5 Ways to Help Employees Working Abroad Adapt to Your Team
Hybrid work models have empowered businesses to attract talent from various countries. While new tech is effective at keeping people aligned, there are other factors that can’t be solved by digital means.
The first one is country regulations, meaning that sticking to a model that fits U.S.-based employees doesn’t necessarily suit every team member.
Let’s start with this point and dive deeper into what businesses can do to help remote workers adapt.
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Be Sure They Fill Out Tax Documents Properly
Remote workers are either citizens of their respective countries or digital nomads or expats. Depending on their legal status, their tax obligations vary.
It is, therefore, necessary for businesses to help them understand tax credits for expats and provide flexible work contracts and payment options.
E.g., American expats need to pay expat taxes if they are residents or have income in the state (with the exception of people from Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington State, and Wyoming).
Further out, there are various ways to prevent double taxation (The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, tax treaties, The Foreign Tax Credit), so it is crucial to help your remote workers achieve their plans in this regard.
Finally, some expats run their own businesses abroad, so obviously they’re not looking for the same arrangement as other employees. Make sure to offer different contact types, too.
Be Sure They’re on the Right Schedule
Next on, there are different time zones to consider. This is one of the biggest downsides of outsourcing as working the second— and third-shift may shoo away prospective candidates.
This holds especially true for frontline teams (customer support representatives, in particular) as they need to be available when they normally wouldn’t be if they worked in their country of residence.
One solid tip to keep an eye on different schedules is to use scheduling apps.
To explain scheduling software, suffice it to say that it combines a number of functionalities. Not all solutions come with the same customization options, so it is necessary to look for those that offer a set that suits your business needs.
Typically, scheduling software automates schedule management, communication, resources, and durations.
There are two types of scheduling software: cloud-based and locally installed. The first is suitable for international teams, whereas the latter may be a better option for small local countries.
Be Sure They’re Engaged By Effective Management
Deploying software for performance management is definitely recommended. The management process observes various elements, many of which may be difficult to track and adjust when teams are large.
Organizational processes that are streamlined are always easier to handle, and the performance management cycle has five complex steps to observe.
These are planning, monitoring, development phase, rating, and rewarding. Depending on the size of the project, each of these can be time-consuming and long-lasting. Therefore, if you can use new tech to help you perfect performance management, use it!
Be Sure They’re Trained Properly
Training and continual learning are among the most sought—out perks by new hires (especially applies to young generations, which are most likely to look for a job anyway).
Now, this matter is complex and has been discussed far and wide. One would think everything of importance has been said already but the rapidly changing environment says otherwise.
E.g., while online courses have been used as a standard for a while, workplace digitalization (and a number of other factors) now imposes hybrid eLearning models as the new normal.
For starters, hybrid work models have become a norm. There are six types of these, as follows:
- Partially remote work, with flexible office space — no permanent offices; rented flex space used for periodic collaboration (but not connectivity)
- Almost entirely on premises — limited remote work, large office space the majority of managers and workers
- Partially remote work, multiple hubs — multiple offices with the workforce dispersed among them
- Partially remote work, large office space — the majority of managers and workers spend most, but not all, of their time at the office
- Almost entirely off premises — mostly remote work with no office space
- Multiple microhubs — management and employees are dispersed across small microhubs located in different cities (or countries, depending on the scope of your business operations)
Basically, the variety allows for every business to find a suitable model, but it also means that there will always be remote workers.
In terms of learning, this means that hybrid eLearning models are also a norm.
What are hybrid learning models?
Just like the term portends (or would if ‘learning’ replaced ‘eLearning’), hybrid learning models simply mean that some learners are attending training in person while others are attending online.
Be Sure to Set OKRs
OKRs can help greatly in a hybrid workspace setting as they will help employees keep aligned with company goals.
OKRs can be used in three different ways (or as a combination of these), as follows:
- OKR as a framework: OKRs define qualitative goals and quantitative key results, which measure the objective’s achievement level.
- OKR as a strategic link: OKRs align organizational vision with operational goals (also colloquially known as ‘meaningful work’).
- OKR as an agile process: OKRs are set to drive agility and organizational learning.
OKRs have two main components — objectives and key results.
Objectives define what the business is aiming to accomplish. Because of this, objectives concern themselves with the destination.
Key results show how the business is doing in reaching the target objective. Because of this, they target progress.
Key results can be outcome-based or project-based.
Outcome-based key results measure progress against key performance indicators (KPIs). Project-based key results equal a completion rate.
Remote Work Adaptation Is Getting Hybridized
Every aspect of business organization is getting hybridized, so additional trends are likely to keep popping up. With AI being promoted aggressively, even some solutions that we thought were simplifying business procedures may not suffice anymore.
In conclusion, keep an eye on the trends. For the time being, these tips will help you organize remote work efficiently.
