- Paddle, a payments company for software startups, allows staff to work abroad for 45 days a year.
- Work from anywhere is a highly in-demand work benefit post-pandemic.
- Paddle told Insider the policy helps employees manage their work-life balance.
Working from anywhere is a highly sought-after but elusive post-pandemic work benefit.
While remote or hybrid working has been adopted by many companies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses that allow their employees to work from other countries for long stretches of time are still in the minority.
The idea is popular with employees and job seekers. Airbnb said in the week following its recent work-from-anywhere announcement, more than 800,000 people flocked to its careers page.
There are a few reasons why other companies are resistant to letting employees work from anywhere.
It has the potential to become an HR and tax minefield. Full-time employees will be subject to country-specific local employment laws and tax requirements if they remain in a country for too long. Fines for tax or employment violations can be harsh, and not all companies are willing to roll the dice on the extra expense.
Paddle is a London-based startup that provides payment and bill infrastructure for fellow software firms and is valued at $1.4 billion. It's one of the few companies right now offering a work-from-anywhere policy, with any of its 275 employees permitted to work from any country in the world for 45 days of the year.
Insider spoke to Hanna Smith, Paddle's head of people, to find out how.
1. Paddle sought legal advice for the policy
Smith said that the idea to introduce Paddle's work-from-anywhere policy came from an in-house employee survey. She said that many employees were starting to travel again, and working abroad was something Paddle wanted to allow alongside its remote work policy.
"The pandemic gave us all the ability to do things differently," Smith said. "We wanted to do it because the world was starting to open up again."
Paddle sought advice when creating its "Navigate" policy to avoid potential issues.
"We took legal advice on it," Smith said. "Generally, you can work outside of your country of employment for under 90 days without being personally liable to pay tax in that country or the company being liable to pay tax in that country."
"I think tax is definitely a big consideration. That's why we settled on 45 days," she added.
She said companies should seek personalized advice as laws can vary by country. Airbnb's policy follows a similar structure, with workers allowed to work in 170 countries for up to 90 days a year.
2. Working from abroad can improve work-life balance
Giving employees the ability to work from other countries has boosted Paddle's recruitment and retention, Smith said.
"It's one of the first things that candidates want to know about," she said. "It's definitely a good attraction piece for talent and a retention piece too."
Since Paddle introduced the scheme in August 2021, 43 employees have used the policy for a total of 285.5 days.
Smith said that the policy has also enabled employees to look after their wellbeing on their own terms.
"We have one employee who suffers from seasonal affective disorder — they didn't want to use their vacation or to go on holiday. They wanted to actually be able to work somewhere where they have more sunlight so they used the policy to do that in January," she said.
The main restrictions on the policy are timescale and timezone.
Navigate requests must be submitted to the company before an employee travels and Paddle prefers employees to stay within a five-hour plus or minus timezone — but Smith added that they takes a "personalized approach" to the rule.