CoAdvantage- If more employers are embracing remote working – which seems to be the case – that means they can potentially expand recruitment nationwide, especially if the job roles are full-time remote or require only occasional in-person meetings.
On the surface, that might be exciting. It means employers can access a larger talent pool that will make job applications more competitive and potentially produce stronger candidates: “Companies can hire talented employees who can’t afford or don’t want to relocate to exorbitantly expensive coastal cities,” writes The New York Times.
There are definitely indicators that employers are beginning to expand their job searches. Job posting site Glassdoor says its remote job openings increased 28.3% even while overall listings have gone down 23% in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This might ease recruitment challenges, particularly in sectors that struggle to find qualified workers (as with the tech talent shortage). It also means the employer might also be able to hire people from locations with a lower cost of living and commensurately lowered salary expectations.
However, hiring from out of state brings headaches with it.
That’s because HR must contend with a whole different set of employment laws and tax schemes.
“COVID-19 opened the possibility for employees to work from anywhere,” said Nishant Mittal, senior vice president and general manager at Topia, which makes software for managing remote workers. Mittal told the Society for Human Resource Management, “This introduces new concerns when it comes to legal and tax compliance.”
So, what should you do if you want to expand recruitment nationwide?
1: Make sure you understand what you’re getting into and that your HR and legal teams are conversant with requirements in the state and locality from which you’re hiring.
2: Focus on the soft skills that are necessary to make remote work successful. Employees who will be working remotely and across state lines need to be skilled communicators, self-starters, and self-managers.
3: Beware of unintentional discrimination or disparate impacts that result from any hiring procedure or related element (e.g., compensation) that are handled differently for one set of employees (non-locals) than for another (locals).
4: On a similar note, take extra care with compliance and tax requirements. For example, worker misclassification (designating them as a contractor when they’re full-time or vice versa) is a major problem even with on-site workers. It can be even harder to stay compliant with workers who are physically distant and across borders.
CoAdvantage, one of the nation’s largest Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), helps small to mid-sized companies with HR administration, benefits, payroll, and compliance. To learn more about CoAdvantage’s ability to create a strategic HR function in your business that drives business growth potential, contact us today.