Jasmine Birtles
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How to Pay Your Team On-Time, Even in Different Time Zones
Reading Time: 3 minutesRemote working has been in existence for some time now. According to statistics, 16% of all companies work remotely for 100% of their operations. A much larger percentage are a hybrid of in-house and remote workers.
The best thing about remote working is that it allows employers to access top talent irrespective of the employees’ geographical location without having to change locations, which helps cut costs.
The biggest challenge for employers with international remote workers is payroll management. If you have remote workers in a different time zone and are having problems paying them on time, this post can offer tips to avoid such problems.
- Consolidate Pay Dates
- Leverage Technology to Manage Payroll
- Use a Payroll Service Provider
- Have the Right Documentation
- Understand Local Employment Laws
- Final Words
Consolidate Pay Dates
While there are different paydays for different countries, paydays are not cast in stone. So, you can consolidate paydays for all your employees without breaking the law.
Consolidating your payment days and cycles helps avoid having conflicting paydays that can increase the chances of missed or delayed pay.
While delayed payment by a few days may not be a big deal, studies show that an unpredictable payment schedule can affect an employee’s productivity.
Leverage Technology to Manage Payroll
Managing payroll for a small number of employees may not be much of a challenge. But as your company grows and hires more, payroll management can become a big challenge, sometimes even overwhelming your human resource team.
Traditionally the only solution to an overrun human resource team would be hiring more personnel. But in today’s competitive world, hiring more personnel could drive you into losses as it would mean eating into your bottom line.
Many companies leverage payroll management tools allowing one employee to do the work that would take several employees and thousands of dollars per month. Payroll management tools also ensure you get reminders for payment cycles, meaning you cannot miss your employees’ payday.
Use a Payroll Service Provider
Managing your payroll can be challenging and time-consuming, irrespective of the approach. There is always a chance of paying your employees late or making other costly payroll mistakes.
The best way of avoiding such mistakes is outsourcing your payroll management. The chances of payroll errors are very rare, and you can almost be sure that your employees receive their pay on time.
All you need is to provide the service provider with employee information, pay rate, and hours worked and leave the rest to them. But you will have to pay a fee for the services, which may not be much compared to the time you save.
If you are new to payroll management, this is the best option as it allows you to focus on other matters knowing that your employees are taken good care of.
Have the Right Documentation
Payroll is among the most sensitive areas in human resource management. Small errors can result in legal challenges that could cost you hundreds of dollars in fines and prison time in extreme cases. So you should ensure that you accompany employee remuneration with the proper documentation for reference purposes.
One important piece of documentation for your employees is the pay stub. A pay stub is a document issued to an employee by the employer stipulating their salary breakdown from their gross pay, statutory deductions, and net pay.
The second most important document is the W-2, a yearly wage and tax statement. The W-2 is an IRS requirement and must be sent to employees and the IRS by January 31 of every year.
Creating a W-2 form is easy. You only need to download a printable W2 form from a reliable online form generator like FormPros in quick, simple steps and at a fraction of the price you would need to pay a tax expert.
Understand Local Employment Laws
Countries have different employment laws you may need to abide by when working with remote employees. The laws are especially applicable to permanent employees.
So before you can engage them, ensure that you understand things like tax laws, payment dates, average wages, working hours, worker classification, etc. Failure to follow the law can get you in trouble with the law, which can result in fines, among other penalties.
Final Words
Payroll management can be challenging and time-consuming. When you have employees working from different time zones, the challenge goes to a new level, but the tips highlighted in this article can help simplify your business’s payroll management.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
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