Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#1

Post by hichamin » Tue, May 08, 2018, 3:33 PM UTC

We're starting a new company focused on solving the problem of talent war by helping late-stage startups have successful remote collaborations with tech talent. However, we're still trying to figure out which vertical to focus on. Which of these verticals is most pressing?

1. Sourcing & vetting candidates? 2. Managing international payroll? 3. Bootcamps? 4. Infrastructure & working space?

Let me know your thoughts!

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#2

Post by daurnimator » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:26 PM UTC

  - International payroll: often impacts tax situation
  - Adjusting to remote collaboration. e.g. no more walls of sticky notes; can no longer rely on water cooler conversations or "quick meetings"
  - Timezones

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#3

Post by legohorizons » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

What exactly is the pain with international payrolls? I don’t quite understand..

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#4

Post by macinjosh » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

I'd say #4. I am remote and my company has a hard time providing, tracking, maintaining, and upgrading the gear employees need to do their job. It currently involves a lot of manual data entry, trips to the UPS store by both HQ staff and remote employees. Especially an issue when the person who is ordering gear doesn't understand the gear or the needs of the employee.

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#5

Post by jvalencia » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

The biggest challenge with remote is coordination. I've now managed 4 remote teams. The turn-around time between communication cycles with people on the other side of the globe can drastically increase the time it takes to get consensus on issues that locally might take 10 minutes.

I can recall several times where clearly (or so we thought) laid out plans were given over to have them come back a week later with some measure of misunderstanding. The 2 solutions to this have either been micromanaging the remote team, which is painful or time consuming -- or giving the team enough autonomy to work independently, which is risky.

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#6

Post by sontek » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:31 PM UTC

Payroll is the biggest issue. You have to pay taxes in any state your employee is working. This gets expensive and time intensive as you start filing annual reports and paying taxes in 4 or 5 states.

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#7

Post by jasonlotito » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:32 PM UTC

We hire remote.

None of these are big problems. The biggest problem we have is communicating effectively with people in various time zones, and making them feel apart of the team. Video conferencing is still an area that is lacking in this area. I've yet to find a service that meets all our needs. Right now we are using LifeSize because it's the best we've found, and still fairly annoying.

The problem really isn't on the "hiring" end. It's how to work as effectively with remote people as you would with people in the same office. When you introduce friction with remote, it causes problems. That being said, I think it's a worthwhile problem to solve.

Not sure this helps, but this is our biggest struggle right now.

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#8

Post by allday » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

The biggest challenge to making remote workers successful is the existing company culture. If the organization has not been built with a conscious "remote-first" mindset, new remote collaborators will inevitably be excluded from necessary communications and decisions. Making a remote worker a true part of the team requires a massive culture shift if your company does not already (successfully) do distributed work.

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#9

Post by BrandiATMuhkuh » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

We are a pure remote company but Tax/employment-law is for us the biggest issue. Or to be more precise, it's the biggest issue for potential co-workers. We find that people are super interested in us, but when we tell them they have to do their own tax and basically act as freelancers, most say no to us. The majority simply wants a standard legal employment. Which I understand and I would like to have that too.

Re: Ask HN: What are the biggest challenges preventing startups from hiring remote?

#10

Post by jaimebuelta » Tue, May 08, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

legohorizons wrote: post #3

What exactly is the pain with international payrolls? I don’t quite understand..

Dealing with taxes and with contracts in different jurisdictions. Sure, some people may be ok with working self-employed and handle all of that themselves, but not everyone will do.