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Perspective:
Perspective

Into the After: The tech taking remote work strategies from policy to process

Striking a balance for employer and employees

The push for remote work strategies didn’t begin in 2020. In the Before (i.e., prior to 2020), some employees had already been changing how they viewed work. They were getting tired of the hurry-up-and-wait dynamic of scrambling to get ready for work before sitting in traffic all the way to the office. The gas prices. The missed soccer games. The loss of productivity any time a family member got sick. A lot of people were starting to ask for new arrangements, and a lot of their employers were willing to give them a try.

Then came the global pandemic

COVID-19 forced widespread office closures, and began a worldwide case study in how “fully remote” looks and feels. While some employees missed having that in-person connection, many employees discovered the benefits of newfound flexibility.

The After had arrived. And those employees who realized the benefits expected the remote work switch to stay flipped on or, at a minimum, partially on. They wanted to have a choice between maintaining flexibility and connecting in meaningful ways when it matters most.

The dynamic between employee and employer has shifted. Labor shortages in some sectors have pushed employers to focus on or emphasize the value they provide to their employees. Remote and hybrid work strategies are a big part of that value.

Tax and talent departments bear the brunt of the work turning this employee desire for remote work into reality—whether it’s short-term or long-term, hybrid or fully remote. The manual processes these teams relied on in the Before are no longer enough in the After. It’s critical that these teams have access to leading-edge technology that enables their company’s remote work policy seamlessly and with limited risk.

What are some of the risks remote work presents?

The remote work policy that leading-edge technology supports must meet employee expectations while also protecting the company. Remote work within the United States may present compliance risks including, but not limited to, those related to:

  • Individual income tax
  • Corporate tax
  • Payroll
  • Social Security
  • Employee benefits
  • Employment law

Additional compliance risks surface when remote work goes cross-border internationally.

Three key aspects of remote and hybrid work strategies

Let’s take a look at how today’s tech can take you into the After, helping you envision what’s next and move forward with purpose and preparedness.

Getting the facts

Determining the feasibility of a remote work request has traditionally required a lot of email back-and-forth and spreadsheets. The journey may have gone something like this:

  • The employee submits the request to their manager.
  • The manager reaches out to HR to understand the request’s feasibility.
  • HR gathers additional details from the employee.
  • Corporate tax is consulted on the remote-work corporate tax implications for the organization.
  • Global mobility and the immigration team evaluate immigration considerations and individual tax and other compliance requirements (like Social Security).
  • Payroll is looped in for any required withholding and reporting changes.
  • Legal could be consulted for employment law implications.
  • Benefits may weigh in on the impacts to insurance or other programs.
  • Lastly, IT could be tasked with identifying any potential security issues with the request.

Each party contributed relevant data and identified potential risks and implications. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill. By the time all these parties are on the same page and someone has sifted through all the disparate data to make a decision, weeks or even months may have passed.

Into the After

Smash that snowball. Today, streamlined data-gathering processes can be initiated the second an employee submits a request with a few pertinent details. At the speed of automation, geographic and organizational data can be pulled to determine the employee’s remote-work request tax-related and other regulatory and compliance risks. With dashboards and data analytics, stakeholders can see all employee requests to manage aggregate risk based on remote worker volumes.

Stakeholders are freed up, and employees are provided with quicker responses to their requests.

Making your call

Inconsistent data gathering leads to inconsistent decision-making—adding complexity to fair and equitable remote and hybrid work strategies.

Without the right processes and technology, it’s difficult to align organization wide on remote work rules, thresholds, and guardrails. For example, one manager makes one decision. Another in a similar position makes a different one. Decisions that are seemingly straightforward get the same treatment as more complicated ones do, clogging up the request system. Complicated ones that need to get elevated may get stuck in someone’s email inbox or experience a range of other delays that could result in a game of telephone.

All of these potential pitfalls can have an impact on an employee’s trust in leadership.

Into the After

Enter equity. We already explained how today’s remote work technology can quickly bring together relevant data—employee and manager input, plus risks. It can also take that data and process straightforward requests, as a predetermined set of decisions made by relevant stakeholder groups to inform immediate “yes” or “no” responses. If it’s a more nuanced request, the potential issues are flagged, and it’s automatically elevated to the proper decision-maker.

With this technology comes transparency. And the managers who ultimately deal with the results of these people-impacting decisions may better understand the process and, in turn, can spread trust in the company’s decision-making on remote and hybrid work arrangements throughout their teams.

Following through

Data gathering and decision-making for remote requests can be carried out case by case. What happens after is often fly-by-night.

Many companies find it difficult to implement tech-based tracking measures that ensure employees are following the agreed-upon policies and guidelines, including where they should be working. Instead, they may do it informally. They may do it irregularly. When employee and employer aren’t on the same page about where work is happening, significant remote-work tax risks can arise. So tracking is vital, but finding the balance of tracking accurately without compromising trust can be tough to strike.

Into the After

The right tech can bring that balance. A combination of indicators like VPN logins, location logging for long-term requests, and self-reported employee data for short-term requests can come together to effectively geolocate remote employees over time. Automated processes can both identify red flags and communicate them to leadership so they can be addressed quickly.

Best of all, these systems are typically understood and accepted by employees—some even require action by the employee. So there’s transparency in the tracking and more buy-in from employees.

The After has arrived

Hybrid work was picking up steam before the pandemic. It became the norm during it. And it has, for many employees, become the expectation after it.

With this increased demand, you need innovative remote and hybrid work strategies that embrace change, adapt, and flex in the face of shifting landscapes, priorities, and opportunities—strategies that are defined by efficiency, consistency, and transparency.

First comes policy, and then comes process: Are you ready for the After?

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Michelle Fertig

Michelle Fertig

Principal
+12124924025