Most of Remote OK job posts say "in USA". Why don't they look to hire internationally?
Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#2[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#3Timezones, for one thing.
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#4Timezones, 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.
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#5In 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.
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#6In 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 footpri…
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.
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#7Timezones, for one thing.
Although, I've seen a lot of US/Canada only postings as well, so Mexico and S. America excluded.
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#8Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#9Timezones, 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…
to add to this.. some companies have compliance issues where all employees need to be legal US citizens.
Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?
#10In 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 footpri…
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.
I went on the French Hired.com yesterday, and asking me my race is simply illegal here, and having as option stuff like 'native american form Hawaii' (from memory, it was in french, making even less sense) did not really feel culturally sensitive. On the other hand, having my boss commenting on the look of a female engineer in the lunch room did not really make me feel good.
edit: but I would say that the american culture is shouted so loudly at the rest of the world that it's not really an issue in this direction.