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Aussie businesses are thinking bigger about where their employees are physically based, as international hiring becomes a top priority to remain competitive in the global market and to help address the current talent shortages.
Location flexibility can have a positive impact on retention and recruiting, giving top talent the ability to tailor their work to fit their life, rather than the other way around. This kind of flexibility is key to hiring highly skilled candidates in today’s job market. The job mobility report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (released May 2022, referencing February 2022) found that 9.5 per cent of employed people (which is 1.3 million) moved jobs between February 2021 and February 2022.
For organisations that are used to having their workforce centralised in one place, transitioning to a distributed model where team members are spread across multiple countries can sound like an insurmountable task. However, it’s possible for any company today, small or large, to enable seamless international mobility. Here are three of the biggest things to keep in mind.
Flexible employment is non-negotiable for today’s workforce
Many employees have become accustomed to working from their choice of location and having the ability to take care of personal and family responsibilities during working hours. These elements have become differentiating factors in where a potential candidate decides to work and whether they continue in their current role.
One in three workers ranked flexibility as one of their top considerations when evaluating job offers, according to Remote’s Global Benefits Report 2022.
Offering mobility can make your employment packages more competitive by giving employees the chance to change their country of residence without sacrificing their careers. But this is not the only type of flexibility that people are looking for. International talent may also require flexibility in work schedules, the currency in which they receive their salaries, or the frequency they are paid. In the current climate of talent shortages, offering this level of flexibility can send a strong signal that the company is ready to compete for world-class talent.
It’s possible to build trust and belonging across international borders
One of the biggest concerns around distributed workforces is the idea that remote teams lack a sense of connection and belonging. It’s true that culture in a remote-first workplace requires a different approach than in-person work – one that over indexes on written communication and other such work practices. But companies can take active steps to build a strong, supportive remote-first work culture that makes everyone feel like they belong.
This starts at the foundation, including a company’s compensation structure, benefits, onboarding experience, meeting practices, and much more. The goal is to ensure that each of these elements makes everyone feel rewarded, connected, and like they belong, no matter where they are based. Benefits, in particular, must be comparable to those of other professionals in the person’s city or country. In our report as noted above, almost half (44 per cent) of all company leaders said they’ve lost international employees or had international candidates turn down offers because the benefits offered in their country weren’t adequate.
Remember: In the global job market, you’re competing with local and global businesses for the same talent, which means you need to do as well or better than both of them to hire the best of the best.
Overcoming barriers to global employment
Defining a company policy for international mobility is one thing. Implementing that process is another, and it is a different experience in each location. Employing people internationally can be risky if you’re not familiar with local payroll, taxes, benefits, and compliance in every country where you have talent.
Companies today have a number of options to tackle this challenge, including the traditional approach of limiting staff to living only in countries where the company has a legal entity. An alternative is to partner with an Employer of Record (EOR), which is a provider who has established operations in countries around the world to manage payroll, benefits, taxes, stock options, and local compliance. Working with an EOR allows businesses to employ and pay workers in other countries easily and compliantly, without the overhead of setting up an entity in those countries.
Ultimately, Aussie organisations can elevate their multicultural workforce needs by enabling global mobility. Flexible employment options make it easier for employees to get paid, live and work the way they want and helps business leaders to meet the demands of highly competitive market dynamics at a global scale.
Alanna Brown is the VP of growth at Remote.
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Professionals can use remote work as a working method to do business away from a regular office setting. It is predicated on the idea that work need not be carried out in a certain location to be successful.
Shandel McAuliffe
Shandel has recently returned to Australia after working in the UK for eight years. Shandel's experience in the UK included over three years at the CIPD in their marketing, marcomms and events teams, followed by two plus years with The Adecco Group UK&I in marketing, PR, internal comms and project management. Cementing Shandel's experience in the HR industry, she was the head of content for Cezanne HR, a full-lifecycle HR software solution, for the two years prior to her return to Australia.
Shandel has previous experience as a copy writer, proofreader and copy editor, and a keen interest in HR, leadership and psychology. She's excited to be at the helm of HR Leader as its editor, bringing new and innovative ideas to the publication's audience, drawing on her time overseas and learning from experts closer to home in Australia.
