Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 3 emerge when it comes to onboarding and cultural codes, he says. "The way India works, the way Japan works, the way Canada and the U.S. work, they're all different." Corporate culture is much easier to maintain or evolve when people are working together in one location, says Shekhtman. "When we're in an office, so much innovation is driven unintentionally, and it's much more difficult to do that when you have different people working across different time zones in different schedules. So, keeping that company culture, evolving culture and maintaining a high level of collaboration can be a challenge if you're not putting specific programs in place and initiatives to drive that." setting up satellite offices in Vancouver or Calgar y or Toronto. Employer branding is so prevalent in the way you are marketing yourself as an employer and the type of not only compensation but benefits that you're able to offer to attract that top talent," he says. "Utilizing social media, utilizing LinkedIn, as an example, and various methods to drive engagement is critical." One of the biggest advocates for an employer brand is the employees themselves, so it's about making sure that they are putting out great content, says Shekhtman, and "ensuring that they are being your biggest ambassador, which goes back to how well you treat your employees." Of course, the wider the pool of talent, the greater the challenge of time-zone differences. One hour may not be too arduous but when the differences stretch to five, 10 or 15, issues around scheduling, meetings and overall availability rise accordingly. For Canada and the U.S., it's not too bad for PayTM, says Nguyen, but China and India are more difficult. "We' ll find a mutual understanding with standups and meetings across different teams. India and China [have] been a little bit more difficult because you' ll have either early hours or later days ― we try to find a good understanding or mutual ground for that. So far, it has been OK. It's a little stretch in hours sometimes, but we try to make sure employees understand that if you wake up earlier for a meeting, it means you can leave earlier for the day. And just make sure people understand that flexibility in time." Differences between countries can also Payroll, employment law matters Another huge consideration when it comes to hiring people who are in another province or country? Compliance with payroll and employment standards. "It's not as simple as 'Let's just put them on payroll and it doesn't matter where they live' ― you need to be thinking about compliance," says McDougall. "It's an extra step." While the differences may be slight for things such as payroll remittances between provinces, employers with a non-local workforce might want to consider hiring a company to sort out the local legalities. "We helped a company recently hire someone in Switzerland and we used a third party to help us facilitate that employment because I have no idea what the laws are in Switzerland, nor do I want to invest time and effort in making sure that we're compliant," she says. "And it's expensive." Canada is definitely easier than other countries, says Nguyen, with employees put on the Toronto entity payroll ― though Quebec can be a headache, he says, citing payroll funds for daycare and a different pension plan. "It was a huge challenge when we first figured it out." But when it comes to the U.S. and other international countries, "you have to have an entity for them and a different payroll, just to make sure that taxes are clear and it doesn't become too much of a scramble for them," says Nguyen. "The other thing is if you're hiring for the U.S.A., India and China, unless they have a Canadian work permit or some sort of legal right to work in Canada, it will be super difficult to hire them if you WORKFORCE SPREAD OUT AT GOOGLE "[Employers] would want to be cautious about paying employees who are doing the same job less money because of where they're living." Robert Richler, bernardi don't have an entity there." On the tax side, the federal government talks about a "permanent establishment," which is "usually a fixed place of business of the corporation, which includes an office, branch, oil well, farm, timberland, factory, workshop, warehouse, or mine… If the corporation does not have a fixed place of business, the corporation's permanent establishment is the principal place in which the corporation's business is conducted." But it's not always clear whether employee home offices are considered permanent establishments when it comes to provincial income taxes and an employer's payroll withholding obligations. The same complexities are involved when it comes to layoffs and terminations of employees who work remotely, particularly outside the province or territory. Ontario's Employment Standards Act, for example, applies to an employee and their employer if the employee's work is to be performed in Ontario or the work is to be performed in Ontario and outside Ontario, but the 30% Percentage of Google meetings that involve staff in more than two time zones 39% Percentage of Google meetings that involve staff in more than two cities 40% Percentage of Google work groups involving employees in more than one location Source: Google The offices of financial tech company PayTM in Toronto.

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