Economic development agencies, government, talent and companies are not talking about the same thing when they talk about "remote work"
Economic development agencies, government, talent and companies are not talking about the same thing when they talk about "remote work" and we need to solve it.
The spectrum of remote can go from a company allowing one day working from home, to a nomad travelling all over the world. Each of those are very different, and in using one term for all, we're missing the opportunity to maximise the impact.
Here are some examples of what I mean:
A job seeker living in West Cork searches for a job on LinkedIn, finding thousands of options that are listed as ‘remote’, which they assume to be open to them. But a closer inspection reveals many of these jobs are actually based in Dublin or another urban area, with some flexibility allowed. The employer believes that hybrid is remote, the candidate believes otherwise.
The difference here is office-first culture with flexible work and a remote-first culture. Remote-first companies have location-agnostic jobs that can be done from within a tax jurisdiction, a timezone, a region, or can be created anywhere in the world, depending on the company. There are 100k of those open today.
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A candidate applies for a role that is advertised as ‘remote’. The company has no offices and there is nothing about in-person time mentioned in the job description. But the company runs a twice yearly retreat, bringing everyone together for a day or two so they can connect with each other in person. The candidate wants a job that is 100% remote and they pull out of the recruitment process when they hear about these events. Both employer and candidate are frustrated, the candidate feels that they have been misled and the employer feels that the candidate is inflexible.
The ‘remotest’ remote job can still require some in-person interaction. Depending on the business need, employees may need to visit a client, meet with team mates, or attend a team retreat from time to time. It has to work for business as well as for employees - Dropbox saw record high turnover when they went remote, until they introduced retreats. According to our Industry Standards Survey - 45% strongly encourage participation, and it is mandatory for 18% of companies.
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A multinational, fully remote company hires a new employee that is based in Ireland. Three months into the job the employee asks if they can relocate abroad for 6 months. The employer knows that if employees work remotely abroad they will face many compliance issues with tax, benefits and local employment law, so they decline the request. The employee is upset, feeling that the company misled them when they hired them as a fully remote employee.
As June Bolneo put it "digital nomads are remote workers, but not all remote workers are digital nomads". Nomads are usually self-employed or freelance and can travel anywhere. Remote companies are curtailed by tax rules, employment law and even share vesting schemes. Furthermore, they will have security and IT requirements that mean working from a beach on Bali is simply not possible.
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A local economic agency call for more remote work. When Globalization Partners, eBay, Liberty Insurance, Gitlab etc have open remote roles and they call for local remote roles.
Remote work, removing location as a barrier to employment within a tax jurisdiction, is probably not what they were calling for. They were looking for satellite offices to be set up locally - a traditional B2B sale undertaken by IDA/EI/LEO. John Riordan referenced this at our first event in 2018, while Shopify were fully remote, local agencies were asking him to move jobs to their community, which wasn't a model Shopify operated as a remote company. If Gitlab or other remote companies do hire in their area, there will not be a ribbon cut, and may remain hidden employment. Our Map of Remote helps us solve the hidden employment element.
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We partner with many established remote companies, who have been working remotely since long before the pandemic. When we talk to them, the conversation always comes back to frustration about the lack of understanding about what is ‘remote’ and what is ‘hybrid’. The past 3 years have rapidly changed what these terms mean and people are finding it hard to keep up.