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Remote working is no longer deemed as a perk reserved for progressive employers, it’s standard as part of most businesses. Whether your organisation has embraced a fully remote model or a hybrid arrangement, one thing is clear – managing remote workers requires a different playbook than managing an onsite team.
The challenge for many HR teams is how to define and execute this playbook in a way that keeps people engaged and productive, particularly for multinational organisations. For organisations hiring across borders, that playbook often includes using an Employer of Record (EOR), a strategy that’s becoming central to how multinational HR teams manage compliant remote hiring.
This guide therefore walks us through the practical steps for managing remote workers, with a focus on the realities of operating across diverse markets with different local labour laws.
Every organisation supporting remote workers needs a policy that sets out the rules of engagement. At a minimum, it should cover:
A written policy protects both the business and the employee. It provides clarity to everyone, ensures consistency across the organisation, and gives business and managers something concrete to refer to if issues arise.
One of the most common challenges when managing remote workers is keeping them engaged.
Some useful methods include
Managing remote workers across multiple jurisdictions differs a lot from managing remote workers in a single country. If your remote workers are spread across different locations, you need to think carefully about:
Many organisations opt in on partnering with an employer of record service provider in the event they need to explore wider talent pools, as this model encourages remote working while in a compliant manner for both local and foreign employees. By pairing this with payroll outsourcing providers, organisations tend to enjoy a greater peace of mind with experts ensuring their onsite and remote workers’ salaries and wages being processed accurate to each location’s local labour laws, and timeline according to statutory deadlines.
Even with a solid playbook in place, organisations can fall into habits that quietly undermine what they have created. These mistakes are rarely intentional but if left unmonitored, they can chip away at engagement, productivity, and compliance over time. Here are some of the most common pitfalls to watch out for:
Letting communications become purely transactional, with disregard for virtual celebrations and wins. Managing remote workers well isn’t about replicating the office experience online, it’s about building a new set of habits designed for distributed teams, and sometimes across borders. A clear playbook, proper onboarding, and a genuine effort to stay engaged and connected will take most organisations a long way in employee retention and experiences
For businesses operating across multiple markets, compliance is the layer most likely to fall through the cracks if not managed carefully. If you’re weighing how to support a more distributed team without the administrative and legal burden of managing it all in-house, Links’ full suite of HR services, including global Employer of Record in 100+ locations, multi-country payroll and recruitment, can help you hire and stay compliant. Get in touch today to learn more about our success stories.
1. What’s the difference between managing remote workers and managing a hybrid team?
Remote workers, including hybrid workers are based outside a company’s physical office on a pre-agreed basis. Hybrid arrangements still require many of the same policies, while compliance risk tends to be lower since employees are mostly based in the same jurisdiction as the entity hiring them.
2. Do remote employees need a different employment contract?
Not always, but it’s worth checking. If a remote worker is based in a different country to the registered entity, you may need a locally compliant contract that reflects that jurisdiction’s statutory compliances and requirements. This is one of the main reasons organisations turn to an EOR provider when hiring remote talents abroad.
3. Can we hire a remote employee in a country where we don’t have a legal entity?
Yes, EOR provider becomes useful. An EOR provider legally employs the employee on your behalf in their home country, handling payroll, tax and statutory compliance, while the employee provides his/her services on a day-to-day basis. It’s mostly faster, lower in capital investment upfront, and lower-risk than setting up a local entity.
4. How do we handle payroll for remote workers across multiple countries?
Multi-country payroll requires accurate tracking of each jurisdiction’s labour laws including mandatory benefits, tax rates and contributions. Many organisations partner with a payroll outsourcing provider to manage this, reducing the risk of late or non-compliant payments.
6. How often should remote work policies be reviewed?
At minimum, annually, or whenever there’s a material change such as expansion into a new market, a shift in local labour law, or a significant change to your remote or hybrid model. Reviewing engagement feedback quarterly or half-yearly (as mentioned above) is also good practice.
The challenge for many HR teams is how to define and execute this playbook in a way that keeps people engaged and productive, particularly for multinational organisations. For organisations hiring across borders, that playbook often includes using an Employer of Record (EOR), a strategy that’s becoming central to how multinational HR teams manage compliant remote hiring.
This guide therefore walks us through the practical steps for managing remote workers, with a focus on the realities of operating across diverse markets with different local labour laws.
1. Build a Clear, Written Remote Work Policy
Every organisation supporting remote workers needs a policy that sets out the rules of engagement. At a minimum, it should cover:
- Eligibility – which roles are suited to remote work
- Approval method – how requests are submitted and tracked
- Working hours and availability – what are the core hours and expected response times (if different from onsite work)
- Equipment and accesses – what will company provide in terms of equipment, rules of usage, accesses to different platforms, such as VPNs, logins, and point of contact
- Must nots – guidelines or regulations that must be met if different from onsite work
A written policy protects both the business and the employee. It provides clarity to everyone, ensures consistency across the organisation, and gives business and managers something concrete to refer to if issues arise.
2. Set Expectations Around Engagement
One of the most common challenges when managing remote workers is keeping them engaged.
Some useful methods include
- Setting aside a periodic check-in
- Encourage a buddy-system to increase and foster collaboration within teams and cross teams
- Hold regular virtual team activities, such as birthday celebrations, work anniversaries, trivial nights etc
- Create a safe space for remote workers to feedback on remote working improvements and enhancement
- Regularly review feedback and introduce adjustments and/or reinforcements on quarterly or half-yearly basis
3. Stay Compliant Across Borders
Managing remote workers across multiple jurisdictions differs a lot from managing remote workers in a single country. If your remote workers are spread across different locations, you need to think carefully about:
- Employment classification – ensuring remote workers are correctly classified as employees rather than contractors or consultants.
- Statutory entitlements – ensuring that leaves, public holidays, termination benefits and statutory requirements are met.
- Work visas and permits – pay extra attention to foreign employees who may be working in a location where they are not a citizen nor have valid working and residence permit
Many organisations opt in on partnering with an employer of record service provider in the event they need to explore wider talent pools, as this model encourages remote working while in a compliant manner for both local and foreign employees. By pairing this with payroll outsourcing providers, organisations tend to enjoy a greater peace of mind with experts ensuring their onsite and remote workers’ salaries and wages being processed accurate to each location’s local labour laws, and timeline according to statutory deadlines.
What Are Some Common Mistakes When Managing Remote Workers?
Even with a solid playbook in place, organisations can fall into habits that quietly undermine what they have created. These mistakes are rarely intentional but if left unmonitored, they can chip away at engagement, productivity, and compliance over time. Here are some of the most common pitfalls to watch out for:
- Treating remote work as a by-product, such as applying a one-size-fits-all approach for both onsite and remote work, as well as across geographies
- Over-relying on virtual monitoring tools, and slacking on the engagement modes
- Failure to equip managers and supervisors with the guidance they need to lead remote teams effectively
- Ignoring local compliance requirements, including:
- Allowing employees to work from a different location or jurisdiction than the one they’re contracted in. This can create tax and compliance risks when employers lose visibility over where remote employees are working, especially if they spend extended periods outside their country of employment.
- Permitting access to company systems or confidential data over public or unsecured networks (e.g. cafes, libraries or shared residential spaces)
- Allowing access to company systems or confidential data via non-approved devices or cloud storage
- Exceeding the permitted number of remote working days in markets where local labour laws caps
Letting communications become purely transactional, with disregard for virtual celebrations and wins. Managing remote workers well isn’t about replicating the office experience online, it’s about building a new set of habits designed for distributed teams, and sometimes across borders. A clear playbook, proper onboarding, and a genuine effort to stay engaged and connected will take most organisations a long way in employee retention and experiences
For businesses operating across multiple markets, compliance is the layer most likely to fall through the cracks if not managed carefully. If you’re weighing how to support a more distributed team without the administrative and legal burden of managing it all in-house, Links’ full suite of HR services, including global Employer of Record in 100+ locations, multi-country payroll and recruitment, can help you hire and stay compliant. Get in touch today to learn more about our success stories.
Frequently Asked Questions on Managing Remote Workers
1. What’s the difference between managing remote workers and managing a hybrid team?
Remote workers, including hybrid workers are based outside a company’s physical office on a pre-agreed basis. Hybrid arrangements still require many of the same policies, while compliance risk tends to be lower since employees are mostly based in the same jurisdiction as the entity hiring them.
2. Do remote employees need a different employment contract?
Not always, but it’s worth checking. If a remote worker is based in a different country to the registered entity, you may need a locally compliant contract that reflects that jurisdiction’s statutory compliances and requirements. This is one of the main reasons organisations turn to an EOR provider when hiring remote talents abroad.
3. Can we hire a remote employee in a country where we don’t have a legal entity?
Yes, EOR provider becomes useful. An EOR provider legally employs the employee on your behalf in their home country, handling payroll, tax and statutory compliance, while the employee provides his/her services on a day-to-day basis. It’s mostly faster, lower in capital investment upfront, and lower-risk than setting up a local entity.
4. How do we handle payroll for remote workers across multiple countries?
Multi-country payroll requires accurate tracking of each jurisdiction’s labour laws including mandatory benefits, tax rates and contributions. Many organisations partner with a payroll outsourcing provider to manage this, reducing the risk of late or non-compliant payments.
6. How often should remote work policies be reviewed?
At minimum, annually, or whenever there’s a material change such as expansion into a new market, a shift in local labour law, or a significant change to your remote or hybrid model. Reviewing engagement feedback quarterly or half-yearly (as mentioned above) is also good practice.