#21 JooBee's newsletter

TL;DR

🌍 Does ‘fully remote’ mean ‘we hire anywhere’? 

📍 Expanding benefits worldwide: Think global, act local

❓ Your views on hiring anywhere

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Does ‘fully remote’ mean ‘we hire anywhere’?

When we decide to build a product as a business, do we decide to build every feature all at once? No! We prioritise what is needed most and take into consideration our capability and capacity. The same approach should be taken when expanding your team.

CAPACITY to hire talent anywhere

Once upon a time (yes, I am that old!), capacity was a major challenge preventing start-ups from hiring globally. Setting up an entity, handling legal and compliance issues, and managing employment administration tasks such as payroll and benefits were time-consuming and costly. However, with the rise of Employer of Record (EOR) services, these process challenges have been eliminated, making it easier to employ people from anywhere in the world.

I assume simply having "bums-on-seats" is not your ultimate goal. My guess is that your goal is to hire great talent to deliver the best quality of work and achieve your business goals in the most cost-efficient way possible. This brings us to the most crucial question you need to answer: Do you have the capability to enable their success after you hire them?

CAPABILITY to set them up for success

Whenever I join or advise a start-up excited about hiring globally, armed only with a dream of going fully remote, I often see the same movie play out. Initially, there’s excitement, but soon devolves into “Why aren’t people working together?” after the talent actually joins. So, here are questions to ask if you feel you’re ready to hire ‘from anywhere’:

🤼 Do you have ways of working to integrate cultural differences?

Without a game plan to understand and embrace cultural differences, misunderstandings and conflicts can arise - leading to a fragmented team where employees feel isolated and misunderstood, ultimately affecting productivity and morale.

⚙️ Do you have the processes and systems to create a consistent experience?

Many start-ups are still setting up basic processes (e.g. onboarding, benefits, compensation bands, collaboration platforms) for a single country without even getting into multiple locations. What does that begat? Inconsistent experiences. And these inconsistent experiences can lead to inefficiencies and a sense of inequity among team members.

🙌 Do you have managers who can build a cohesive remote team?

Another reality in start-ups is that managers are often inexperienced and still learning how to lead. Adding the complexity of remote management—fostering virtual collaboration, building trust without face-to-face interaction, and managing performance from afar—makes it even harder. Without these skills, it becomes challenging to build a cohesive and motivated team.

Breakdown your end goal into multiple steps

I'm all for fully remote working from anywhere—it’s the future. But jumping in without a plan? Not so much😅. You wouldn’t run a marathon without training, right? Start with 3 miles, then build up to 26 miles. 

Similarly, begin with a few countries, perfect your processes, and then expand. It’s like building an MVP to prove your concept works before going all out.

Here are 3 considerations to choose your starting point:

1️⃣ Strategic alignment and revenue potential: Consider countries that align with your strategic goals. Start where you have a significant customer base, key partners, or industry-relevant talent. It's about enhancing operations and boosting market presence.

2️⃣ Complexity and budget availability: Assess the complexity of cultural integration and hiring costs within your current budget. Prioritise locations feasible within your current setup and managerial capabilities.

3️⃣ Opportunity Cost: With limited resources (e.g., one HR person), focusing on complex compliance across 30 jurisdictions instead of 5 may help avoid legal risks, but at what cost? This means sacrificing on the building of onboarding, performance management, and development—key elements to setting your employees up for success.

By breaking down your ultimate goal into manageable steps, you'll set your business up for success and ensure a smooth transition to a fully remote team working from anywhere.

Remember, it’s also about the journey, not just the destination. 🛤️

Expanding benefits worldwide: Think global, act local 

When I join a start-up, it's often to help them scale up their operations. So, when I joined this particular start-up, they had just secured funding and were all ready to expand, looking to hire anywhere! 😱 But, reality check—we decided to start with around 10 locations (FYI: we were not a 1-person HR team!). 

In the UK, we already had a solid set of benefits in place, which could have been easily replicated elsewhere. But you know me—decisions need to be well-thought-out and considered. We chose to strive for equity. And here’s why:

🌍 Having a global strategy 

Our Ideal Candidate Profile (ICP) targeted more experienced individuals and a more mature demographic. For them, security in health, family, finances and risk management were important and this formed our global strategy. When we kicked things off in the UK, we made sure to offer comprehensive coverage and the same global strategy applied to our non-UK locations.

🎯 Tailoring to local needs 

As we expanded, we didn’t just slap the same health, financial and risk management benefits package everywhere. We wanted to remain competitive in terms of security in health, family, finances and risk management for our ICP, but we tailored them to address the specific needs and circumstances of employees in different locations. For example, offering enhanced healthcare in countries with limited public healthcare or enhanced parental leave in regions with less generous regulatory mandates.

🤝 Promoting inclusion 

Equity ensures that all employees have access to the necessary support they need, which can vary significantly across different locations. This approach fosters a sense of fairness and inclusion within the company, as it considers the varied starting points within the country and barriers faced by employees.

When we clearly understand the reasons behind our decisions, we can effectively communicate to employees why healthcare benefits may vary across different locations.

I’m sharing this not so you can just copy-paste our reasoning, but to inspire you. Think about what would work best for your company’s goals and how you can tailor your approach to benefit everyone. 🚀

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