Timezones, navigating two sets of employment laws, payroll complexity, cost of flying them in (even infrequently), language issues, recruitment (e.g. understanding foreign qualifications, advertising), and so on.
Typically if companies want remote workers abroad they avoid most of these by hiring an outsourcing company, letting the outsourcing company deal with the local stuff abroad, and all the US company has to do is send them a pile of money.
Hiring US remote worker doesn't solve all of these (e.g. two states in the US might have different employment laws) however it does solve at least half.
Why wouldn't these US companies hire them as consultants/contractors, which is fast, easy and cheap compared to hiring an outsourcing company that cost a lot of money?
In that way, the company doesn't need to care about local employment laws and payroll complexity. Each contractor signs a W8-BEN Form and takes care of its own local tax situation.
In addition to Timezone and Payroll legalities, a number of companies are worried about IP rights too. In the US, the laws are generally understood already by US companies, whereas the legal structure and concepts around IP isn't as clear cut when you employ someone in say Brazil, China or India etc.
Not that any of those Countries are bad, but the complexity for a smaller business that doesn't already have a footprint in that Country is pretty high. For a company that already has a footprint in another Country and may already have formed their own corporation there as a subsidiary then the barrier is far less with respect to Payroll and IP type issues.
Another point, a company in CA that employs a person in say Kansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Wyoming etc, will find they can pay people well but still save a significant amount of money over hiring locally. All while having employees close to the same timezone and without any other barriers to overcome. Not to mention a west coast company having east coast employees can help with support and overlap, like wise if you reverse it.
Cultural issues too. Wait until someone from a country with a different view on women in the workplace shares topless pics of his gf on the engineering slack channel. Or sends engineering candidates a coding test that shows a picture of a naked woman (in ascii, but def naked). You'll get to have all sorts of fun with HR and your lawyer.
Payroll is a huge headache. I worked at a California-based company that hired a Canadian, and I think they spent more money sorting out all the legal/financial issues than they paid him.
Quality could also be an issue. I hired some excellent people in India but they would have power-cuts every now and then, ridiculous internet speeds and inability to write good english.
I think it is quite common for east coast companies to hire European remote workers. I work in a Java team comprised of 7 people currently for a US Boston based company and 6 of the 7 are based in the EU (2 in UK,2 in Spain, 2 in Czech Republic).
There are certain barriers to hiring but it allows you to pick some really great engineers up that would just be impossible to do in San Fran etc without a huge budget.
They don't. US companies mostly hire remote workers in India and China, not in the US. When they do it overseas, they generally work with a local company to make the legal and logistical aspects simpler.
ymmv, but in my experience, local devs are the best--culture, language, in person meetings, and timezones matter. Also, quality is usually better in my experience with local devs
Someone1234|9 years ago
Typically if companies want remote workers abroad they avoid most of these by hiring an outsourcing company, letting the outsourcing company deal with the local stuff abroad, and all the US company has to do is send them a pile of money.
Hiring US remote worker doesn't solve all of these (e.g. two states in the US might have different employment laws) however it does solve at least half.
hijinks|9 years ago
demianbrener|9 years ago
In that way, the company doesn't need to care about local employment laws and payroll complexity. Each contractor signs a W8-BEN Form and takes care of its own local tax situation.
davismwfl|9 years ago
Not that any of those Countries are bad, but the complexity for a smaller business that doesn't already have a footprint in that Country is pretty high. For a company that already has a footprint in another Country and may already have formed their own corporation there as a subsidiary then the barrier is far less with respect to Payroll and IP type issues.
Another point, a company in CA that employs a person in say Kansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Wyoming etc, will find they can pay people well but still save a significant amount of money over hiring locally. All while having employees close to the same timezone and without any other barriers to overcome. Not to mention a west coast company having east coast employees can help with support and overlap, like wise if you reverse it.
x0x0|9 years ago
gozur88|9 years ago
adomanico|9 years ago
Because of NAFTA, the US and Canada share a ton of workers.
tn13|9 years ago
scalesolved|9 years ago
There are certain barriers to hiring but it allows you to pick some really great engineers up that would just be impossible to do in San Fran etc without a huge budget.
ljw1001|9 years ago
PaulHoule|9 years ago
zerr|9 years ago
ccvannorman|9 years ago
unknown|9 years ago
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