How to Face and Overcome Global Remote Work Fears

If the pandemic wasn’t scary enough, companies are now facing a new reality that can be equally terrifying: global remote work. Not only hybrid working, work from home or hiring someone from another city; rather, hiring someone from another country altogether and all the hair-raising complexities that come with that. 

Companies, large and small, are looking to find the most qualified talent to stay competitive, meaning they need to look beyond their borders. Having to quickly navigate and compete in a globalized world can be terrifying and a spooky reality for many businesses. But, there’s no time like the Halloween season to take these skeletons out of the closet and face your global remote work fears. 

Uriel Eldan, Head of International Expansion at Omnipresent shares his tips on keeping the fears at bay when considering international growth for your company and hiring global talent in another country. 

Fear #1: Ghostly Global Remote Workers

Many employers feel like they have little to no control over their remote workers when they are halfway around the world. They look like apparitions or ghosts on their teams, per se. However, nothing can be further from the truth if you begin to look at productivity in a new way. To compete globally, we have moved away from the belief that it’s easier to measure performance on-site than for those who are working remotely.

There are many benefits to letting your teams work from home such as increased productivity, reduced business costs, and a much wider talent pool to draw from. We have seen productivity rise over the pandemic for many industries, often resulting in more hours logged by employees. An office-centric approach may have sufficed pre-pandemic, but the future is flexible and your teams know it. 

Global remote workers are just as much a part of your team as those in the same city and have the added benefit of looking at the world through a different lens. You also get the added advantage of working with someone with another language, local knowledge or in another timezone giving you more flexibility for your team to work around the clock. 

For companies looking towards global expansion, hiring globally is the first step to align your business objectives.

Fear #2: Eerie EOR

An Employer of Record (EOR) is not a new concept but is still shrouded in mystery for some companies. EORs, however, have been around for more than 100 years, although called differently and have been key to international growth. 

Essentially, an EOR offers extensive employment management services (such as payroll, managing benefits and onboarding) but also becomes the legal employer for your chosen talent. Some companies fear that if employees are not directly employed or compensated by them, they aren’t a “real” employee. The hundreds of clients and employees we have supported over the last years can assure you that they are very much a part of the teams and companies that use Omnipresent for their EOR services.

Employees continue to have access to company information, emails, equipment and HR resources, but your company saves on the administrative complexities involved with hiring someone in another country. EORs are common for companies looking for the best talent and shouldn’t be feared. 

Fear #3: Creepy Compliance

Hiring globally requires employers to meet with compliance issues in different countries and jurisdictions. Compliance can feel like a spider’s web that includes managing things like compliant employment contracts, intellectual property, probationary periods, performance improvement plans and/or terminations. And, if companies want to hire talent in both London and Singapore, they now have two systems to try and understand. 

This is the fear of the unknown and opening yourself up to another country without knowing about local employment laws, salary benchmarking, taxes or benefits. The list of local employment regulations to watch out for is long. In fact, compliance and the right service level are usually top of mind for employers seeking international employment support. The right EOR provider can support you in employing compliantly wherever you plan to hire.

Fear #4: Cursed Company Culture 

No one wants to curse a good corporate culture and global remote workers can feel like tempting the evil spirits to do just that. However, any change to teams or the company will shift dynamics. 

To help ensure your new hire feels engaged, it is important companies have a strong foundation in their corporate culture. Companies need to link their vision and values to their entire team’s actions, allowing people to live this day-to-day. Just because they are abroad, doesn’t mean you’ll lose these values or connections between people. In fact, it gives an added incentive to help ensure your teams are overcommunicating to help reach their teammate overseas, adding to existing teams’ responsiveness. 

Fear #5: Boo-dget

Budgets and measuring Returns on Investment are always scary. The fear of dreadful costs to global remote work seems to loom over every business decision and companies need to ensure they see returns on their investments. As with any new service or activity you bring on, there is a cost associated with it.

Some services may cost a little less, but you get what you pay for, while others offer better or more personalized client service. Those are the needs of the business and your team you need to access. 

However, companies also need to think about their lost opportunity costs associated with not finding the global talent they need to grow their business. There is intense competition for good talent and a much more interconnected world means you have to think globally, even when acting locally. It’s important to stay ahead of the rapid shift in companies looking to attract global talent.

By working with an EOR, companies are also saving on time and costs for establishing local entities, legal counsel, local consultants, office space, payroll set-up and everything else associated with hiring global talent outside of their home country. 

These are the five top tips to help ease your fears around global remote work. While you may feel it can be a harrowing experience, there are partners that can help your business through the maze to onboard, pay and offboard any team member in countries around the world. It’s simply a matter of looking towards the every after.

Happy Halloween!