Remote

As companies continue to expand their horizons in the 21st-century post the pandemic, hiring the best talent from across the globe is becoming more crucial by the day.

Many organizations have realized that locational constraints don’t withhold them with the advent of remote work. However, hiring someone from a different country can be very expensive and complex, especially for HR departments.

Organizations hiring overseas employees often find it troublesome to adhere to the legal and compliance norms regarding employee benefits, taxes, payroll, etc. Moreover, there can be large penalties and bans if businesses get it wrong.

This prevents many organizations from expanding to other nations and hiring global staff. But thankfully, solutions like ‘Remote’ are here to help such organizations.

Remote makes it possible to hire staff from anywhere in the world. It helps companies onboard global workers in minutes and takes care of employee payroll, benefits, and much more. This has earned the company much praise globally in recent years.

We are glad to have interviewed Mr. Job van der Voort, the CEO of Remote, and asked him about his mission, vision, and journey so far.

In Conversation with Mr. Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

A warm welcome from SoftwareSuggest Mr. Job van der Voort. What is your success mantra? Something you have followed personally that has helped you in your journey.

There’s a quote from the movie Finding Dory where she says that when times get tough she reminds herself, “just keep swimming!” I love that quote because life can be a roller coaster. You have to deal with bad and good things, and keep going and “keep swimming” — ultimately the hard times will end and you will get to wherever you are trying to go.

How has Remote equipped itself to deal with the Covid-19 situation better?

Remote was founded in early 2019 and we have always been a fully distributed company. Even prior to the pandemic, we saw that companies were evolving away from office-based cultures and adopting more flexible ways of working, and we recognized an opportunity to make the international employment process a lot better so they weren’t limited to hiring in their own countries. We have been in a fortunate position to support many other companies over the past two and a half years as they transform how they hire, onboard and manage their talent.

Our readers are keen to know what prompted you to create Remote? Tell us about your journey so far.

Prior to Remote I was working as VP of product at GitLab, which is one of the leaders in remote-first work. What I realized there is that remote work is not only about flexibility and freedom. There are also massive business advantages to building a company fully remotely and fully distributed. Instead of being limited to the talent pool in an arbitrary geographic location, you can truly build the best team in the world, and that team can be more diverse, and have a better quality of life. The people on that team, meanwhile, can access competitive salaries to build a good life regardless of where they happen to live. 

The problem that kept coming up for us was that whenever we wanted to hire someone living in another country, it was usually super complex and expensive to do it. There are legal and compliance obligations to consider, taxes, employee benefits, payroll, and so on. If you get it wrong, the penalties can be enormous. I realized we were not the only ones facing these challenges. By solving what I believe is the hardest problem in building distributed companies, then more companies could work that way. 

Which features are most valuable in Remote?

Remote makes it possible to hire anyone from anywhere. A company can onboard an employee or contract worker in just minutes, and we take care of the international payroll and applicable benefits, taxes, stock options, and compliance. 

Something we are particularly proud of is that we are the only Employer of Record that does not outsource its in-country entities to third parties. Instead, we employ a team of highly-skilled and specialized experts everywhere we operate. That means we really understand that country and its culture, reducing risk for our clients while also helping them provide the best possible employment experience to their people living there. 

What updates and advancements are being made at Remote to help your clients navigate in the new normal?

Recently we launched Remote Relocation, which a lot of our customers have asked for. As “work from anywhere” becomes more common, more people are seeking to relocate to new countries while retaining their jobs. We are happy to be there for them. Our in-house experts provide end-to-end support of the relocation process, including having Remote be the work permit sponsor, if necessary.

Where do you see Remote to scale greater heights in the next 5 years?

We are on a mission to open up the world of work for every person, business, and country. So from that perspective, we are just getting started.

Are there any ideological principles that your organization follows to maintain the brand value?

At Remote we really believe in the power of remote work to democratize opportunities for people around the globe. Your location doesn’t need to determine your career, especially as the world gets smaller and more connected. Everything we do is around helping people and companies tap into the global marketplace for talent.

What is your advice to young entrepreneurs?

Be ambitious. Ambition is one of our core values at Remote. We are working on a vision that is really hard to achieve, so we all have to do the best job we’ve ever done to get there. You may be working on something just as difficult, that you enjoy equally as much, and you will have to be ambitious about speed, quality and excellence in order to accomplish it.