OK, so I am here to talk to you about building effective global remote teams. Here we are at the beginning of the pandemic. Everyone is excited about the potential and the opportunity to hire anyone anywhere. There is a world of talent at your fingertips.And I know especially since this is a technology conference, I was thinking about how to build out their team because none of us can find enough people right now. So the question is, is how do you best go about doing that? Um So first of all, I'll give you a little bit of, of back. My name is Nicole and founder of globalization partners. I built the industry leading s a global employer of record platform and what experts call a trillion dollar opportunity in the new era of global remote work. So what that means is that normally, let me just translate that into English. Normally, if you want to hire talent in India or Europe or Argentina or a great engineer in Uruguay, you have to figure out how to put um on a locally compliant payroll, which normally means setting up a company in that country instead of you doing all of that, we employ those people for you on your behalf, using our already existing legal entities.

The reason it says is because we've built software on top. So the customers, the hr team's experience is really to, you know, have everything at your fingertips. So you wanna build a fully compliant employment contract, make sure the employee has good benefits. But you know, this is something scalable just like when your hr team on boards, teams for you in the US, you know, you already know what benefits you can offer. You already know what vacation days you can offer. So we build, you know, we put the the product at our customers fingertips. So really, you get the benefit of a global team without dealing with the hr legal and tax issues traditionally associated with hiring internationally. Um, and basically that means you can hire anyone anywhere quickly and easily in just a couple of I'd say hours, you know, software only takes a little bit of time. But ultimately, let's face it. We have to negotiate with people get paperwork out the door and that type of thing. So, um, ok, but the next question is, is, is it the time to go global again? Since this is a technology conference? I don't think I have to tell you, there is a huge shortage of engineers in the United States and in most of the developed world altogether, the time is now beyond that, there's probably a huge market for your goods and services in other countries as well.

And so now is the time when people are really stepping back because also it's nobody, you don't have to hire people who can only show up to your office every day anymore. Now, you've realized you can hire anyone anywhere. You've already probably done the hard work of setting up your systems and infrastructure to engage remote workers. So who cares if they're in another country or not? Suddenly you have the whole world at your fingertips. Um The reason going global is so compelling and why the time is now is because you can access hard to find talent. You can maximize revenue opportunities, uh maximize cost efficiency. So it might be less expensive to hire great talent in other jurisdictions. And finally, because it's a talent war out there and we all want to get the best people we can as quickly as possible. So that's why the time is now the catalyst for the time being now is really that with the pandemic, everyone is everywhere. Flexibility, letting people work where they want to be and letting them be closer to their families or work from, from wherever they are is about retention. And we've had this huge cultural shift. So ultimately, the world's best talent is at your fingertips and it's there now in a way that it's never been before.

So we really recommend that you go where the talent is go where your customers are and also source talent where it makes sense to do so, and that is the norm of the future. So ultimately, if you're not doing it, your competitors are, and it's really how to think strategically and stay ahead of the game. Now, there's a lot of fear about hiring people globally in other countries or people that you've never met before, especially if they're from a different culture or community than you are yet. I'm here to tell you that hiring people from a different country is just very similar to hiring people in your own country. The recruitment hiring and on boarding process is very much the same through video calling as it is in other locations. Once you get that legal hr tax stuff out of the way, you know, it's about reviewing, reviewing resumes, talking to someone getting a sense for their work style, their efficiency and their background. Um Lots of video interviews and making sure that you find someone with who is a cultural fit.

One thing I will say if you're going to hire somebody in a country where they're a lone wolf or really will be an independent actor is to look for someone who is a self starter and passionate about the job. Um It's hard for people, especially in a lot of countries. The US has the start up mentality where we really like highly independent people and it's normal for us to act independently. But in a lot of countries that's not the norm. And so you want to find those people who love that and have that mindset already. Of note, training has to be digitized and non synchronous in order for this to work. So you really have to think about how you're setting your company up to leverage different time zones. So, you know, everyone went everywhere recently and there was this huge policy change around, you know, companies just suddenly decided. Well, if everyone's everywhere, you know, we can let everyone go everywhere due to the pandemic. But as of 2021 people really had to step back and think about what that means. The reason is it's your responsibility as an employer to be compliant and to know where your employees are living and working so that you can make sure that they're on the proper payroll for their country and to make sure that you're following the employee laws in that country.

Beyond that, if you have employees in another jurisdiction, you're also responsible for paying taxes in that location most likely. So you either need to again register for payroll and register your business as a company everywhere, your employees live and work or you can use globalization partners or another company to engage your employees on your behalf as an employer of record, skipping those two options is really unwise and could really open up your business to a lot of liability.

Um It would be similar to paying people under the table in the United States. You just can't do it. Ok. So then you might take a look and you say we're doing this, what do I need to do? Um The next step is to really think about the best hubs in which to find pockets of talent. So you have to think about geographic plans or goals and align your talent with time zones and customers, where can you find the talent that you need? And it's cost a factor successful companies go where the business is and where the talent pools exist. So just to give you an example for Europe, our typical client would hire a VP of sales in London or maybe Germany or the Netherlands. They're gonna hire one or two people in the capital cities of all the other jurisdictions. However, as you know, sales people are not the ones you know, primarily responsible for generating revenue anymore. They close deals, but your marketing team is kind of the engine behind them who's driving leads their way. It's a back office role. So where would you put your back office if you had people in high cost locations like London or Berlin or Amsterdam, you put your back office in a place where you're going to hire lots of talent, people who speak lots of languages, highly skilled, highly educated and a good like cultural aptitude for work.

Um So for example, in Europe, we love Ireland, we love Romania. We love Poland for our back office hubs. Also, you could think about tech talent, which is almost in its own category. A lot of people are looking for engineers. No surprise to the people here. So where do you find tech talent hotspots? They're usually centered around universities. Poland, Ireland, Romania, Ukraine and Russia are hot spots for Europe. So as a strategy, putting your client facing people in those cities where they're kind of networked with other people in big cities where the customers are is critical. But putting the back office in a in a hub location is also wise. Next step, moving on to Asia. OK, let's say you want to expand into Asia, the typical path that customers followed. If you just want to follow the market and do what other people are doing is to consider putting your headquarters for Asia in Singapore. Secondary backup would be Hong Kong, which is if your China market is really good. But if you want to grab Asia all over VP of sales in Singapore, so you put your highly talented executive leads in Singapore and your back office hubs could be spread from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. India is a huge back office, talented talent hub or the Philippines.

So those different regions are all known for different things. Philippines is known for very talented English language, speaking back office, customer and marketing support. India is really well known for back office finance and technology support, Kuala Lumpur, lots of people from all over the region who speak, you know, many languages and highly talented. So a similar similar idea there building a unified digital culture is critical and it's also possible but it requires work. So you can have a great community of people that you've never met before, but you have to strive to do it. One thing we recommend with global organizations is a video first policy. Um It's important to note that communication and management styles vary significantly by culture. And so people being able to read your expression really is helpful for them, understanding the nuance and the intention behind your words.

53% of communication is non verbal. If you can imagine that it means that the words I'm saying only communicate half of my message so that my body language and my facial expressions say just as much as my words multiply that time somebody who is reading lips and you can see why video communication is so critical.

As always, it's incredibly important to take back your employee feedback to the headquarters team that you're investing in your leadership training and career ladders. Employees need clarity and leaders who can show them the way forward in a global organization just as much as elsewhere with that.

I wanted to open it up to questions. I know we are short on time but wanted to open the conversation so that we can move forward and the questions we see here.

Hey Nicole. Yeah, there was one question that came through in the chat just now. Um And I'll read it for you here because I know you've got probably multiple screens open. So would this globalization trend that you're talking about hurt workforce in areas where the cost of living and hiring people are more expensive?

Margot? It looks like you're popping on. Hey Nicole, can you hear me? I can. Yeah. Absolutely

awesome. Ok. So, um I was trying to ask you a question there and we must have had a leg. So there was a question that popped in in the chat. Everyone else feel free to keep answering them. We do have a few minutes with Nicole. So ask away the one that came through Nicole is would this trend of globalization that you've been talking about? Is it possible that it could hurt the workforce in areas where the cost of living and hiring people are more expensive?

Yeah, I mean, maybe with time, I think it's really, but, but I'm not so worried about that. I actually think um it's actually a rise, rise of the rest. So I think that there will be a big opportunity for people in lower cost jurisdictions to kind of move up quickly and that we'll see some opportunities spread that said we are in a talent war and those people who live in those higher cost jurisdictions, people are still paying them just as much.

And actually, like, if you look at right now, yes, everybody's aware of global remote work and companies are hiring in lower cost jurisdictions and droves and yet we're not seeing any slowdown in San Francisco and Boston and London or any of those other locations. So, basically, I don't think it hurts people in high cost jurisdictions. I think they just get more freedom like everyone else but the, the salaries will increase in lower cost jurisdictions.

Yeah, that's a great answer. Nicole. Thanks so much. Um, and I'm sure that you'll be able to continue some of the Q and A in the chat area if you're sticking around. Um, so we'll make sure that we let everyone know that, that you're here for the, for a little bit longer. Thanks so much Nicole for

joining us. Nice to be here.