Ga., Noblesville, Ind., and eastern Kentucky. "We're incredibly excited about the momentum and the quality of individuals and families who have chosen to relocate to Texarkana through this initiative," Rob Sitterley, president and CEO of the program in Texarkana. "At this point, we have received well over 8,100 applicants, and interest continues to grow." Tulsa rolled out its Tulsa Remote initiative in 2018 to lure new residents by offering them $10,000 grants for a year to work from there remotely. To date, 3,600 workers have taken them up on that offer. Some caveats: You have to have a full-time remote job to be eligible for the program. You also have to have lived outside of the state of Oklahoma for at least a year and be eligible to work in the United States. Sign up for the Mind Your Money weekly newsletter By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Tulsa Remote provides co-working space for the year, and offers monthly meetups and workshops to develop skills and strategies for working remotely effectively. Backed by the Tulsa-based nonprofit George Kaiser Family Foundation, the goal is to bring in people who'll stick around, get involved in the community, and strengthen the local economy. 'It was really an experiment to diversify the talent workforce here in Tulsa,' Justin Harlan, managing director of the program, told Yahoo Finance. 'Tulsa is a city that's often reliant on oil and gas as an industry, which can be a royal rollercoaster even in the best of times,' he said. 'And so our hope was that if we could bring knowledge workers to the city, that we would build up an economy that was more resilient for the future.' For remote workers, it's a personal choice. 'I like to find balance in what goes on outside of my work and how I work,' Kaiser said. 'All those things become a lot more important than what's my salary and what's the next step up for me and what's the next title.'It's the community that has made remote work so appealing to remote workers ranging from their mid-20s to 70-plus, according to Harlan. 'Remote working is often an isolating experience, and the fact that we really have intentionality around not only getting people here, but then really helping them integrate into the city in strategic ways.' About 40% of the Tulsa remote program workers are in technology fields, and the rest of the group is spread out in fields including marketing, education, and finance, per Harlan. 'If you can do your job from anywhere, we'd love for you to do it from Tulsa,' he said. Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including the forthcoming "Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future," "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work," and "Never Too Old to Get Rich." Follow her on Bluesky. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Building Long-Term Client Relationships In A Remote PR World
New York native and nomad by choice—Emily is a marketing & PR pro, now the founder of the award-winning R Public Relations, New York. Remote work and communication have increased in recent years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that the American Community Survey (ACS) found that remote work increased dramatically across all major industries between 2019 and 2021, from the scientific and entertainment industries to hospitality. This shift can also be reflected in the public relations (PR) industry, for both industry professionals and clients. Clients are increasingly looking for remote PR assistance, and PR professionals must meet that need effectively. My PR firm has been fully remote for over a decade, fostering lasting client relationships across a range of industries well before the most recent shifts. I know what it takes to create meaningful, long-lasting partnerships. So, as the PR world grows increasingly remote, it's important to understand how to build and maintain remote client relationships—even if it seems daunting. The following tips are based on my own experience and can help you cultivate strong remote partnerships. Establish trust and credibility. PR professionals need to establish both trust and credibility for themselves, whether they're just getting started or have been in PR for years. This is more important than ever before, especially as trust in general drops among many professions. In Gallup's 2024 honesty and ethics survey, the general American public's trust in 11 core professions, when averaged, was at a historic low. While PR professionals weren't among the professions polled, several industries we most often represent weren't perceived in a flattering light overall, such as lawyers and business executives. This shows that trust and credibility are critical to both PR clients and the general public. Fully remote clients must be able to recognize that a PR professional is trustworthy from a distance. They don't have the benefit of meeting with you in person. This leaves much of the heavy lifting to your actions as a professional. To build trust and credibility, you can: • Be consistent in your work—deliver high-quality results and show up for your clients regularly. • Demonstrate your expertise clearly through your actions, online presence, testimonials and case studies. • Prove your value through tangible results. This can be through brand mentions, engagement, reach, website traffic and earned media value, among others. • Even if you don't have tangible results to share on a given day, contact your clients with articles they might like or ask them about their lives outside of work. A quick 'How did Saturday's event go?' text can work wonders. Communicate proactively. Communication is key in the PR space, especially when building remote client relationships that will last. Proactive communication ensures that you and your clients are on the same page about every detail of your work. Establish communication preferences from the get-go so you can easily get in touch. This might include instant messages, email, text or other online communication options like video calls or Slack. Additional ways to communicate proactively include: • Write a brief standard operating procedure (SOP) for each client. An SOP will lay out step-by-step instructions on how to best communicate with individual clients, including their communication preferences. • Always send an agenda before meetings and follow up with notes afterwards to summarize main points and action items. • Set more frequently recurring calls than you would if you were meeting in person. For example, a weekly 15-minute check-in call can replace a bi-weekly 30-minute in-person meeting. Remember that proactive communication is key to building long-term client relations and that you can get creative, especially when building relationships online. Be transparent. Transparency is naturally baked into every facet of the PR industry—it's a key part of any PR partnership, but it's especially important for remote relationships. A transparent client relationship means you'll need to share information with your clients, including pricing, project updates and campaign metrics, on the front end. Keeping things transparent at all times will help your clients have a full understanding of where exactly you're at in your work, even if you're facing setbacks. A lack of transparency can lead to confusion, mistrust and overall poor relationships. By consistently keeping transparency at the forefront of your PR efforts and project management, you'll build trust and longevity. PR professionals may want to consider hiring a client relationship manager. This person should be solely responsible for handling client communication, transparency and troubleshooting—their main goal is to strengthen client partnerships with trust. Building long-term client relationships in a remote PR world is not a one-and-done process.. It's something that will require ongoing effort throughout the length of all client relationships. Take time to ensure that your foundation is strong and adaptable—this will be key to creating lasting connections. Your approach to each client partnership may differ in the minute details. But now you have a starting point on how to effectively foster and maintain strong client relationships that last in our increasingly remote industry. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Starbucks orders increased return to office. Is remote work going away?
Henry Goldbeck, founder of Goldbeck Recruiting, says companies are trying to pivot remote workers back into the office due to issues with team communication and the lack of work being completed at home.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Major new work from home rule every Aussie needs to know about - after worker tried to fight decision to go back to the office fulltime
A Sydney father's bid to work from home two days a week has been rejected by the Fair Work Commission, in a case that could have legal ramifications for Aussies forced back into the office Paul Collins, a long-serving tech specialist at global software firm Intersystems, requested to continue working remotely on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This followed the company's decision to end its COVID-era remote work arrangements in February and require all staff to return to the office full-time. In his request to Intersystems, the specialist said he wanted to work from home for better work-life balance and to help care for his eight and ten-year-old kids, a responsibility he shares with his wife, who also works at Intersystems. While the employer denied the request, it offered a one-day-a-week compromise, which Mr Collins rejected, before the matter escalated to the Commission. But the Fair Work Commission wasn't convinced. In a decisive ruling, Deputy President Lyndall Dean said a 'personal preference' for remote work simply wasn't enough. 'His written request merely expressed a preference to continue with a pre-existing pattern of remote work and failed to articulate how working from home two days per week specifically supported or related to his parental responsibilities.' The Commission found Collins failed to show a direct link between his request and any specific parental duties that required him to be home during core working hours. 'He conceded in cross-examination that he has no specific caring duties between the core working hours of 9am and 5.00pm, and that he and his wife are able to manage school drop-offs and pick-ups through existing flexibility including adjusted start and finish times,' she said. Ms Dean ruled the specialist's written plea, which expressed a preference to continue with a pre‑existing pattern of remote work, failed to articulate how working from home specifically supported or related to his parental responsibilities. Monash University business law lecturer Amanda Selvarajah said the Fair Work Commission now seems to require parents to provide formal evidence of direct caregiving duties, such as personally supervising children, when applying for flexible work. Broader parental responsibilities, like cooking meals or maintaining the household, are often dismissed as irrelevant. 'The FWC appears to have assumed that flexible work requests as a parent will only have a requisite nexus where the parent can prove they are engaging in exclusive, direct caregiving responsibilities,' Selvarajah said in her paper. 'This neglects other potential parental obligations such as preparing meals or cleaning the home.' She warned the Commission's strict evidentiary standards are likely to disproportionately affect women, who tend to carry the bulk of caregiving responsibilities. 'This does not align with the Fair Work Act's objective of promoting gender equality,' she said.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump team relaxes work-from-home ban for federal employees for religious reasons
WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - Federal employees can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious fasts and prayers, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, after previously demanding that workers report to offices full time. President Donald Trump ordered all federal employees on Inauguration Day to report to their work sites five days per week. The Office of Personnel Management called on agencies to "adopt a generous approach" to allowing employees to work remotely before and during religious holidays, agency director Scott Kupor said. Employees who want to take breaks during the workday while they are fasting should also get permission to work from home, he said. Agencies that opt to deny an employee's request to work remotely for religious reasons must justify it with "evidence of significant operational impact," he said. It is the latest example of the Trump administration relaxing its policy that employees with desk jobs must report to the office full time. Trump railed against remote work arrangements for federal employees on the campaign trail, threatening after the election to "dismiss" staff that didn't report to the office. The Office of Personnel Management later exempted military spouses. Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who had led Trump's cost-cutting effort, predicted in November that revoking "the COVID-era privilege of staying home" would trigger "a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome." More than 1 million federal employees—almost half of the federal civilian workforce—were eligible to work remotely at least part of the time as of May 2024, according to a Biden administration report. Around 10% of that workforce was entirely remote.
