ARTICLES

Remote work was widely celebrated as one of the most significant equalising forces in the modern workplace. No more commuting disadvantage for people in outer suburbs. No more office politics favouring the most visible. A level playing field, finally.

The reality has proven considerably more complicated. Remote work has delivered genuine benefits for many workers — particularly those with caring responsibilities, chronic health conditions, or disabilities that made office environments challenging.

 

The patterns nobody is talking about

Research from Lean In and McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report (which includes significant Australian data) found that women in remote and hybrid roles were less likely to receive sponsorship, less likely to be considered for stretch assignments, and less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts doing comparable work in comparable roles — even after controlling for performance. The researchers named this “proximity bias” expressed through hybrid inequality.

The effect is not limited to gender. Employees from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds reported that informal relationship-building — the casual conversations that create sponsors and advocates — was significantly harder to replicate remotely. Junior employees overwhelmingly reported feeling less visible, less included, and less connected to career development opportunities than those with more in-person time.

Remote work did not create these disadvantages. It exposed and amplified pre-existing ones.

 

Building inclusive remote practices 

Three areas requiring deliberate redesign:

1. Audit your promotion and opportunity data by location of work.

If your office-based employees are advancing faster than their remote equivalents, you have a structural problem — not a performance one. Proximity should never be a proxy for commitment or capability.

2. Redesign your informal visibility mechanisms.

Mentoring, sponsorship, and informal advocacy have to be intentional in remote and hybrid environments — they cannot rely on incidental proximity. Formalise the relationships that create career progression.

3. Review your onboarding and integration process specifically for remote hires.

The first six months are when belonging is established — or not. A remote new employee who never builds the informal network is already disadvantaged before their first performance review.

Flexibility was supposed to be the great equaliser. Whether it lives up to that promise depends entirely on whether the business deliberately designs for inclusion — not just for access.

 

Ready to get ahead of it? Book your free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting