Author: shanthamurthy

PEO vs EOR – Which is better for you?

Posted on by shanthamurthy

Due to complicated labor laws, strict tax restrictions, and a number of compliance requirements, finding top personnel internationally is a difficult task. In an ideal situation, your company’s HR department would undertake these responsibilities and guarantee that you recruit international talent in compliance.

However, hiring across borders requires a multitude of pre-requisites and additional steps. Paying international personnel presents entirely different difficulties than managing them, since timely payroll releases and avoiding double taxation are required.

That is why you require more than just a standard HR setup. It’s time to start smoothly simplifying your administration of foreign employees. This is where a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and an Employer of Record (EOR) come into play.

PEO & EOR – what are they?

When hiring remote teams and managing them, PEO & EOR are common terms that jump around a lot. So what do they mean?

Professional Employer Organization – PEO

A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) offers a comprehensive range of HR services, including payroll processing, foreign transactions, tax preparations, employee incentives, employee benefits, and compliance management. 

To manage their employees, PEOs collaborate with a nearby business that is a registered organization. The PEO’s name will appear on the employee’s payment invoice and any HR communication materials.

Employer of Record – EOR

An Employer of Record, is a third party organization that specializes in handling all the legal and operational requirements of building a global workforce for its client companies, like management of payroll and taxation, employee benefits, and other such administrative and legal obligations. While a worldwide EOR offers services comparable to those of a PEO, it also assumes all of the workers’ legal obligations. As a result, a company will be able to provide overseas personnel personalized HR services without worrying about compliance. 

Thus, EORs are generally more beneficial for small businesses that want to access the global talent pool without having to rely on a local employer to fill open positions.

Difference between EOR & PEO

Onboarding, payroll, benefits, and HR outsourcing are all phrases that are frequently used to refer to PEO and EOR. Although these notions may appear to imply the same thing at first look, there are really many variances. To better comprehend your needs, it is crucial to be aware of these distinctions.

An EOR oversees all aspects of global HR administration for your business, managing legal obligations, payroll and taxation, benefits and all onboarding formalities for your employees  throughout the world. A PEO, on the other hand, partners with staffing companies across different countries so as to be able to provide these services. 

Let’s discuss the key factors that clearly illustrate the differences among the two methods of global recruitment:

Benefits of PEOs

1. More control with PEOs

The level of control you receive is the main distinction among a Professional Employer Organization and an Employer of Record. While they may both handle your whole HR obligations, a PEO can provide you more operational control. All of your employees will get access to the PEO’s full range of HR operations, including quicker contract creation, designing the ideal employee benefits package, and facilitating onboarding. They also provide helpful advice that will enable you to decide on the best course of action for your overall HR management.

2. Better payroll compliance with PEOs

It becomes challenging to keep pace with the continuously evolving payroll regulations that exist in different countries around the world. A PEO, on the other hand, has specialists assigned to each nation who closely monitor compliance concerns and make sure you stay within legal regulations as you operate. 

Putting together an internal team of legal and financial experts means investment of substantial time and cost in order to hire the professionals, gather the necessary information, construct a suitable system, and carry out on-time compensation for your international staff. Therefore, relying on a PEO in these circumstances is smarter and wiser.

Benefits of EORs

1. Better insurance with EORs

When it comes to insurance, an EOR is a considerably safer option as compared to a PEO. A PEO may advise you to obtain your own insurance if the sector your company operates in has a high incidence of property damage or workplace injuries, but will seldom undertake these duties themselves. An EOR is a preferable choice in terms of managing risk because they assume full responsibility for situations of this kind. Thus, for high risk industries, an EOR is a much better option.

2. Better hiring with EORs

When you choose an Employer of Record, you are relieved of the burden of establishing a company and a local bank account in the nation where you wish to hire personnel. In any nation, the EOR may serve as your local entity. This still holds true if you wish to simultaneously hire additional employees from 10 different nations. The quantity has no bearing at all, provided your EOR partner has a presence in the country.

So, which should you choose?

Knowing the difference is crucial, but when choosing between EORs and PEOs, knowing your use-case is more important. Consider these questions before selecting your choice:

  • How big is your workforce?
    An EOR is a common option if you want to recruit a small number of people in a country, irrespective of whether you possess a formal organization. However, the cost often rises when you recruit more personnel from a nation with a high level of talent. So, if you need to employ a large number of professionals quickly, a PEO is your best bet.
  • Do you own a local entity in the country of hiring?
    If you don’t possess a legal business in the employee’s nation, your sole option is an EOR. Different nations have different levels of legal entity formation complexity, taxation requirements and employer compliances. Therefore, if you decide to use a PEO, you must take into account the time and money you have available.
  • Are you hiring contractors, temporary employees or full time employees?
    Typically, when working with interim and contractual personnel, firms opt for an EOR. This is due to the fact that EOR offers the crucial HR solutions that are ideal for contract employment. On the other side, a PEO offers you access to all of its services, which improves your management of full-time staff.

There is no immediate result that quantifies one as better. Surveys say businesses relying on PEOs have increased hiring by 7%. Other studies say the EOR market will be valued at nearly USD 7,000 million by 2028 at a CAGR of 6.9%!

Each expansion into a new overseas market has its own set of complications that need an expert staff. At Talent500, we understand that the transition to location independent working is a multi-layered process involving numerous stakeholders and factors. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals are here to help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.

 

6 Reasons why you need an EOR

Posted on by shanthamurthy

Every company, regardless of its size, dreams of increasing its global presence at the right time. Recruiting people globally is a great way to enter new worldwide sectors, and a global Employer of Record (EOR) can assist you in this endeavor.

An EOR  is a third party organization that specializes in handling all the legal and operational requirements of building a global workforce for its client companies. Thus, traditional employment responsibilities like management of payroll and taxation, employee benefits, and other such administrative and legal obligations are undertaken by the EOR.

Consider a global EOR as your multinational HR staff that is familiar with the intricate payroll rules and labor laws of the many countries where your personnel is situated. The benefits they provide are crucial for any multinational organization to achieve their growth and scalability goals. 

6 reasons to engage an EOR today

No longer restricted by geographical barriers, companies today are ready to dive into the pool of global talent. However, hiring outside your home country comes within certain pre requisites.  

Most businesses partner with an EOR in order to create a successful worldwide workforce without having to deal with the trouble of setting up offices abroad. An EOR offers the crucial flexibility required for growing an ideal international team.

Here’s how~ 

Ease of global expansion with an EOR

Establishing a local company through incorporation and registration in a new country can be highly time-consuming, expensive, and compliance-riddled.

An EOR solves this problem by managing the employer’s payroll, employment, and immigration needs in the host nation. Through its network and experience, the EOR acts as a liaison between the client-company and potential employees, also assisting in ensuring compliance.

Thus, engaging an EOR is highly beneficial for companies that want to access new geographies without the permanence of setting up a corporation.

Remote-first operations

According to studies, as many as 70% of companies are considering becoming hybrid or remote-first organizations, enabling both current and prospective workers to work remotely. However, managing teams remotely is a very complicated process that must take into account a variety of factors, including the labor laws in each nation and potential inexperience.

Your business will be able to test this strategy out with no restrictions on team strength, thanks to an EOR. This would lead to a smoother transition that would be better prepared, as well as significant time and money savings.

Better compliance across multiple countries

Every country has its own set of employment and taxation laws, non compliance with which can result in hefty fines and penalties. Thanks to presence across multiple countries, global EORs are able to undertake the fulfillment of all these regulatory and legal requirements on behalf of their clients and ensure smooth functioning.

Limited risks

All employment agreements are between the Employer of Record (EOR) and the employee, therefore managing benefits, claims, employee remuneration, and termination are under the legal purview of the EOR. Additionally, the EOR manages work license application and renewal adherence if you are recruiting foreigners, making it even simpler for your business.

Easy payroll management

For the purpose of taxation and management of foreign exchange, most countries mandate that salaries to local residents be disbursed from bank accounts within the host country. Additionally, management of payroll also requires the factoring in of taxation and employee benefits, which vary for every country. The EOR undertakes end to end payroll management to free you from these tasks.

Access to global talent

One of the biggest advantages of partnering with an EOR is the ability to hire across country borders. By undertaking the end to end management of all hiring responsibilities, a global EOR enables you to build your distributed team without having to invest a major chunk of time and capital into registering and operating a local entity. Companies can take advantage of the competitive cost of hiring and the wide range of talent present across the countless emerging talent hubs throughout the globe by partnering with EORs.

Employers of Record are becoming an important resource for firms looking to hire personnel internationally. It offers a hassle-free hiring, onboarding, and working experience for a firm. Companies are reaching their scalability and expanding goals more quickly than before.

If you are planning to expand business operations internationally, an EOR can help you deploy services quickly without risking non-compliance with local laws. Our team of experts at Talent500 can help you with this. Set up a consultation here. 

 

 

Remote hiring 101: your complete guide to building a distributed team

Posted on by shanthamurthy

We know today that the future of work is global and flexible. Businesses are engaging in global talent acquisition & management techniques to optimize their employment prospects, enhance remote hiring procedures, and speed up things so that they can find, evaluate, and hire people efficiently and effectively. The important question is, how?

Any global recruitment team must adopt a common recruiting process checklist. A to-do list keeps everyone on the team focused, moves the remote hiring process along, and enables decision-makers to identify inefficiencies in each stage of the remote hiring process.

Here’s a checklist for your international recruiting needs.

International recruitment checklist

Setting up a distributed team is no mean feat. Whenever it concerns rules, regulations, and best practices for recruiting, each location is distinct, and every nation presents entirely new risks and obstacles. 

Let’s begin with critical factors to consider when remote hiring teams. By using this checklist, you can hire workers internationally and overcome expansion-related difficulties. 

Identify your remote hiring needs

If you’re preparing to hire a global team, the first step is to understand your motivation for remote hiring . Hiring a remote team means you’ll be entering foreign markets and getting access to highly skilled talent for the role you desire.

Make a detailed list of everything you want in a prospective employee, and break that down into technical skills and soft skills. This way, there’s less room for approximations and guesstimates. Making a definitive list of needs will help you make sure you don’t need to take risks with employees.

Build a recruitment plan

Most countries have their statutory requirements, taxation laws, salary policies, and so on. Compliance is a must, so researching how everything is conducted is a good starting point.

Calculating the total cost of acquisition for each role will help you build the right estimates. When preparing to grow, it is important to take into account the following, sometimes unanticipated costs:

  • The salary range
  • Statutory benefits 
  • Attractive benefits 
  • Onboarding/upskilling costs (time/tools/staff)
  • Equipment costs (hardware/software/licenses/company car)
  • Mandated tax and contributions

 Taking all these factors into consideration will help you build a foolproof plan of how you want to go about recruiting new employees. This can include everything from location to role, to salary, and more.

Write a concise and compelling job description

According to research, if your application procedure is excessively drawn-out, antiquated, or burdensome, many job searchers may just quit and look elsewhere.

Be succinct and specific. When recruiting across multiple geographies, it is a good idea to provide all relevant information. For instance, if a visa has to be taken into consideration, you should mention it in the job description.

Employers are trying a range of strategies to speed up the remote hiring process while improving the applicant experience, including doing away with cover letters, switching long applications for a series of fast online inquiries, improving their online application, and utilizing chatbots.

Advertise across the right channels

Advertising your global recruitment on your website is not enough. You can use remote-friendly job boards like Angellist, Flexjobs & WeWorkRemotely. To find local candidates, social media has evolved into a crucial instrument. As a result, you may utilize it to the benefit of your remote hiring experience. Here are a few methods you may use to do that:

  • Target specifics – For instance, some nations favor Facebook as their primary social media platform, while others choose Instagram, Twitter, or WeChat. It is advisable to take analytics into account when choosing your target demographics. 
  • Develop your employer brand – Make sure you are seen by both domestic and foreign applicants as a desired employer. You could do this by expanding social media outreach and regularly working on a blog for your company, where you share details about company culture, perks, benefits, etc.

Review & screen applications

The key to assuring candidate/company fit, tenure durability, higher productivity, and hiring success is comprehensive screening and science-led evaluation. To choose the most suitable members for your global team, try to strike a balance between speed and accuracy. Remember, your competitors are proactive in their pursuit of the top candidates.

To make sure you are choosing the best applicants, it is essential to establish a well-defined interview process that ideally includes objective and comprehensive candidate analysis. To hire the best foreign workers, you must, however, act quickly. Make sure this procedure is in line with the principles of your employment brand and that it is benchmarked against your best employees.

Conduct an efficient remote interview

An interview is an opportunity to create the perfect first impression – not just for the candidate, but also for the employer. However, in absence of non verbal cues like body language, remote interviewers must work harder to extract the complete potential of a virtual interview. Start by reviewing your current interview process and making it remote-friendly, ensuring you have access to all the necessary tools. Brush up your video-call etiquette, and ensure that this interview is a two-way conversation where you introduce the candidate to your company’s culture.

Calculate compensation

When calculating compensation, it’s imperative to ensure a fair wage is being given while keeping everything within your pre-calculated budget. Managing both can sometimes be tricky, but compensation can be calculated in some easy steps. Here’s how:

  • Make an offer that includes the position’s pay, start date, and other details. Working with personnel regarding salary, benefits, and employment policy may be necessary for this.
  • The final offer should be signed by the candidate.

Make sure to also factor in the cost of the following subheads – include the following:

  • Various statutory inclusions like health and accidental insurance
  • Home-office setup 
  • Misc. benefits
  • Pension and gratuity schemes

Extend the job offer

If everything is in order – extend the offer. Think about using the period between the acceptance of the offer and the start date to assist your new employee in starting smoothly (and avoid having them drown in paperwork on their first day). NDA, tax withholding, benefit election, wire transfer details, business card, and other required papers should be provided. Reserve office supplies for your new remote hire as well.

Onboard

Congratulations! You’ve completed the remote hiring process successfully and now have a new global team member. Employee onboarding, a distinct but equally significant procedure to engage and develop your new employee, is now in order. You can send your new employee a welcome kit and assign them a remote buddy so that they can feel comfortable and ready to start their new day. It also helps to make all documents and guidelines, especially your remote work policy, available to the new employee. This reduces the risk of confusion on both ends.

Check in regularly with them to see how everything is going, and you’re set!

Global hiring best practices

International recruitment is now simpler than ever. That is if you know where to look for, pick out, and employ competent overseas talent. You’ve thus made the decision to begin remote hiring. But where do you look for all those outstanding people from abroad?

Equip your team with the right tools and technology

Thankfully, modern technology makes it simpler than ever to communicate with individuals throughout the world. Collaboration among the interview crew is made possible despite being spread out around the globe, thanks to efficient ATS solutions. 

Additionally, the right technology enables you to plan interviews with applicants while successfully communicating with them and taking into account their time zones. Utilize video conferencing software like Zoom or Google Meet to conduct virtual interviews. Ensure that your remote team has access to all the different tools and technology that they will require during their workday, may it be in the form of an additional monitor or a paid subscription.

Overall, investment in the necessary technology will pay off with a smoother, more open recruiting process for applicants and structured, efficient hiring of new employees for your business.

Embrace cultural differences

You may need to modify your diversity sourcing tactics to account for the fact that demographics vary considerably from area to region. Be mindful of the terms used, as you might need to refrain from using certain turns of phrase or slang terms that are common in your home country., but inappropriate in other regions. Be mindful that you may have to make allowances for accents, grammar, and fluency if you are used to recruiting in a nation where English is not the primary language. 

In any remote team, different people with different backgrounds are going to collaborate on projects. This isn’t a downside, but it helps to understand how different people work and react to certain things. Embracing these differences and enabling people to be who they are while they work is best.

Prioritize data security 

The most crucial guideline when it relates to privacy laws is to always comply, regardless of the nation. Each country will have its own set of laws regarding the collection, storage, and dissimilation of personal data. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of stringent rules for the acquisition and handling of personal data from people who live in the EU, must be kept in mind if you are remote hiring within the European Union (EU).

Put an emphasis on culture

Diversity may be a strength and a drawback for virtual teams, particularly those that are international. How teams handle diversity is key. A diverse working environment is essential for fostering innovation, decision-making, and problem-solving.

Teams with greater diversity generate better caliber, and their ideas are more original and creative. Teams with higher levels of diversity also fare better in terms of work quality.

As a result, although it is important to anticipate and handle any possible problems brought on by personal variety, contextual diversity is more likely to have positive effects.

Conclusion

Today, globally distributed teams are enabling business leaders to significantly recruit highly skilled talent without being constrained by geographical boundaries. Thanks to technology, employers now have access to a wide range of information, abilities, and distinctive personalities that the world has to offer. Using this information, we can create a revamped remote hiring process.

Whether you’re new to remote hiring or have multiple teams working remotely, it can get tricky to navigate global teams. At Talent500, we have been building global teams for Fortune500 companies. We have AI-powered tools and the top talent from all corners of the map to help you build globally distributed teams faster. Let’s discuss your requirement, set up a consultation today.

 

7 techniques to conduct efficient remote interviews

Posted on by shanthamurthy

The remote workforce is a constant in the way we operate, and will work moving forward. The pandemic gave both employers and employees a taste of just how remote work works. 

Organizations are now aware that having a remote team is not only feasible but also advantageous. Disconnecting work from location widens the talent pool available to businesses wishing to tap into global talent.

With an increasing number of organizations delving into virtual workspaces, the competition for a better, streamlined, and smooth interview process becomes mainstream.

Best practices for conducting remote interviews

There are a tonne of advice articles on the internet for job seekers looking to distinguish themselves from the pack, as businesses struggle to fill a historic high of remote job positions. This, coupled with the need for bias-free and objective interview practices means remote interviewing techniques are getting more complex and inclusive.

The employers at the opposite of the line, though, what about them? 

Poor recruiting choices deplete morale and cost money. Employers must come up with new methods for determining whether an applicant is a good match without the information obtained in person, like body language, soft skills, and other non-verbal cues associated with an offline interview.

As the pandemic and its repercussions continue to change the contemporary workplace, remote interviewing is here to stay. Follow these best practices for conducting remote interviews and get the perfect hire!

Review your current remote interview process

As the first step, take an objective look at the different parts of your interview process to adapt it to remote recruitment. Familiarize yourself with the qualities of a good remote worker, and tweak your job descriptions accordingly.

You could also try to make your remote assessment more objective, direct, and remote-friendly. When you post openings on job boards, make sure you list out all things you need and require. Over-communication is important in this regard. 

Get the right tools and tech

You’ll require a varied set of tools depending on the sort of remote interview you’re doing. Zoom or Google Hangouts should work for the majority of interviews. But occasionally, specialist technologies are required to accurately simulate the in-person experience.

A platform for collaborative coding that both the interviewer and the applicant may utilize at the same time is ideal for hiring engineers. A whiteboard application for front-end developers and/or UX/UI artists, so the applicant can sketch out ideas is also a good idea.

From conferencing software to interactive whiteboards, ensure that both you and the applicant are aware of what is being used, and more importantly, how to use it.

Share all necessary details beforehand

Many job candidates have never conducted a remote interview before, so you can make them feel more at ease by explaining how the process will work: how many sets of interviews you will have; the technologies that will be utilized; and how they will be assessed in each discussion or skills test.

Send updates at each level of the review process to make sure that the applicant experience is not negatively impacted. Regardless of the hiring outcome, this will provide them a sense of worth and appreciation and guarantee that they have a positive view of your employer brand.

Practice your video etiquette

Remember, you’re interviewing too! These days, the best prospects are likely to get many offers. The manner you, the recruiter, present yourself—including your appearance, what is visible in your backdrop, as well as your overall cadence, attitude, and selection of interview questions—will affect how potential workers see your business. 

Therefore, even though advice on how to ace an interview today may be directed at the high number of applicants, those techniques are becoming more and more important for those making the offers.

Make it a two-way conversation

Today’s job seekers aren’t only interested in increasing their pay. Additionally, they are looking for workplace cultures that reflect their personal beliefs and sensitivities, as well as flexibility and well-being. These kinds of questions can help both parties learn critical insight about whether a potential employee would feel satisfied and motivated at a given company.

Ensure that you offer the candidate your full attention. Give them details that are pertinent to their role and responsibilities, and invite them to ask you any questions they might have. 

Take time to introduce the company culture

Company culture is an integral part of the employee lifecycle, one that has a direct impact on retention. This remote interview is a great opportunity for you to introduce the candidate to what life at your company looks like, and why joining would be a good idea. 

Remember to share information about the various aspects of your company’s employee value proposition – perks and benefits, core values, and the different aspects of being an employee. 

Have a backup plan

Even today, connections aren’t stable. The candidate, or even you, can lose connection quickly. Whether it’s because of an unstable internet connection, electricity, or device-related issues, having a backup plan in case something goes wrong is always a good contingency.

Make sure you let the candidate know what to do in case a situation like this arises. You could reschedule the interview, connect on call or ask the candidate what they’d like to do. This way you can rest assured that all contingencies are covered.

Conclusion

74% of businesses anticipate a lasting shift toward remote employment to some extent. According to McKinsey data, between 20 and 25 percent of the workforce in industrialized nations may work remotely three to five days each week. 

It might be scary to hire your first remote workers, especially those who reside outside of your nation. Costs, taxes, and legal compliance are all challenging issues that can seem daunting. Having a structured and thorough remote interview process can help alleviate the pressure.

At Talent500, we understand that the transition to location-independent working is a multi-layered process involving numerous stakeholders and factors. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals are here to help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.

 

6 tips to transform your remote recruitment process

Posted on by shanthamurthy

Thanks to the pandemic, the need for remote employees has increased dramatically, with a growing percentage of businesses desiring to embrace the new normal even once Covid-19 has faded. Workers are no longer bound to the business-as-usual approach. Research says that 76% of people prefer working remotely in the foreseeable future.

With 90% of workers saying they’re more productive, 44% saying they’re ready to leave their current jobs for a remote one & 93% saying remote work is better for their organization, there is no dispute over the fact that remote working is truly the future of employment.

With remote employment becoming the best way forward, companies of all sizes are scrambling to find the best remote hiring process. Read on to see how you can smoothen out your remote hiring experience.

Considerations when hiring remote workers

Various countries have varied taxation, safety, and health systems, as well as different regulations for employment contracts, payrolls, and legal compliance. Knowing best practices for remote hiring is imperative. So what should be considered?

Management of payroll & taxation

Your remote employees will be subject to their home country’s tax regulations, so it is important to be well aware of all employer tax obligations in a new country. Similarly, many countries require the existence of a local bank account for the payment of salaries. 

Calculating compensation

Every country has a certain set of statutory benefits, social insurance rules, and other regulations that must be complied with. For example, Indian employment law mandates an employer contribution towards the pension fund of an employee. When calculating compensation, employers must also factor in the cost of providing these statutory benefits.

Knowing this ahead of time can help you prevent confusion and ensure that the employee receives fair compensation.

Intellectual property & data protection

International remote employees can raise the danger of cybercrime and hacking for your company if they are linked to unprotected networks. Before appointing remote employees abroad, you would want to assess your security procedures to determine if they can effectively prevent such threats. Certain countries like those within the European Union follow a stricter standard of data protection (GDPR), non-compliance with which can result in strict legal measures against the company.

Strict regulations that outline how to utilize VPNs, intranets, and data encryption should be in place for businesses that wish to move toward a remote workforce.

Misclassification of employees as contractors

Incorrectly and unlawfully classifying employees as independent contractors when they are employees is misclassification. Employee misclassification refers to a government determination that the employees of the organization have been given the wrong legal category.

The legal protections generally provided to employees, such as hourly wage regulations, workers’ insurance, and severance compensation, are not afforded to employees who are misclassified as contract workers. Additionally, misclassification of employees can result in heavy legal penalties.

Building the perfect remote recruitment process

Companies that previously provided little or no remote job choices will need to change their stance to attract and keep top personnel. Additionally, 2 out of 3 firms stated that their employees perform better while working remotely.

Below are a few tips to help you build your global team.

Build a strong employer brand online

Employer branding has long been seen as a crucial element of workplace performance since it contributes to the retention of employees and productivity improvement. The ability to recruit and keep a competent remote workforce is quickly becoming a key component of successful human resource (HR) strategies.

You should define a well-built EVP (employee value proposition) and cultivate your company culture so that employees feel a connection to your way of working. This way, you are well set for remote recruitment even before starting! In the age of digital presence, your company website and careers page play a huge role in painting a favorable image in the minds of potential candidates. 

Posting across the right job boards

Before beginning the process, be mindful of who will view your job ad and also what perks and compensation they would anticipate. You need a precise job description, a strong grasp of how the position will be carried out remotely, and a list of the skills and abilities that candidates must possess. Ensure that you post across remote-friendly job boards like Angellist, Flexjob & Jobspresso to attract remote employees.

Use your digital presence

Integrating content into your remote hiring process is a highly impactful practice. You can do this through your social media. Think about including an introduction video in your job description or sending it to applicants after they have been scheduled for an interview. Use your pages on Instagram, LinkedIn, and blogs to advertise yourself and your company better.

Here is your chance to make a strong initial impression, which is especially crucial given that you won’t be conducting a face-to-face interview.

Use an AI-powered recruitment software

AI for recruitment offers a chance for recruiters to spend less time on tedious, repetitive chores like optimizing the filtering of applications, starting evaluations automatically, or setting up interviews with applicants.

AI-powered tools can look at many profiles, saving users time and allowing them to concentrate on more crucial things. Processes and groupware may be analyzed by AI to create more simplified and effective procedures.

AI can also aid in reducing hiring prejudice, which is essential to rules and regulations related to inclusion and diversity. The use of a candidate fit score guarantees that applicants are evaluated based on their experience and skill set rather than a biased demographic.

Build a structured & objective interview process

Make sure the interview is direct & to the point. Ask questions that will help you gauge the interviewee in minimal time. For this, you’ll have to organize your interview process in advance, including the technologies you’ll employ.

Create a list of questions that will help you gauge whether your prospect would be a good match for working remotely. Ensure that you give due weightage to soft skills along with technical qualifications. The goal is to determine if they possess the communication abilities necessary for remote collaboration as well as the time management, organization, and self-discipline skills needed for working from home.

Think about it:

  • What characteristics make a candidate an excellent fit?
  • Which abilities should they possess? (Skills that can and cannot be negotiated)
  • What character attributes do you value most?
  • What benefits can this applicant provide the business?

Plan ahead of time!

Remote onboarding process

As employers, we must build an onboarding process that is not restricted by time zones and boundaries. This entails putting in place a strong training program and dealing with the documentation required by employing an employee. Employing a buddy system is also helpful.

The employee would have a one-to-one “friend” that they could go to with any of their queries and thoughts, leading to quicker and clearer communication. Also, sending a welcome kit with a few goodies along with important documents also goes a long way in making the employee feel ready to go from day one.

The benefit of an EOR

When hiring across borders, the management of payments, tax, and regulatory documentation on your own can be extremely time-consuming and capital-intensive. Unless your company is a global firm with legal entities throughout every nation in the globe, it is incredibly simple to violate international payroll laws and tax duties, and the consequences can be severe.

At this stage, you must have a partnership with a company that can assist you in handling these aspects of your global hiring process. Making the right choice for your partner requires careful consideration; for example, you must choose one that you could rely on with the payment of salaries and management of taxes. This is why an EOR (Employer-of-Record) is ideal in this situation.

An Employer of Record is a third-party company that manages every element of the labor in a foreign nation. The EOR is responsible for managing all parts of the workforce, including hiring, payroll, taxes, benefits for employees, and legal compliance.

Conclusion

The excitement for, and various advantages of implementing remote work into a corporate strategy might overwhelm worries about employing a company’s first remote worker. Before the onboarding procedure starts, however, company executives should address the intricacies of remote work, such as staff objectives, level of experience, and availability.

Even though no hiring process is flawless, especially when introducing new workplace standards, keeping these six factors in mind will result in a smoother hiring and onboarding process for businesses, HR professionals, supervisors, and remote work candidates. It may also be the initial step in establishing a company’s image as a remote-enabled organization and broadening its rules on remote work to cover more distributed team members.

If you’re looking for a different but meticulous remote hiring experience, look no further than Talent500. We offer pre-vetted professionals with on-field experience & personalized AI algorithms to design tailored talent acquisition and management solutions for you. Want to know more? Sign up here.

 

Your go-to guide for globally distributed teams

Posted on by shanthamurthy

Post-Pandemic, workplaces are a far cry from what they used to be. The paradigm shifted and companies had to adapt to survive. The best solution? Remote working. Given that firms were obliged to adopt this approach, many of them assumed that remote working would be, first and foremost, a transitory solution, and second, would impede productivity. That if employees did not come to work every day, deadlines would be missed and expectations would not be met. Distributed teams, however, changed all that.

Research tells us that individuals who work from home waste 10 minutes less each day, work one extra day per week, and are 47% more efficient. Furthermore, 70% of individuals who worked from their homes during the epidemic indicate that virtual meetings are much less tense in 2021, and 64% now favor hybrid conferences. 

Given all that, businesses all across the world are rapidly adopting this new work paradigm, driven by needs and evolving employee preferences. Studies show that 99% of employees wish to work remotely for at least some time in their careers. 

Globally distributed teams are the new black.

But, what is distributed work?

A distributed team consists of people working from multiple geographical locations, be it offices, headquarters sites, private homes, or in the field. It does not prevent on-site teams but rather denotes that personnel is spread across various sites rather than at a single physical office. 

WFH (Work-from-home) vs WFA (Work-from-anywhere)

Work-from-home employees are those whose primary place of employment is their home office. Working from home usually refers to a specific individual, but working in distributed teams is a company-wide approach that includes many – or all – people. WFA is fairly similar to WFH, with the only difference being that teams are now location-independent. Employees are still working remotely and are vital parts of your business whether they want to work at the office, from home, at a neighborhood café, or from any other part of the world.

Remote work v Distributed work

Remote work refers to an individual worker’s actual location when compared to the main office. A distributed workforce, on the other hand, is the discipline that a whole business follows to allow people to work from multiple places.

Furthermore, hiring for distributed teams give employers access to a larger talent pool, and gives employees more opportunities for professional progression and mobility.

Emerging models of distributed work

GICs (Global In-House Centres), GDCs (Global Development Centres), and GTCs (Global Technology Centres) do more than only in-house internal IT and operational tasks. They have transitioned into Global Capability Centres (GCCs), acting as a crucial component of company strategy and goals. Today, GCCs drive process and efficiency gains for many multinational businesses. Moreover, GCCs develop new capabilities, direct cross-functional projects, and launch new services and products based on ideas created within these centers.

There are certain factors that you need to keep in mind when hiring for a GCC, like:

  • Managing expectations – New hires in GCCs are likely not aware of company norms and practices, so give them time to acclimate.
  • Role requirements – Carefully define exactly what you want your new hire to do, even if it isn’t aligned with the job title. That’ll get you hires who know what is expected of them.
  • Maintain company culture – This is hard to do when everyone is offline – but if a GCC feels like it’s an HQ, they’re motivated to perform better.
  • Take your time – When hiring for a GCC, the talent pool available is enormous. Don’t rush if you think you found the right fit, there could be someone better waiting for you!

So why should you choose distributed work?

Whether you’re a multinational company or a rapidly expanding startup – a distributed workforce offers multiple benefits to organizations of all sizes. 

Unlock a global talent pool

The availability of crucial talent was cited as their greatest difficulty by 80% of tech CEOs. Hiring across a global pool of talent enables organizations to access highly skilled talent at an extremely competitive cost. Superior talent can be up to 8X as efficient as typical workers, as per McKinsey & Co. Organisations can access and hire the top workers on the market, wherever they may be, by thinking beyond location-dependent teams.

Work 24/7

Employees work from wherever they are thanks to a global workforce. Businesses that need coverage around-the-clock can distribute these tasks throughout time zones so that someone is constantly working. To reduce costs, offices can be situated in less costly places. Improved work-life balance could also be advantageous to employees. 

Getting work done at any given time is a huge benefit, especially for companies that don’t have as large a workforce as their rival MNCs.

Increase your productivity

Working from home enhanced productivity by 13%, according to a Stanford study. Businesses can save money on various resources and boost productivity by giving employees access to the tools and technologies that enable distributed working. Motivated workers can complete more work in less time, in addition to being more disciplined. 

Diversify your org

You’re able to hire people from a variety of origins, perspectives, and cultures when you have a skill base that extends well outside your workplace. You might use this to fulfill your company’s responsibilities to diversity, equality, and inclusion (DE&I). 

Greater gender diversity on executive teams was associated with 25% higher profitability, according to a McKinsey examination of how diversity matters. Higher ethnic diversity was associated with a 36% higher likelihood of profitability.

Optimize your expenses

The annual cost of office space per employee is, on average, $18,000. An organization’s main office footprint can be significantly reduced using a globally distributed staff. Cost factors for businesses include overhead expenses for things like office space, internet, power, water, and more. Decentralization and lower IT expenses are also made possible when businesses move applications off-site to the cloud.

Prepare for challenges

Just like with anything, a globally distributed workforce doesn’t come without its fair share of challenges. What’s important is how you prepare to face and overcome these.

Employee disconnect

There are many possibilities for interaction between coworkers in the office. These seemingly little moments of connection—moments that we didn’t pay much consideration to—help to improve team dynamics, foster a sense of community, and spark cooperation among groups and group members.

In these circumstances, what is often done in person should be done online. Your distributed team needs to connect with each other to better gel with each other. It helps them work better together.

Lack of company culture

Culture must be preserved in the age of computer displays. It’s crucial to provide opportunities for interactions that are unrelated to business. It enables employees to get to know one another better, fostering closer bonds and a more cohesive distributed team. 

In assessing employment possibilities, 57% of job searchers across all professional levels consider culture as essential as salary. To build and reinforce business culture, managers and leadership would have to recreate certain events throughout every employee’s tenure at work.

Inertial productivity 

Lack of face-to-face interaction may have a detrimental effect on morale and productivity. Most workers like their coworkers’ company, whether they are collaborating in a meeting room or unwinding with them at an event on a Friday after a productive week. 

While workers themselves claimed that this method of working boosted productivity, businesses may encounter difficulties on its process level. 

Communication

A distributed team has to communicate with deliberate purpose. Clear regulations that specify the appropriate cadence and optimal mediums for various forms of communication are beneficial. To respect people’s time, you could make a rule that, unless it’s an exigency, no one is anticipated to reply to messages submitted after business hours. 

When there are no proper conversation channels, employees become less friendly and trusting of each other. This leads to disruption of workflow dynamics and even conflicts and arguments. 

By making sure that each employee of the distributed team feels respected, heard, and supported, you can boost engagement. Keep in mind that working remotely often gets lonely. 

Ready for your global workforce? Here’s how to manage it

Management of a distributed workforce brings additional difficulties. For a firm to succeed going forward, it is essential to sustain staff productivity and attention to work-related duties.

Collaboration and communication, whether on a Zoom conference, through a Slack channel, or by exchanging Google documents, are the lifeblood of any remote team.

Effective onboarding

Since they were formerly uncommon, remote workers are now a significant portion of the workforce. In actuality, since 2005, there has been a 159% growth in the number of persons who work remotely. There has been a change in how businesses onboard new employees as a result of a growing population working remotely. It’s time to change onboarding and turn it employee-focused since efficient onboarding increases retention.

Here’s how you can smoothen your onboarding process:

  • Get employees online – The only way remote employees connect with their teams is through the web. Get them acclimatized to your tech and practices.
  • Send welcome packages – Send them a welcome present, organize a virtual lunch on their first day, and inquire about what will help them succeed the most in their new position. This makes the employees feel at home instantly.
  • Virtualize offline experiences – Bring to life all of the little thoughtful touches that staff members often encounter at work.
  • Prioritize basics – The employee isn’t omniscient. Carefully elucidate your way of doing things, and get them on the same page.
  • Don’t be too serious – One of the key things is the first 90 days for a fresh hire’s integration into a company. The transition from engagement to assimilation should be made by allowing time for socializing and learning.

Use your resources

Utilize the array of tools and services at your disposal to efficiently interact and cooperate with members of your distributed team. Consider employing other solutions to streamline program administration, communication, and document sharing in combination with videoconferencing systems so that remote members of the team can effortlessly interact and collaborate despite physical separation.

Encourage transparency

Clarity and consistency are essential for effective communication. It’s crucial to explain expectations, duties, and objectives before a distributed team starts working so that everyone is aware of their roles.

When functioning with independent talent, information sharing becomes even more essential. Independent professionals are accustomed to launching into projects and scaling up rapidly, but they might not be aware of the information presented at internal meetings or the specifics of the industry. 

Twitter, one of the world’s largest social media organizations, has clear views on how to communicate in distributed teams. Twitter is known to have one of the most successful distributed models in the world, and they frequently talk about it on their blog!

Work asynchronously

The idea behind asynchronous work is straightforward: Use your resources as efficiently as you can, record everything, hand the project over to the next person, and then go on to something else. 

Companies that operate asynchronously ought to have a low-context culture. This indicates that communication is clear and concise. By providing further background, uncertainty is eliminated and the chance of misinterpretation is reduced. Crystal clear understanding between team members is crucial, especially for a distributed team.

Gitlab has over 1800 employees spread across 60 countries and is a pioneer in asynchronous work. They detailed their turbulent but steadfast route to building a good distributed team in The Remote Manifesto.

The future is distributed – your workforce should be too!

The issues of today cannot be solved with yesterday’s answers. Workers and enterprises are liberated from constraints imposed by being confined to a single place by distributed teams &  remote workforces. The years 2020 and 2021 have amply demonstrated the insufficiency of the old, centralized workforce in a contemporary, hyper-productive economy.

If you’re stuck to the formal and traditional structure of working strictly in-office – you’re missing out on driving forward revenue, productivity, and stature. Business as usual is no longer acceptable and employees are ready to leave companies with rigid working practices. Want a piece? Talent500 takes care of all your global workforce needs.

With AI-powered algorithms and vetted professionals, we provide you with the best talent along with an insight into how to manage your teams to get the best out of them. To know what more we can do for you, you can request a consultation.

Globally distributed teams are the future. Get global, or get going!

 

Top 5 strategies to attract Diverse Talent

Posted on by shanthamurthy

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation offered a new perspective on what the modern employee values most when it comes to their job. From pay equity and clear career development paths to hybrid work models and work-life balance, organizations need to adapt to these progressive needs in order to achieve success. Another crucial aspect in this mix is diversity and inclusion (D&I), which quickly emerged as a priority for top talent, and one not many are willing to compromise on. So much so that research has found that 76% of job seekers consider it an important factor in evaluating job offers, and 32% of employees are less likely to consider working at companies without D&I policies.

Introduced in the mid-60s, D&I is not a new concept but is still a major factor that organizations lack. According to a study, 78% of the employers believe that their organization is inclusive, only 32% of the employees think the same. A primary cause for this gap may be organizations misinterpreting diversity as inclusion. Because even though D&I are interconnected, they are not interchangeable. Misunderstandings here can be costly, and leaders ought to be clear about the distinctions.

What is diversity and inclusion?

Diversity is when an organization’s workforce includes people from different groups and ethnicities. Inclusion is how well an organization values the efforts, contributions, thoughts, and ideas of its diverse workforce. If an organization has a diverse workforce but only certain groups’ perspectives are valued or have authority, then the workforce is diverse but not inclusive.

One of the major reasons why organizations need to focus on D&I is because it is a key employee attraction differentiator and its value in talent retention is undeniable. Besides that, organizations stand to reap many other benefits such as improved performance, enhanced brand image, and increased cash flow and revenue. Thankfully, embracing D&I isn’t a herculean task as it once was, with digitalization has paving the way forward. Now, companies need only adopt the right recruiting strategies and drive policy reform to create a diverse and inclusive workforce. For more insight into these strategies, read on.

Reflect D&I in organizational culture by making it a top-down priority

Hiring candidates from different walks of life and nationalities isn’t the be-all and end-all of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Companies have to make D&I a part of their workplace culture and this effort starts at the top. Inclusion-first policies must be put into place and practiced, while also enabling diversity in leadership.

In fact, a lack of diversity in leadership roles can create challenges for the organization in terms of client expectation, employee satisfaction, and innovation. According to a study, gender and cultural or ethnic diversity in the executive roles of an organization were 21% and 33% more likely to outperform in profitability.

Organizations must also ensure that the entire workforce understands and supports the purpose and values of the company. This can start with training and campaigns that help educate leaders about D&I, and how to foster it into the organizational culture. When done right, this shines through during the early interactions, be it the interview or onboarding. Inclusion training can help employees be more aware of unconscious bias and other barriers that can inhibit D&I from setting in. It can also help them recognize these barriers and take the necessary steps to eliminate them.

Keep job descriptions free of biased and exclusive language

Job descriptions are usually the first point of contact, and like with any first impression, companies must get it right. If the language in these postings is outdated and exclusive, it deters candidates. This then compounds the problem as it can become much harder to build a diverse workforce.

According to study, women are less likely to apply for a job if the posting consists of male-centered words. This is because it implies that the organization has a male-dominated workforce and women may not feel that they belong. This inadvertently stifles efforts to have gender diversity and inclusivity right from the get-go.

To eliminate this, organizations should ensure that all job descriptions are properly vetted for language and tone. Going one step further, check for bias or exclusion towards one group and be proactive about inclusion. Organizations should also remember that bias in job postings is not always in the form of gender exclusion but may also exclude age, culture, ethnicity, and more.

Leverage sourcing platforms and channels that lend themselves to D&I

Apart from job descriptions, talent sourcing channels platforms are just as important in ensuring a diverse pool walks through the door. This is particularly key now, amid the talent crunch, as visibility in the diverse talent pools can give organizations a competitive advantage.

Among the strategic routes to consider is to leverage referral programs. Existing employees should be encouraged to refer candidates to help create a diverse talent pool. This is backed by the fact that professionals are more likely to refer candidates who have similar backgrounds to their own. While this has the potential to cause an imbalance, this is where upper management can step in and ensure that D&I objectives aren’t muddled. While often the simplest route, referral programs should be leveraged carefully and are more likely to work well when the existing workforce celebrates D&I at every turn. 

Employ a perk package in tune with variegated needs

Non-monetary benefits are still among the key factors that employees look for in an organization. Given the current environment and nature of the digital workforce, the one-size-for-all model simply does not work. It is important for organizations to offer a tailored perk package, one that caters to the evolving needs of a diverse workforce. This inches into inclusion territory and is a tell-tale sign of how much a company cares about D&I as a whole.

Here, optimizations can help organizations effectively target an underrepresented and untapped talent pool. By offering a customized package, these professionals feel heard, understood and are more likely to engage. Apart from diversity, tailored perk packages can instill a sense of pride in the workforce, as it suggests that they are part of an inclusive work culture.

While it can be challenging to create a package that caters to every individual, organizations can start off by supporting people from different cultural and regional backgrounds. An example of this can be floating holidays, where employees can use the holidays as they deem fit instead of mandatory leaves during a certain time. This helps employees celebrate and honor their culture or religion, while also celebrating the freedom granted to them by their organization.

Bridge the gap between the employee’s and organization’s perception of D&I

While employers feel that the organization celebrates D&I, employees disagreed by a noticeable margin. One of the ways to eliminate this gap is by actively taking steps to ensure that organizational values are represented widely throughout the workforce. This can help make employees aware of the efforts made by the organization to bring about D&I. Subsequently, organizations can also ask for employee feedback on areas that are lacking and need to be worked on. Re-evaluating company policies also helps organizations track the progress of their efforts to institute D&I.

Actioning change based on feedback sent by employees provides the opportunity for an organization to show its commitment. It also helps ensure that employees from all groups are heard and that their opinions are valued. This organically promotes D&I in the organization and delivers results. Apart from this, organizations should clearly define the accepted practices to help foster an inclusive and diverse environment.

The positive impact of having a diverse and inclusive workforce is immense. According to a 2017 study, inclusive teams make better decisions twice as fast and in half the number of meetings 87% of the time. The decision and execution of diverse teams delivers better results too. It is important to remember such outcomes are only possible if diversity and inclusion go hand-in-hand. One way to ensure diversity in the talent pool is to partner with Talent500. We offer talent management solutions and help create diverse, global teams.

With automated recruitment tools, we tap into developer communities, peer networks and more to help companies reap the rewards of a diverse workforce. What’s more, with AI-powered insights, we can find the right fit for you and ensure engagement all through. To know more, request a consultation to build diverse teams that deliver.

4 Keys to balance autonomy and structure in a remote-first era

Posted on by shanthamurthy

After two years of remote work being the status quo, employers appear to be now marshaling their troops back to the office. Simultaneously, a survey by Owl Labs revealed that 90% of workers agreed to being equally or more productive working remotely, with 84% positing that working remotely post-pandemic would make them happier. Some would even take a pay cut to retain remote work privileges. These apparently contrary work models seem to have fused into the hybrid work model. In fact, 74% of U.S. companies have or will implement such a model, according to Zippia.

However, how should a work model that includes remote workers function on the practical level? Should leaders relinquish most of their control over how their employees work? How can structured work have a place in a world where employee freedom is prized? Here’s a quick take on how to balance autonomy and structure in a remote-first era.

Autonomy drives employee experience

The word ‘autonomy’ is closely associated with the ideas of freedom and self-governance. In context, it means allowing the employee to determine when to work and where to work from.

As 2021 played out, one could quickly recognize different degrees of autonomy emerging from company policies:

  1. Low autonomy: In-office days and timings are fixed
  2. Moderate autonomy: Must fulfill certain amount of hours at office
  3. Complete autonomy: Can work at anywhere, including office, at any convenient time

Arguably, there are some businesses that require their employees to work at a low level of autonomy; a nurse, construction worker, or barista needs to be on-site. However, through the pandemic, a majority of organizations realized that they could be a lot more virtual than they imagined. Interestingly, Jabra’s Hybrid Ways of Working 2022 Global Report reveals that autonomy and employee experience enjoy a direct correlation.

What Jabra found was that the more autonomy you afford employees, the greater ‘belonging’, ‘motivation’, ‘productivity’, ‘trust in team’, ‘trust in leaders’, ‘impact’, ‘work-life balance’, and ‘mental health’ they report having.

Key #1: Employee autonomy is mutually beneficial

Autonomy is not inherently opposed to structure

As contradictory as it seems, employees require to be ‘controlled’ by some set of principles if they are to exercise their freedom effectively. It’s similar to having markings that define the length and breadth of a playground to enable play within. Without boundaries, autonomy breaks down.

In fact, a report highlights the impressive degree of autonomy Netflix affords its employees – they, not HR, get to decide about things like maternity leave and travel expenses. Amazingly, employees are willing to earn this autonomy by digging into the company’s foundational documents and aligning their vision with that of the organization.

The report also chronicles Alaska Airlines’ grappling with the issue of how much freedom in decision-making to offers its frontline workers. After meandering through periods of freedom and then micromanagement, the airlines leaned towards autonomy, but one that rests on “well-understood limits”.

The moral these stories teach is that certain principles need to form the basis for autonomy, if autonomous decisions are to safeguard the company as a whole. This could play out in the form of:

  • Vision and goals of the company
  • Rules pertaining to work ethic
  • Broad guidelines for employee behavior and attitudes
  • Norms for meeting deadlines
  • Channels for offering and receiving feedback
  • Training sessions that illustrate good use of autonomous decision-making

Key #2: Autonomy requires some structure and alignment of principles

Transitioning towards the right blend

The future of work is hybrid – but how will it be structured?

Google proposes a flexible work model, wherein its employees come to the office about 3 days per week. “Since in-office time will be focused on collaboration, your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office”, Google’s message to its employees reads. Google also envisions a workforce wherein 60% come to the office a few days a week, 20% work in new locations, and 20% work from home.

Kissflow’s approach is slightly different than that of Google’s. Its REMOTE+ model proposes teams choose between working in-office or remotely. However, every team must work in-office for one week in a month. Kissflow would generously provide accommodation for employees who need to travel for the week of in-office work. To create cross-team bonds and interactions, Kissflow plans monthly meet-ups, quarterly conferences, and offsite trips!

So, is the right blend of autonomy and structure expressed in a hybrid model simply a matter of picking policies that seem attractive? One must search deeper.

Having the right employees

Kissflow is intelligent when it includes in its REMOTE+ model the following line: “We will make a conscious effort to hire employees who thrive in a remote work environment”. The key is to have employees who can deliver when deprived of the social support, structure, and facilities the office offers. So, you want employees who can be self-disciplined when alone, but generous in understanding the organization’s needs for in-person work as well.

Making the right organizational changes

Real estate commitments are a solid reason organizations may be reluctant to divest itself of the control it has over where its employees work. After all, if it is locked into a long-term lease, it may not be able to funnel those finances into improving remote work infrastructure. Another issue is that of employees whose role it was to supervise others. Now, such a role may not be needed; or if it is, it will take added effort.

Navigating such issues is time-consuming, but as you do so, expect your hybrid work model to emerge refined.

Key #3: Achieving the right blend is a process. It demands policy, workforce and organizational tweaks.

Making your hybrid work model viable

Investing in remote gear

When remote work hit the world, many employees made it possible with their own finances. Data from SHRM reveals that 51% percent of remote workers shelled out $100–499 on equipment or furniture. Moreover, 61% did so out of pocket. The major issue here is that such employees lose their sense of belonging with their company. Investing in your employee’s tech gear is a way of saying, “we want you to be autonomous, and we are with you wherever you choose to work”.

Using the right collaboration tools

A 2021 Gartner survey revealed that ~80% of employees used collaboration tools in 2021. The figure hovered around 50% in 2019. Such tools are imperative to sustaining a workforce that’s connected more in the cloud than at the office. Some of the best out there include:

  1. Monday.com – Project management
  2. Zoom – Video conferencing
  3. Trello – Kanban boards
  4. Slack – Team communications
  5. InVision – Design collaboration & digital whiteboard
  6. Dashlane – Password manager
  7. GSuite – Office suite 

 

Key #4: Investment in home and office makes remote and structured work possible

Building the office of the future

Since structured work in the office will be highly intentional, companies need to create spaces that prioritize focused work alongside spaces that promote collaboration. Some ideas from leading tech firms around the world include:

  1. Conference rooms with large screens installed at eye level: this helps with inclusivity in videoconferencing
  2. Café-style seating and wraparound terraces: for an experience similar to home or remote-work settings
  3. Multipurpose areas – to enable collaboration and accommodate employees when many turn up
  4. Private pods with soundproofing – for focused work that may include video calls

These strategies are sure to help you strike the right balance between autonomy and structure. If you are on the hunt for remote-ready candidates, look no further than Talent500. We use AI-powered algorithms to assess profiles across 100’s of parameters and offer access to pre-vetted talent that’s been through comprehensive skill interviews. To build a remote-first or global workforce, book a consultation with T500 today.

 

Should where employees live, determine what they are paid?

Posted on by shanthamurthy

There’s no better time than now to question location-based salaries. Historically, terms like ‘Wall Street pay’ or ‘Silicon Valley pay’ exist because there also exists specific tech and financial hubs where jobs are considered to be more sought-after and the cost of living higher. Factors determining one’s pay have been limited to educational qualifications, specialization, years of experience, job title, and location of work. This was at a time when companies were restricted by geography, and if employees wanted to be part of a particular company, to fulfil a particular role or team, they needed to relocate.

Two years ago, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations saw a trend of employees choosing to move back to their hometowns or live in less crowded and comparatively less expensive areas. A preferred work location is desired by several employees; Many of them chose to be closer to friends and family and for some who were curious about living and working in new places, it was an ideal time to seek out interesting places to make an office out of.

Is Location-Based Pay Fair?

Dissecting Location-Based Pay Vs. Value-Based Pay

In the current employment market, whether location-based compensation is fair or not is a controversial question. Incorporating locations in your compensation map communicates your values and affects the kind of workers you can recruit and keep. In contrast, if your employees believe they are being penalized for residing in a less expensive area, it may result in high employee turnover or a disjointed workplace atmosphere. Given that many firms are struggling financially or are already barely breaking even, it would be challenging for employers to provide workers with more wages simply for working closer to home or having more flexible schedules in the current economic climate. However, it would be fair for both parties if this was included in an employee’s salary package along with other perks like health care or paid time off.

Whereas, value-based employee compensation is being embraced by many companies. In an interview with WSJ, Reddit Inc. and Zillow Group Inc. stated about recruiting and retaining talent to gain a hiring edge. They acknowledge that in today’s workforce landscape, finding good talent is fundamental to success, and offering value-based salaries irrespective of location could be a great way to attract and retain employees. And they are not wrong. While the cost of living is a factor to consider in deciding what an employee is paid, the need of the hour is to attract and retain talent because while companies now have access to talent who are not bound by geographical constraints, the same applies to talent – they have access to companies across geographies. 

The Pearl Meyer Work From Home Policies and Practices survey showed 57% of companies would not adjust pay if employees move to lower-cost areas, while only 4% would reduce people’s pay. The remaining 40% or so say they’re still looking at it or would evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.

 CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Facebook employees who choose to relocate from Silicon Valley may see a difference in their earnings. On a similar note, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, while highlighting the company’s plan for a hybrid working model, said that whether employees chose to transfer to a different office or opt for a completely remote working structure, compensation would be adjusted according to this new location.

The Problem With Inequity

Location-based pay may not be the best solution for businesses wanting to increase inclusion and diversity in the workplace as pay inequity arises in the location-based pay model. It might result from a problem with salary disparity for women and people of color. Employers do not pay equally to them for working an equal number of hours at different work locations. This can result in an even bigger pay gap between males, women, and persons of different ethnicities when location-based pay is taken into account. Employers will need to consider both sides of inequality and discrimination in the workplace.

How Location-Based Pay Affects Your Bottom Line

Businesses of all sizes and in all industries are struggling to find and keep outstanding personnel. In 2022, the workforce prefers locations that are convenient to their homes, productive, and comfortable. According to a study on employee commutes, a daily travel time increase of 20 minutes had the same impact on job satisfaction as a pay decrease of 19%. If you want to be a competitive employer, your location must meet certain demands for both your present labor profile and the workers you are attempting to recruit.

Whether your company wants to grow into a new market, hire 100 more employees, or just enhance efficiency, your space needs to support these objectives. To design a working model for your business, consider needs like size, utilization, flexibility, and timeliness of your existing or projected site. You risk investing in a space that won’t meet your long-term needs if you don’t use this crucial forward-thinking strategy.

Therefore, the question is not whether you are saving money, but if you are willing to lose exceptional talent because in many cases, employee retention could depend on where the employee resides. Although the plan can appear reasonable to an employer, the employee won’t feel the same way. However, the rivalry brought about by location-based remuneration might be advantageous to you. It’s up to you to strike a balance between picking out a location-based pay strategy and a value-based pay strategy that feels right and doesn’t prevent you from reaching out to excellent candidates. You can’t always measure everything in monetary terms.

Location-Based Salaries: How Companies Factor in Geography 

Location-based pay is a form of compensation that takes a worker’s location into account. The idea is to pay workers based on where they live, rather than on where they work. 

 Factors to Consider

Employers usually implement location-based pay through compensation packages that include benefits such as relocation assistance or extra vacation time while relocating. Some companies also offer reimbursements for certain expenses related to moving or living in a new area (such as temporary housing) and it may increase productivity by allowing employees to spend more time with their families.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, declared that the organization would actively recruit remote workers in May 2020. He predicted that during the next five to ten years, 50% of Facebook’s personnel would work remotely. As part of this plan, Facebook began adjusting remote workers’ salaries in 2021 based on their location for tax and accounting reasons.

Location-based pay is the idea that workers are paid differently based on where they live. The theory behind location-based pay is that workers who live in high-cost-of-living areas should be paid more because their cost of living is higher.

Value-Based Salaries: How Companies Set Performance-Based Pay

Value-based pay is a compensation strategy that rewards employees for the value they add to the company. The idea is that you can’t always measure the value an employee adds with a strict, one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, you have to look at each employee’s unique contributions and determine how much they’re worth based on their performance. A value-based compensation model also allows room for a flexible work location model which is an attractive proposition to the current employees. If you’re looking for a way to set pay based on merit alone with more accuracy and objectivity than traditional compensation models, then value-based pay for performance could be the answer. But it’s not without its challenges.

Managers have a great deal of discretion over why, how, and what kind of performance is rewarded under the merit pay model. Promotions, wage increases, and bonuses are all examples of merit pay that businesses can give to employees that go above and beyond expectations.

Factors To Consider

Some businesses set remote salaries completely based on the worth of the labor, i.e value-based compensation, meaning that workers performing the same work are paid equally regardless of where they live. Thus, a value-based strategy eliminates the need to compensate the employees based on location. With a location-based pay strategy, employees receive more financial freedom which makes determining salary easier and presents a competitive salary to the employees in the labor market. Value-based compensation strategy, however, might make it challenging for businesses to compete in high-priced labor markets.

Adapt Competitive Market Rates — By Region and By Role

The desired work location of a job is important to candidates and employers alike. But how an organization sets the pay levels can make or break their ability to attract and retain the right talent in major areas. As an employer, you need to know what others are paying for similar roles in your area. The best way to do this is by benchmarking against similar organizations.

For positions that can be handled remotely, hire employees from locations where you know there are many talented people and competitive pay is within your hiring budget. Fix remuneration based on market rates in that particular area for that particular role. 

Establish experience-based strategic compensation scales that increase as employees advance. No matter where they live, pay everyone the same amount for their function and level.

Employees want to know that their salary reflects their value in the marketplace and that they are not being underpaid for their skillset. This helps them feel valued and motivated, which in turn results in greater productivity from employees. It also helps with recruitment as it gives them more confidence about moving jobs if necessary.

How To Start the Process

1. Communicate With Your Employees

When establishing any new policy or procedure at work, communication is essential. Spend some time explaining to your staff what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how it will impact them. They will be able to better comprehend how their pay will be affected, and any concerns they may have about the upcoming changes will be reduced as a result. They will be able to decide the flexibility of work location and act accordingly. You might even want to put a page on your company website where staff members can go to get additional details on this subject.

2. Give Employees the Option

If your company is going to provide alternative arrangements for employees who don’t want to be paid according to where they work, make sure they are aware of it so they can decide which option suits them the best. In a recent report published by McKinsey & Company titled “Rethinking Rewards: How Companies Can Design Compensation Programs in an Evolving Economy,” more than 4,000 businesses assessed by the consulting firm, found that the organizations that provided flexible work arrangements had higher employee satisfaction and lower turnover rates than those that did not. An option to negotiate work location for the employees should be open.

3. Consider Alternatives

Alternatives such as remote working or hybrid working models must be explored to gather data on employees’ productivity and efficiency and thereby, adding benefits and compensation to the work done. Additionally, if the option is limited to just location-based work then the employer should decide how much time an employee will spend at their primary worksite, and consider whether other factors might play a role in determining how much time is spent there (such as carpooling or commuting). If so, give these factors equal weight when setting up your policy and calculating pay adjustments, or else compensate employees accordingly if they don’t spend enough time at their primary worksite.

4. Consult With The HR And Legal Teams

Before implementing any changes, it’s crucial to review with HR and legal to avoid any potential legal liabilities, such as discrimination lawsuits or other claims against your business from unhappy current or former workers who believe they are being treated unfairly as a result of the step taken by the organization. Discuss the factors of location-based, remote, or hybrid work models and their effects on the company altogether and implement the policy in the firm.

To make the entire process of building and managing a globally distributed workforce seamless, partner with Talent500. Schedule a consultation today and build effective globally distributed teams that deliver. 

 

Talent on Demand: Step into the new era of work

Posted on by shanthamurthy

The professional work landscape in 2022 is radically transforming as a result of the ‘Great Reshuffle’. More and more employees are looking to change their jobs to find opportunities that better represent their values and aspirations as individuals. 

However, a lot of companies are still finding it hard to attract talent due to shortcomings such as antiquated HR practices and a lack of clarity in defining the scope of the role. New digital talent platforms are transforming how workers find jobs and how companies find workers.  

To accommodate diverse employee expectations and changing trends, employers are looking into more robust talent acquisition and retention strategies. Now many companies are hiring gig workers for both regular and temporary positions. In this respect, an increasing number of companies are exploring the talent on-demand) model to offer employees the freedom and flexibility they desire. 

Skilled gig workers have long been used to supplement the labor of full-time staff during periods of high demand, but as the nature of work changes, companies are starting to rethink their talent management strategies. Using the talent on-demand model, businesses can tap into the world’s freelance workforce for knowledge and expertise on an as-needed basis. Firms that use this approach intelligently can gain speed and be more competitive as they can pick and choose the talent based on the requirements for both short-term and long-term projects. 

Download the article ‘Talent on Demand: Step into New Era of Work‘ for more penetrative insights on talent on-demand and how it could potentially benefit your company.

Talent500 helps the world’s fastest growing businesses build their global workforce.

We help companies hire, build and manage global teams. We are trusted by industry leaders across the globe – from Fortune 500s and larger enterprises, to some of the world’s fastest-growing startups. We are backed by Accel Partners & ANSR, a global leader and enterprise transformation platform.

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