Imagine opening your inbox to find an email from one of your team members. They're asking for your permission to work overseas for a while. After all, your team is rarely in one location, and remote work has proven to be successful. Over the past 5 years, the landscape of working life has drastically changed. Remote work and virtual meetings have become the new norm, and people now have the expectation of being able to work from anywhere.
Managing requests like that is tricky. Saying no could result in a disgruntled and less productive employee or lost talent. Saying yes could lead to financial and other risks for both the employee and the business, with no guarantees of success.
So, what do you need to think about when faced with this request?
Many employers will want to be as flexible as possible and considering all the implications of a request to work overseas may feel a little overwhelming, resulting in the temptation to say no.
Professional advisers can help with many of the above considerations, and while this may seem like a costly option, the benefits to the business of being able to say yes may outweigh these. Also, a clear and documented policy around what you will and will not be able to accommodate, the conditions and process for approvals will save you from having to reinvent the wheel for every request. Lastly, documenting agreements made between you and the employee will protect you both, for example making it clear that any individual tax and social security due abroad is the responsibility of the employee. It is unlikely that remote working requests will decline, and in order to retain a competitive advantage, a flexible approach is called for. Doing the work to accommodate requests where it makes overall sense is a sensible use of resource.
