Meeting the demand

Across the world, more and more businesses are transitioning to a flexible work model. Doing so requires your company to track where employees are working today and where they want to work in the future. Your processes need to accommodate an array of remote working arrangements, such as permanent remote requests, hybrid schedules, and even workers who may want to regularly change locations.

Establishing your remote work policy

Requests will likely be coming from all parts of your organization: the sales professional who’s constantly on the go; the marketing manager leading a team; the IT associate providing tech support. Requests from different departments—even different levels of individuals—need to be evaluated individually based on their potential impact on the organization as a whole.

Satisfying your obligations

The potential talent and tax implications of remote work can be significant. A remote employee might work from home in the same city or region where the company office is located, or they may live and work in a different region or country entirely. Each situation can bring its own tax implications, and the onboarding of remote employees requires careful attention.

For example, adding a new remote employee could require the company to file a corporate tax return in a new state or region, or register there to withhold payroll taxes. Tax teams need to ensure they can navigate the extra compliance involved with these situations—not just for the tax department but for the entire organization.

Chart a long-term remote work plan that most effectively helps your workers thrive. Every company’s strategy is custom-built based on their industry, global footprint, talent needs, and company culture. Tax leaders must address questions around skills development and career progression in a mixed workplace environment.

Key questions tax leaders must think about include:

• How important is “physical workspace” to your company culture?
• Is remote work an option for you based on the culture you want in your organization and your vision for the future?
• Which roles are you willing to make remote?
• What are you willing to do to sustain high-performance teams in a virtual environment?
• What support would your remote workers need, and how much support is the organization able to provide?
• How can you strengthen team cohesion for power pairings and enable hybrid staff to act as strategic advisors to the business in a remote-working culture?

Enable your strategy by establishing a policy or guidelines. Your remote work policy or guidelines address eligibility requirements, benefits and entitlements, compliance practices, expense management, and other related issues. It will help address considerations such as:

• Which roles and seniority levels will have remote work options?
• How will compensation and benefits change for a remote worker?
• How can the company limit risk exposure and adhere to regulatory and tax compliance guidelines?

Bring your strategy and policy to life. Your remote work operational plan addresses how you will implement this change in your organization, as well as how you will provide ongoing administration of your remote work strategy and policy. Key questions for operating a remote work program long-term include:

• Which function and team will own the remote work strategy and policy going forward?
• What roles do business and talent leaders, managers, and compliance functions play in approving remote work?
• How will your organization communicate with remote workers, managers and talent leaders on an ongoing basis?
• What changes need to be made to the larger talent and HR operations processes (e.g., onboarding, productivity, performance) to support remote workers and a dispersed workforce?
• What technology and tools does your company need to effectively enable remote workers?