Hybrid and remote work aren’t just for companies with formal flexible models. Even in organisations that brand themselves “on-site,” the reality is different: employees wrap up reports from home, send updates from hotel rooms while travelling, or log in to finish tasks after hours.
In other words, almost every employee now works remotely some of the time. This shift — from location-bound to location-fluid — is quietly reshaping what organisations need from their HR tech.
How do you onboard someone who may never step foot in HQ? How do you measure performance when presence no longer equals productivity? And how do you keep culture alive when “water-cooler chats” happen on Teams or Slack instead of in the office kitchen?
That’s where HR tech comes in — but the old tools and processes aren’t cutting it.
We recently worked with a global client rolling out HiBob for onboarding. Their challenge? New hires were spread across three countries, half of them rarely coming to HQ.
By automating the admin — contracts, payroll set-up, compliance checks — they freed managers to focus on the human side: personalised welcomes, peer buddies, and team video intros.
Check out our blog on streamlining onboarding with HiBob’s automation tools for more on how this balance works.
In a flexible set-up, visibility can’t just be about “who’s at their desk.” One client we supported moved from annual reviews to continuous check-ins using performance management software integrated with their HRIS.
The system gave equal visibility to employees’ goals and progress — whether they were in-office, at home, or halfway across the world — helping managers focus on outcomes rather than hours. The result? Higher engagement scores and fairer recognition across the board.
Culture can’t be automated, but tech can give it a nudge. We’ve seen organisations use tools that automatically schedule informal “coffee chats” between new hires and colleagues. One client even used Slack integrations to run virtual shout-outs for achievements — ensuring location-fluid workers didn’t miss out on recognition moments.
This isn’t about gimmicks; it’s about making sure culture travels beyond the office walls.
One of the biggest headaches in location-fluid work is security. A client expanding into new markets needed a system that handled multi-jurisdiction payroll and ensured employees could securely access HR platforms from personal devices.
Cloud-based HRIS with MFA (multi-factor authentication) solved both issues, reducing risk while keeping employee access simple.
If you’re rethinking your stack for location-fluid work, start with these questions:
Location-fluid work will keep evolving. Expect to see:
Location-fluid work is now the norm, whether organisations acknowledge it or not. The ones thriving in this reality are those using HR tech not just to digitise old processes but to design new, human-centred ones.
At Udder, we believe HR tech should empower, not overwhelm. Whether it’s onboarding in HiBob, performance reviews in SmartRecruiters, or integrations that tie it all together — the goal is simple: give employees a great experience, wherever they are.