Today, more businesses are exploring opportunities to hire remote workers and place employees in markets with lower operating costs. With the cost of living cheaper abroad, and the internet that is making it easier to communicate and collaborate remotely, co-working and other hybrid working arrangements are on the rise.
In fact, according to a recent report by LinkedIn and Oxford University ->
“as many as 42 million Americans could be working virtually from outside of their home in another 10 years.”
Following is a brief overview of several key aspects that you need to know when hiring remote workers or onboarding them abroad.
As the world becomes more connected, remote work and digital nomadic lifestyles also become more common. With the abundance of opportunities in new markets and business cultures, it’s never been easier for individuals to take their careers abroad. There are a lot of considerations when hiring and onboarding people from different countries. In most cases, an employee must abide by the regulations set by his or her home country’s labor laws. This is why it’s important to understand how international labor law affects your organization. If you’re considering hiring or onboarding employees from abroad, read on to learn more about key aspects that you should consider.
Hiring Abroad
As an employer, you might be required to follow the hiring practices of your employees’ home country, even if you are operating in a different country. If you do hire people from abroad, make sure that you understand what are the hiring practices and regulations that apply to those employees. You should also know what documentation is required for hiring people from different country.
Paying Salaries Abroad
When you’re paying salaries to employees abroad, you must also abide by the laws of the employee’s home country. To be compliant with international labor law, you may be required to either pay your employees in the currency of their home country or convert their home country’s salary to the currency of your country.
Converting salaries in local currencies can cause complications if not done right especially when considering exchange rates and transaction fees that will follow every reoccurring payment, and differ from month to month. In most cases, you can use the average exchange rate to do the conversion. In other cases, you may need to use the exact exchange rate valid at the given to be compliant with local labor law.
As an employer, you should know the salary expectations of an employee that you are about to hire and you must be aware of the statutory obligations related to remuneration in the given country when employing. You can also use tools like the “Salary Calculators” that are available on various websites to determine the salary amounts of candidates from different countries or look online for the average salary data in the given country.
However, be aware that these tools are very limited, i.e. online calculators are not considering salaries in the markets but only amounts that you enter, while salary information available online is too general and doesn’t consider industry-job-seniority and similar specific.
To be sure that you are about to provide a competitive salary that will attract the best talents, and ensure fair compensation to your future employee you should do a more deep salary analysis.
Terminating Abroad
When you’re terminating contracts abroad, you must also abide by the laws of the country where the contract is being concluded. Learning all the nuances of several different jurisdictions on your own can be hard and time-consuming. Even if you can find the relevant laws and regulations, you probably won’t have enough time to comply with each of them, therefore you should use professional service provider to support both you and your employee along the way.
Keep these tips in mind when embarking on your next international hiring and onboarding adventure.
The easiest way for companies to manage their international workforce is to use service provider HR DADA and its Employment Space solution.
