Expanding your recruiting range to remote workers in Canada can have incredible results for US companies (‘Extending Your Recruiting Range with a Canadian PEO’). However, it isn’t an easy process. There’s a plethora of legal, financial, and logistical challenges involved.
It might be tempting to go it alone and handle the issues by yourself, but in reality, this is just making life much more difficult than it needs to be.A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can help make the process much smoother and easier for everyone involved, taking care of the gritty technical details while you focus on running your business. Here’s how they do it.
Compliance with Canadian Employment Laws
American employment contracts are legally unenforceable in Canada, as they refer to a different legal system. This means you’ll need to do things slightly differently when hiring Canadian remote workers to ensure you remain compliant with all the employment laws.
One solution here is to have your Canadian employee sign an employment agreement that is compliant with Canadian employment laws. This is where a PEO comes in: they can take care of the legalities on both sides of the border.
Another advantage of this is that your PEO can help you become more aware of Canadian law and how to comply. Instead of figuring out the legal intricacies on your own, you can get advice and support from a professional.
Building a Team
There’s a big difference between working with a contractor and hiring an employee. When you bring someone on board as a worker, that means they’ve bought into your vision and what your company is aiming to accomplish. They aren’t just in a mercenary role; they’re a part of the team.
This is an important distinction to make when hiring remote workers. According to research by Igloo Software, 70% of remote workers feel left out of the office. Making your remote employees feel included and part of the team is important for their long-term wellbeing and loyalty.
This means including them in your long-term plans and treating them the same as any other employee. There are many ways a PEO can help you do this, such as:
- Issuing stock options
- Offering the same perks as you would locally-based employees, such as 401(k) matching, healthcare, and a laptop
- Covering transport costs and encouraging remote staff to join team events in the US
Making your remote workers feel like they’re as much a part of the team as your US-based employees is important. It’ll make them more likely to stay on board, be enthusiastic about your vision, and deliver great results.
Stock Options
If you’re a US company with venture capital backing you may want to offer stock options to your Canadian workers.
A PEO can help you with the legal issuance of options to these employees, and also make that worker aware of their unique tax situation when it comes to accepting or purchasing US options.
These topics are typically a gray area for American companies, and US employers tend to be unaware of the taxation issues involved with giving non-US employees stock options.
Ease of Payment
One of the biggest challenges involved in employing workers in another country is dealing with payments. With a PEO, you don’t have to worry about figuring out Canadian banking and payment structures.
A good PEO will be able to use payroll platforms like ADP to take care of this. They will also handle tax — forwarding all taxation to the Canada Revenue Agency. Ensuring you’re compliant with tax procedures can be a huge headache when employing workers from abroad, and trying to do it alone can leave you vulnerable to mistakes.
A PEO can provide support and expert guidance across every stage of hiring and employing a Canadian worker for your US company. They can take care of the many, complex bureaucratic and financial challenges so you don’t have to.
To find out more about how Syndesus can help you recruit Canadian remote workers and employ them legally and safely, request a free consultation today.
