The way we work has been flipped upside down by the Covid-19 pandemic. In March, we said goodbye to our cubicles, and now in September, we’re still working from our couches.

According to a recent Gallup survey, more than 60% of American workers are still “WFH” (working from home), and this isn’t expected to change anytime soon.

Overall, workers appear to be content with the new remote set-up. Fifty-nine percent of workers — who report feeling more disciplined or creative at home — say they would like to continue working from home.

And as American workers are spreading out across the country, they are expanding off-the-beaten-path towns and smaller cities. Rents in once unaffordable metropolises might lower, and less commuting might mean fewer emissions.

Unfortunately, though, not every remote worker is experiencing WFH bliss, specifically Canadians living and working in the US

It’s an interesting paradox. Canada, while similar to the US in terms of geography, language, culture, and standard of living is still a foreign country.

So a Canadian living in the Bay Area who is from Vancouver may be physically closer to their family than a colleague whose family lives in New York City, but isn’t able to see or work from home because they need to stay in the US to keep their job – they can’t work remotely in another country.

In essence, this means that Canadians living in the US are neither here nor there – they are neither so far from their loved ones that seeing them now feels understandably impossible, yet not close enough due to the US/Canada border to be able to go home.

All that is to say – now is the perfect time to ask your Canadian employees, “How are you doing?”

How are your Canadian employees handling the pandemic in America?

There are approximately 900,000 Canadians living in the United States.

A number of these Canucks traveled back home in March when the COVID-19 pandemic was picking up in North America, which really highlighted the importance of being closer to family.

But many have stayed in the US despite being a stone’s throw from their loved ones at home. A large reason for this is the fact that the pandemic has created a worldwide economic recession on top of everything else, and unless your company has a Canadian office, Canadian workers in the US have to choose between keeping their job (in the US) and going back home to Canada.

So checking in with your Canadian employees is potentially more important now than ever before.

Start with general daily check-ins

If you’ve never really checked in with your employees on a more personal level before, you might want to ease into it. Consider, for example, establishing a structured, daily check-in.

The key is to make this check-in regular and consistent, showing your employees that it’s important for you to devote time to discuss their concerns and answer their questions.

Slack or sending an email are easy check-in options, but video conferencing (when possible) is the best way to conduct these check-ins.

Being able to see each other’s faces encourages us to pick up on visual cues, better understand who we’re working with, and reduce feelings of isolation.

All of this helps establish a level of security and safety where employees feel cared for and also feel comfortable enough to share their experiences with you, an important step to making sure your Canadian workers feel heard and cared for.

Ask them if they would prefer to be back home in Canada

Once you’ve established a level of safety and openness if your Canadian employee has mentioned that they miss their family or otherwise want to go back home to Canada, consider offering them the opportunity to move back home to Canada and keep their job.

If your company doesn’t have an official Canada office, your employee might not even consider this an option, and might be hanging on to their job while truly wishing they were back home with friends and family.

But just because you don’t have a Canadian office, doesn’t mean it’s impossible to hire someone remotely from Canada – you can actually do this through a professional employer organization — commonly referred to as a PEO.

With a PEO, your Canadian employee can move home to Canada but keep their job at your US-based company while enjoying all the perks of being with their loved ones!

Hiring your Canadian workers through a PEO is the solution to their remote work issues

A PEO enables US-based companies to remotely hire an international professional in their home country, in this case, Canada.

A PEO technically hires your employee, keeps them on their local Canadian payroll, and otherwise takes care of all the administrative-legal, and tax work while you continue to manage the day-to-day aspects of the employee’s job. Essentially, it’s as if your US company had an office in Canada.

The bottom line is that your Canadian worker keeps their job, gets to live in Canada, and enjoys all the benefits of their Canadian citizenship. 

There are many practical benefits for US employers to hire Canadian workers through a PEO. While you — the employer — retains management over the employee, the PEO assumes responsibility for all the nitty-gritty of employment — reporting wages, employment taxes, and payroll.

A Canadian PEO can also act on behalf of the US employer in employee disputes, workers’ compensation claims, and other legal disputes. PEOs can sometimes even cover human resource tasks like recruiting and hiring drug testing, and family leave. 

There are so many things that PEOs can do to make hiring Canadians in Canada easy and beneficial for American companies.

And right now, that could mean truly making a Canadian employee happy by enabling them to go home to Canada while keeping their job.

Let Syndesus help. 

Syndesus empowers you to improve your Canadian employees’ quality of life

The Covid-19 pandemic has erased and rewritten our idea of a “normal” workday. In the process, many managers have watched in horror as the initial excitement of working from home has deteriorated into an isolated, lonely, and unmotivated experience.

The best thing you can do for your Canadian employees right now is to show them that you care, and potentially give them the opportunity to work from home in Canada.  

Syndesus, which has operations in both Canada and Silicon Valley, can help your Canadian workers relocate to Canada and continue to work for your US-based company.

In a year of crazy twists and turns, working with Syndesus to employ Canadian workers might be the easiest, most straightforward thing you do.

Want to hear more? Book a consultation to learn about how you can leverage Syndesus to easily and legally employ your Canadian employees remotely from Canada.