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Writer's pictureSara Schrage

3 Critical Topics That Impact Remote-First Teams



Articles and tips on the topic of working remotely are growing at a rapid rate, but there are few posts from companies like Splice Machine who moved to a 100% remote work environment before the pandemic. In this post, we discuss three topics that every company committed to offering remote to their employees should consider.


Time Zones, Compensation and Compliance


When adding remote-first or even remote-friendly infrastructure to your company’s business operations, you will want to thoroughly discuss the trade-offs of multiple time zones, revisit your compensation practices and ensure your employment operations are legally compliant before hiring. Too broad of time zones could mean someone sacrifices sleep, keeps untraditional core hours, or can’t attend a meeting in person which may lead to unwanted turnover. Compensating someone too little or too much creates both short and long term issues internally and externally. Not following local rules when hiring or terminating someone could create costly unintended blowback.


Time Zones


One of the most obvious reasons for moving to a remote-first work model is to broaden the talent pool without asking someone to commute an unnatural distance or to relocate. Splice Machine’s headquarters was in San Francisco and 2/3 of the companies we were targeting to recruit from were headquartered in the South Bay region, 45 miles from the office.


Relocating Splice Machine’s office was not an option so anyone we hired living in the South Bay could plan on commuting 60-90 minutes to get to work. Even though commuting is not unusual and many companies even offer shuttle services to pick up employees from their doorstep, a commute away from home, kid’s schools, pets, and local doctors become challenging over time. A study published by the Washington Post in 2014 showed that the average worker commuting 26 minutes to work one way spends nine days a year commuting. For people in the Bay area commuting 60 minutes twice a day, this works out to 36 days a year commuting, almost two full working months.





Allowing employees to work from home has the obvious advantages, it broadens the talent pool and attracts more talent. It also has some disadvantages that can hamper and even hurt your company’s productivity and culture if your company is not thinking and operating remote-first.


Time Zone Checklist


If your company wants to encourage remote working

  • Discuss in advance how many time zones your company is comfortable with and build a comprehensive communication policy in advance.

  • Build a people and project management structure, communication infrastructure, and select tools that support your team’s needs.

  • Choose tools that work globally. Not all countries are Google-friendly so if you are a Google shop, prepare to run into internal and external challenges.

  • Recognize that work cultures differ from region to region and country to country. For example, Jeff Bezos’ 2 pizza rule is not standard practice in all parts of the world.


Compensation


In addition to competing with database and AI platform companies, Splice Machine also competes with FAANG companies, Uber, Lyft, Cloudera, Nvidia, Adobe, LinkedIn, and businesses whose core solution relies on Big Data and AI. If you are like Splice Machine using a new and popular software stack and need highly skilled and specialized talent, don’t expect to save a lot of money by hiring someone outside the more popular tech hubs.


Other compensation points to consider

  • Many tech companies are not adjusting compensation based on the regional cost of living.

  • San Francisco Bay Area and New York City compensation rates are commonly offered even in less expensive pockets of the US and worldwide.

  • Stock options are becoming universally more interesting to workers, so agree in advance on how your company intends to use stock and distribute equity.


Global Employment Compliance


As Splice Machine hires in multiple US states and countries, our appreciation of PEOs continues to grow. Even your best employment law specialists struggle to stay current on employment compliance in today’s fast-changing employment climate. A PEO (professional employer organization) is an outsourcing firm that provides HR and payroll administration services to small and medium-sized businesses.


Splice Machine partners with Trinet for US support. Internationally, we use Papaya Global and iWorkGlobal to act as the Employer of Record and manage health benefits, payroll, deferred savings, employer payroll tax filing, workers’ compensation insurance, and regulatory compliance assistance. Hiring and terminating workers is heavily regulated in most countries outside the US. A PEO will help ensure your company handles employment correctly, saving your company from future legal issues and unexpected additional costs.


Remote-first companies should audit for compliance

  • Work Contracts - Update employment agreements so each employee’s work matches what is listed in their contract.

  • Occupational Health And Safety Standards- Provide regular training and reminders to decrease the risk of a home office “workplace” accident and a worker’s compensation claim.

  • Information Security- Ensure compliance with global information security laws.

  • Immigration- Stay on top of immigration laws and remote work, there may be retroactive consequences.


As Splice Machine navigated from on-premise to a fully remote workplace, we identified and updated policies that needed to change then, and continue to update our people policies to meet our team’s needs and stay compliant. When implementing remote-first business practices, there is no “one size fits all” plan. The company’s leadership, culture, work style, and product should all play a part in how you hire, manage, and reward a team. Making thoughtful and compliant decisions now will help you scale quickly without grievous ramifications down the road.


While we wouldn’t recommend relying solely on Splice Machine’s journey to base your decision and implement remote-first at your company, we believe that by the time you have read through our 12 posts or ebook, you will better understand the options, challenges, and advantages of building a remote-first company.


Watch for our next post which will focus on office space alternatives and work from home perks. You may also view all of our posts on Splice Machine’s career page or download the Splice Machine Journey From Office to 100% Remote ebook that our posts are based on.


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