Flexibility about employees’ desire to carry out their job while living abroad may well prove a good way of ensuring your company can retain its talent.
The UK is facing a talent drain. Recent figures from the Totaljobs Hiring Trends Index reveal that more than 4.5 million UK workers are considering moving overseas for a better quality of life. Factors such as the recent pandemic and the escalating cost of living has made more people than ever consider leaving the UK.
This is also against the background of the “great resignation” which has seen high numbers of people either leave their jobs or consider new roles since the pandemic. All of this presents a very real recruitment crisis for businesses. So in order to attract and retain talent, should you let employees work abroad?
Some jobs just aren’t suitable for workers based overseas, as they require a high volume of in-person meetings or visits. But post-pandemic, it’s likely more businesses could accommodate overseas workers. And if you fail to implement a proper policy for overseas workers, might they just go anyway?
Digital nomads
Interestingly, there has been a growing number of stories of “secret” digital nomads – people who either asked their employer if they could work abroad and the request was turned down but they moved anyway, or those who just decided to up-sticks between lockdowns and haven’t returned.
Many organisations in the UK are recognising the need to respond to this desire for a combination of overseas travel and work amongst their staff and are implementing a Working from Anywhere Policy which is being incorporated into Staff Handbooks. This may cover permanent overseas working and more temporary stints of time working abroad.
Permanent overseas working
If you are going to allow employees to work for you abroad on a permanent basis there are a few considerations to take into account:
• Tax considerations. How you calculate both PAYE tax and National Insurance contributions depends on where your employee is based and how long you expect them to be working there. Employees who spend most of their time abroad over the year may be able to obtain full UK tax relief on their earnings.
• Legal rights. Again, it is country-dependent, but an employee working abroad may or may not be subject to local employment laws, so some contractual terms need addressing. This is the case even if an employee’s contract is specifically stated to be governed by the laws of England and Wales. So for example, employers should be mindful that their employees may be entitled to more generous rights or protections in relation to paid leave, minimum wage or rights on termination depending on the jurisdiction they are working in. For example, Sweden, France and Denmark offer more paid leave than the UK’s 28 days. Taking local advice is important.
• Cyber security. With the mass switch to working from home at the beginning of the pandemic, many businesses will have already taken a magnifying glass to their cyber security to ensure any employees working from home were not inadvertently putting any of the company’s data at risk. An additional consideration is if an employee starts to work from another country and is processing personal data.
• Supporting employees and making them feel part of the team. Of course, there are myriad issues to consider when an employee moves abroad, or you recruit abroad. However, one important thing to consider is how to integrate and support these employees. Regular contact – both formal and informal – is important, as is a focus on mental health, especially when the team is so physically disparate. Creating bespoke mental health policies and having an unrelenting focus on staff wellbeing is crucial in ensuring all team members feel supported.
• Clear policy is essential. Finally, one of the most important steps you can take is to ensure your rules on working abroad are clear. The very existence of a Working from Anywhere policy signals that the employer would support a move – clear parameters contained in that policy are obviously going to be key.
Temporary overseas working
Whilst some of the above will be relevant, if the period overseas is much more of a temporary move for your employee (ie. a matter of weeks or months) then really it should be a light touch administrative process (also contained within any Working from Anywhere policy) with the following as a checklist to consider:
• This is a privilege, not a right, and so are there any performance issues? If there are you may not approve remote overseas working.
• What is the time difference in the location proposed? Might you want to specify remote working only in certain time zones or specify a number of hours during the UK working day that the employee needs to be online.
• Does their current workload allow for it? Do they have a run of client facing meetings coming up for which they will be required to be present?
• How long are they proposing to be out of the country? Do you want to set a maximum number of days to be outside the UK and does that include weekends and bank holidays and can they add on annual leave?
• Lastly what is their set up when they are remote working? Obviously camping is not going to be conducive to a day’s work – they need to confirm they are in a house, have a good wifi connection and be happy to send you a photo of their work station.
For either of the following do contact nicola.goodridge@goodhr.co.uk or call +44 7917878384:
• Working from Anywhere Policy
• Homeworking Risk Assessment
