Hiring, paying, and managing remote employees - a guide for remote-first companies

Managing employees is never an easy task for any company. It becomes harder when these employees are located in different states, countries, and continents. But this is the fate of any company that decides to go remote - either with all or part of its workforce. 

The good news is, remote employee management isn't impossible. The future of work, which has been championed for some decades now largely by remote work is booming thanks to the many startups building tools for communication, collaboration, and more. Beyond tools, large and small companies are also devising remote-oriented policies to cater for the booming officeless worker. But no single company has it all figured out. We take you, in this guide, through the ins and outs of employment, compensation, and the management of a remote workforce. 

Attracting and hiring employees from different countries and continents the right way

While operating a remote company offers numerous options for great, diverse talent worldwide, finding the right fit can be daunting. Whether you're a 100% remote startup or a company operating both remote and in-house teams, these tips will help you hire better talent. 

1. A new hiring company policy

The rules governing hiring talent are universal, but hiring in-house employees is definitely not the same as hiring remote talent. This goes to mean that the principles of yesteryear, those governing office employment, won't work for remote working environments. The days of luring talent with "come work in the buzzing neighborhoods of...." are over. There should be new rules of attracting and hiring remote talent. To do this, companies need to:

2. Build strong employer branding online

Hiring locally is usually easy when it comes to branding - prospective applicants might have heard your name, bought your product, or had an encounter with your team. The same cannot be said about prospective employees living continents away. To attract the best talent, employers need to pay attention, this time around, to their online branding.  

3. Have a remote-oriented hiring process

A great step to acquiring the right talent remotely is to have a hiring process that puts open communication, accountability, self-discipline, and good time management skills of your candidates first. This ensures that you're not just hiring for the right job, but also for the right people who are wired to work in a remote work environment.

Paying remote employees - hacking continent, country, and currency differences in payments

No matter how your company has advanced in remote work, there will still be challenges when it comes to payments - the different currencies, different banks, different payment platforms, and numerous currency differences in the same team. Then there's the issue of managing your company's payroll. Without the right policies and tools, these activities become even daunting. Here's how to supercharge your company's payroll and payments remotely. 

1. Instituting new rules for payroll and payments

With different locations and legal issues, making payments will require companies to have new ways of payroll. Are you paying equally no matter where the employee is located? Are you paying differently based on the standard of living of each employee's location? What payment processing platforms are you using - and are they convenient for the employees? These are important questions every company should ask when designing a payments and payroll system for their remote workforce. 

2. Leveraging the right tools

In today's workforce, the payroll tools out there need to keep up with the different legal jurisdictions that your employees are located in. This means that there's no room for traditional payroll tools - since they are not built for the legal glitches that come with handling payroll in different countries. That is where RemoteTeam's payroll platform comes in. The platform allows companies to make bulk payments, hire and run an international payroll without a local contractor, and seamlessly integrate with time tracking software to ensure that employees' productivity are commensurate with their pay. With  this companies will avoid expensive compliance issues no matter where their employees come from. 

Managing a remote workforce - employee engagement, productivity, culture, and more

Running a remote workforce can be overwhelming - managing productivity, employee engagement, different cultural orientations, different country holidays, and documentation. This is an area that RemoteTeam has mastered with a suite of tools to help remote-first companies manage their HR. Coming with this are:

1. Time off - for remote companies to manage holidays and PTOs of their employees

2. Online signature - signing employment documents, contracts, and NDAs. There are also templates to help remote companies handle documentation seamlessly. 

3. Reimbursement - for remote companies to manage the work-related expenses made by employees.

4. Inventory management - tracking and managing the inventory assigned to remote employees (company laptops, phones, or desks).

Final morsels

Managing a remote team is daunting. The payroll, expenses, making payments in different countries, and dealing with differing and diverse legal jurisdictions is certainly not something easy to handle. However, with the right policies and tools, your 100% or partial remote workforce would be easy to manage.