Work from anywhere schemes - what are they and why do they matter?

Hello and welcome back to my newsletter! I missed the last issue as things were rather hectic here, onboarding new companies, launching new features, and closing in on 1 million users… I also travelled to Greece at the end of last week for a workation! So, I’m back with a very topical newsletter - Work From Anywhere schemes - based on one of my recent posts. 

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This week, I’ll be covering:

🤔 What exactly is a Work From Anywhere scheme? 

🤷‍♀️ Why aren’t they as simple as they seem?

🎁 How to add them easily to your EVP

❤️ The benefits of WFA and a story of how life changing this benefit can be

What exactly is a Work From Anywhere scheme?

At Flexa, we’ve recently seen a remarkable increase in the popularity of Work From Anywhere (WFA) schemes. Flexified companies such as Canda | In-house talent experts, Hydrogen Group, Huel, Waterstons, Flash Pack, EmeraldPublishing, and Multiverse, among many more (check them out here) have taken the plunge and are supporting their team members in their dreams of taking some time to live and work abroad. 

This increasing supply is not surprising, given that WFA schemes have become one of the most sought after benefits amongst candidates. From our own employee surveys, we know that 80% of candidates would like their employer to offer a Work From Anywhere (WFA) scheme. Fascinatingly, this is the top-ranked flexible benefit across all our surveys (note: we don’t categorise flexible location and flexible hours as “benefits”, as these are core ways of working). 

Remember; Work From Anywhere” does not equal “Hire From Anywhere”. The latter approach refers to companies who will hire a new team member from anywhere in the world. The new joiner is officially employed by either a local office / subsidiary within the company’s group or, as is becoming increasingly common, by an “Employer of Record” in that nation.

Why aren’t WFA schemes as simple as they seem?

As a rule of thumb in most countries, individuals who spend fewer than 183 days a year in that country will not be treated as tax resident. Easy, right… so, what’s the catch? 

The challenge is that a large number of countries have bespoke rules relating to tax residency, making the 183 day rule of thumb a very risky one indeed. Here are a few examples of where things might go wrong:

In Switzerland, tax residency kicks in after just 90 days.

In Hong Kong, tax residency kicks in after 90 days if the individual owns a property in HK.

Australia operates a particularly convoluted test for residency, there’s a beauty of a flow chart you can view.

Even here in the UK, residency status is checked through a head-scratching series of rules and regulations, which take into account any previous residency in the UK and even family member residency.

With all this in mind, companies have generally abided by a “safety first” approach. This will typically mean that the maximum cap on a Work From Anywhere (WFA) scheme is 45 days, or occasionally 60 days.

Why 45 days, you may ask? We’ve not yet come across any residency test that would suggest that a new visitor to a country would become tax-resident in fewer than 45 days. In other words, a max of 45 days abroad in one stint “plays it safe” and makes it very unlikely (but not impossible!) that an employee on a WFA scheme, and / or their employer, will fall foul of the local tax authorities.

How can you easily add a WFA scheme to your EVP?

In theory, adding a WFA scheme is easy - set the amount of time that someone can work outside of their resident country and shout about it! This is a benefit that not many companies offer, yet the majority of people want, so it’s the perfect way to add to your employer brand. 

If you already offer a WFA scheme, then you should consider being listed on Flexa to be discovered by the 1 million people using Flexa to search by “how” they want to work. We launched our WFA fliter recently and it's being used by thousands each week. Check us out here.

It is crucial to know where people are working in order to ensure that your company, and your team, remain tax compliant – which can be the tricky part! But, ultimately, it’s always better to set expectations than have people use their own judgement without the full understanding of how risky working from anywhere can be from a tax and legal perspective. 

“WFA schemes have completely changed the game” – The story of someone who has benefited hugely from WFA

Working from anywhere isn’t for everyone, but for those who want to travel or have ties abroad, it’s an amazing opportunity. The key benefits are:

🏝 More time to travel

❤️ The ability to spend more time with family abroad

💰 Fewer restrictions on timing and more cost efficient travel 

In order to illustrate just how much of a benefit WFA can have on individuals, I thought it would be useful to spotlight our operations lead, Aqua Zumaraite:

“I’m Lithuanian and live in Liverpool, and in previous roles I haven’t been able to spend much time with my family outside of a booked holiday, which is precious.

WFA schemes serve as so much more than a “nice to have” benefit to those of us who have moved away from our home countries, leaving family behind. We no longer have to choose between seeing our loved ones or having a break on the coast of Italy somewhere.

It means no longer using up our annual leave to be there for our family birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions, giving up that long awaited Greek holiday we’ve been planning for months but can’t find the time off for. WFA schemes have completely changed the game for those of us who took the leap and moved our whole lives to a foreign country. Instead of feeling like an “immigrant”, who goes home twice a year, I now have multiple homes and no longer sacrifice precious family time for my career.”

If you’re interested in showcasing your Work From Anywhere scheme, then book a demo with Flexa to understand how WFA could attract the attention of hundreds of thousands of potential candidates.