We are now over a year into the pandemic and the option to work remotely continues to gain popularity amongst employees and even employers. Although restrictions continue to ease, many hope for work from home policies to continue and even transcend into a ‘work from anywhere’ model. International travel restrictions are easing, and the transition to working remotely offers the opportunity to move abroad, either to live in another country or to become an international digital nomad. Now that we have remote work under our belts, working from anywhere seems simple enough, right? Not entirely, but it can be with the right tools and resources in place.
For American workers transitioning to or continuing to work remotely full-time, the opportunity to do so outside of the U.S. may be appealing to those who enjoy travelling and experiencing new cultures. Many countries across the globe have already created remote work programs offering workers the option to do just that. Working from anywhere has many benefits for workers. First, it puts you in control of your productivity. You have the option to work at home at a desk, café, co-working space, or even an ocean view in Barbados. This also gives you the freedom to design your lifestyle outside of work hours. The things we take part in in our personal life have a way of impacting our work and vice versa. Therefore, if your job requires you to be more creative or think outside of the box, working in new environments may inspire you to excel in this area.
We have been working remote long enough now to know how many employees actually prefer it and are much happier working remote. 56 percent of remote employees say they are happily willing to work overtime, compared to only 29 percent of on-desk site employees. In this same study, they found that 46 percent of people who are working from their desired location can get more work done in less time. And finally, 90 percent of managers say that when employees are given the freedom to pick the time and the place where they want to work, they turn out more productive. This is what we call employee satisfaction, and many successful organizations understand that employee satisfaction is correlated to the revenue generated by a business.
Employers may find themselves in a difficult position when an employee approaches HR about working remotely in a foreign country. Employees are demanding more flexibility but the legalities surrounding working from anywhere is a little more complex and requires extensive research depending on your situation. For example, Americans working in Canada are still required to file a U.S. tax return every year. This is because the U.S. taxes those who are citizens, whether or not they are currently residing in the country.
This is just the beginning of working from anywhere as more organizations adopt this working model. Tax implications are one of the hardest to get a grasp of but as working abroad becomes more widespread, tax regulations will become clearer.
Innosphere has made it possible for our employees to work from different locations with the technology and policies we have in place (I’m writing this blog post from New York). Stay tuned for next months blog post where we explain how Innosphere has managed to do this and can help your organization get started!