Working abroad without compliance headaches
Just working from Spain for a few days. Travelling to Amsterdam for a client meeting. Or sending staff abroad for several months. What may sound fairly straightforward to staff at first can create a whole host of additional tasks for HR behind the scenes: A1 certificates, visas and work permits, tax issues, social security, employment law, data protection – and then there’s the employer’s duty of care to consider as well. Workflex aims to automate precisely these processes to a large extent, thereby enabling flexible working across national borders.
Ben Bauer is Vice President of Sales at WorkFlex. In this interview, we discuss where the biggest compliance pitfalls lie when working abroad, which processes can now be automated, where AI can help – and whether HR really needs to use yet another system for this. Let’s get started: SAATKORN: Ben, please introduce yourself briefly to SAATKORN readers. And what exactly does WorkFlex do?
I’m Ben Bauer, originally from Lower Bavaria, now living in Munich, and I’m Vice President of Sales at WorkFlex. We focus on how companies can enable their employees to work abroad in compliance with regulations. This covers a wide range of scenarios: traditional business trips, long-term secondments, visa and immigration issues, as well as ‘workations’. Added to this are matters relating to duty of care and SOS – in other words, the employer’s duty of care. Incidentally, WorkFlex itself operates entirely remotely. We have no offices and our staff can work from wherever they like.
SAATKORN: At first glance
,
working abroad sounds fairly straightforward for staff. Open your laptop, connect to Wi-Fi, and off you go. Where does it get complicated for HR?
As soon as someone crosses a border, a whole host of different issues can come into play. This ranges from visas and work permits, through potential permanent establishment risks, payroll (or shadow payroll) and income tax, right up to reporting obligations within the EU. Added to this are employment law, social security and, for example, the A1 certificate, health and travel insurance, data protection and the employer’s duty of care.
Which requirements actually apply always depends on the specific case: Who is travelling where? For how long? What will the person be doing there? And what type of stay is it? – This is precisely why HR quickly faces a considerable amount of manual work.
SAATKORN: And it is precisely this workload that you aim to reduce with WorkFlex. How does that work in practice?
Many of these cases have traditionally been handled manually, sometimes in collaboration with external advisers or large consultancy firms. We also have experts in these areas. The difference is that we incorporate this knowledge into our software as much as possible. This allows many checks and processes to be automated. It reduces the manual workload and makes processing faster and more cost-effective, without companies having to forego the necessary expert assessment. If a case cannot be clearly assessed by the software, our experts step in.
SAATKORN: HR probably isn’t exactly thrilled about yet another tool into which they have to enter travel data. Do I have to actively maintain WorkFlex all the time?
Ideally, no.
For example, we can utilise existing travel booking data via integrations. Let’s say I book a business trip to Amsterdam using the company’s existing booking tool. This information can then be transferred to WorkFlex. If, for example, an A1 certificate is required for this trip, the process can be triggered automatically. Ideally, I’ll then simply receive the completed certificate by email. Only if any information is still missing do we need to request it separately.
The aim, therefore, is not for employees or HR to have to use an additional system intensively for every process, but for as much as possible to happen in the background.
SAATKORN: Among other things, you distinguish between business trips and secondments. Why is this distinction so important?
Because the requirements can vary greatly. In the case of a business trip, we primarily aim to identify and avoid potential risks at an early stage. With a secondment, on the other hand, we know that certain requirements and risks exist and must be dealt with accordingly. An expatriation is therefore generally much more complex. Here, for example, tax issues, payroll, visas, social security and other legal requirements can play a greater role. That is why it is important to first identify what type of case it is.
SAATKORN: And is AI now coming into play here as well?
Yes. One use case, for example, is where a company simply describes a specific case in natural language. The AI can then help assess: Is this more of a business trip or an expatriation? How should the case be classified legally? And which issues need to be taken into account? Particularly in more complex cases, this can significantly simplify the initial assessment.
SAATKORN: When it comes to compliance, one quickly thinks of forms and certificates. But you also offer Duty of Care and SOS services. What’s behind these?
As an employer, I also have a duty of care towards my staff when they are travelling. For example, via our mobile app, employees can receive location-based alerts if something happens where they are staying. Companies can see which employees are on which trips and react accordingly if necessary. There’s also support for emergencies and insurance matters. So it’s not just about organising the necessary documents before a trip, but also about being able to provide appropriate protection and support for employees whilst they’re away.
SAATKORN: From what company size does a solution like this actually become worthwhile?
That depends less on a fixed company size than on the number and complexity of international cases. In our experience, it can be worthwhile to take a closer look at such a process, for example, when there are around 50 to 100 business trips or roughly ten to 15 secondments. We therefore work with a wide variety of companies – from organisations with around 100 employees right up to large corporations. Ultimately, the key question is: How many cross-border cases do I have, and how much manual effort do they currently require?
SAATKORN: And if a company says: ‘Sounds good, but please, not another IT project lasting months’ – how complex is the implementation?
That depends, of course, on the organisation in question and the desired integrations. However, we try to keep the IT workload to a minimum, provided that no bespoke technical solutions need to be built.
Our clients are assigned a dedicated Customer Success contact. In addition, we require, for example, the necessary powers of attorney for the companies on whose behalf we are to handle certain processes.
For a typical company with around 2,000 employees in the DACH region or Europe, the implementation – including training and change management – can take around four weeks. We also recommend not necessarily rolling it out across the entire organisation straight away, but starting, for example, with a single company or a specific division.
SAATKORN: If HR managers want to enable their staff to work more internationally but get a headache just thinking about taxes, A1 certificates, visas and the like – what advice would you give them?
Working internationally certainly involves a degree of complexity. But this complexity doesn’t mean that every single case has to be processed entirely manually. Many checks and processes can now be automated or at least greatly simplified. It’s important that companies keep an eye on the various risks and create a process that works as smoothly as possible for both HR and employees. After all, flexible working abroad shouldn’t ultimately fail simply because the administration involved is too complicated.
SAATKORN: Ben, thank you very much for the interview!
Further links
- Ben Bauer’s full presentation is available in the 4INSIDER media library.
- Fancy joining the next SAATKORN Online Conference live? You can register here.