Has business fallen out of love with remote working? Amazon has told its office workers that they may no longer work from home except in extenuating circumstances while PwC now insists that its UK staff work in the office for at least three days per week (a surprising volte face given PwC’s previously liberal attitude to remote/home working).
Many would maintain that the main advantage for business owners of remote working lies in recruitment. Offering flexible working arrangements makes the employer more attractive to candidates. By extension, remote working on a truly global basis also gives access to a vastly increased talent pool of highly skilled individuals in sectors such as IT/Tech or the creative industries that are, by their very nature, highly globalised.
Remote Working Beyond Geographic Boundaries
For potential recruits and existing staff global employment does offer great opportunities for personal and professional growth. But when those workers are located not just in different regions or places within one country, but on an entirely different continent, then the problems of working beyond geographic boundaries begin to emerge.
Managers of some quite large companies as well as more agile SMEs appear to have little option but to say to candidates and employees, who can work from anywhere in the world, that they are happy with the employee upping sticks, leaving their domestic base, and going to work remotely in say, a European country.
Problems with Trans-Atlantic Relocation
This is especially true for workers in the USA and UK, where the perception is, given that the English language and cultural norms are (more or less) common to both, a transition either way should be fairly straightforward. Even in this case, subtle cultural and language barriers do exist between the USA and UK, while misunderstandings and miscommunications that can hinder collaboration and productivity are even more pronounced in countries without the same shared Anglo-Saxon heritage. Some barriers are practical. Since Brexit, gaining permission to work in the UK has become much more complex and does not guarantee access to the rest of Europe.
Barriers to Globalised Employment
There are some legal barriers to globalised employment too. Individuals may need to demonstrate that they have a special talent to allow them entry to their chosen country. Governments globally are showing heightened vigilance against employers failing to comply with increasingly stringent immigration laws, with enforcement powers often including substantial fines. A visa and/or work permit may be required, which could place onerous burdens on the employer. Other questions may arise: How will payroll work? How will you deal with the payment of government taxes on earnings?
When hiring or doing business outside of your typical area of operation, being aware of local employment laws in that particular country is also essential. Failure to maintain local legal compliance could have far reaching financial consequences as could breaches of local data, privacy and protection laws. Understanding the business ethics of different cultures around the globe will also feed into this issue. By way of example, we can look to Portugal. Portugal has banned bosses from text messaging and emailing staff out of working hours as part of laws dubbed the “right to rest”.
Managing Different Time Zones
Perhaps the greatest practical problem is managing different time zones between global locations. An employer may occasionally need to speak to the employee, sometimes on very short notice. Being based on west coast of the USA for example makes such communication with a remote employee somewhere in Europe tricky, given the up to nine-hour time difference.
Organisations with global operations therefore face complex issues that must be overcome to maintain an effective mobile workforce in an increasingly interconnected world. While embracing global remote employment can offer your staff professional and personal growth opportunities, it should only be attempted in the full knowledge of all the possible business pitfalls such a move entails.
The Motion Paradox team of start-up business and legal consultants, based in London and Los Angeles, are well aware of issues that face companies with workers in different time zones and global locations. We can help you through the process of managing such a distributed global workforce, making sure your company is compliant with all the necessary regulations to operate effectively and safely, whatever jurisdiction your staff may be based in.
