The Harvard Business Review's Your Company Needs a Digital Nomad Policy covers the reasons why companies should have formal digital nomad programs and policies.
Based on an extensive study of digital nomads done by Emergent Research and MBO Partners, the article highlights two key reasons digital nomad policies and programs are important.
The first is that digital nomads, who are well educated and digitally savvy, tend to work in professions where talent shortages are common and attracting and retaining employees is a constant challenge.
Coherent, explicit digital nomad programs and policies make it easier to hire these in-demand workers and engage, reward, and retain existing employees who wish to travel.
The second reason is that having digital nomads on the payroll can leave firms open to a variety of regulatory and legal risks. Key article quote:
"The laws and regulations that apply to a person’s work are generally based on the jurisdiction where the work is performed, even if the employer is located elsewhere. As a result, digital nomads can easily and accidentally create a new “permanent establishment” for their employer in the state or country where they’re working. That exposes both the employer and the employee to the new jurisdiction’s tax, regulatory, and compliance rules and laws."
As the digital nomad study chart below shows (click to enlarge), 10.9 million workers report being digital nomads. And, most of them (6.3 million) have traditional jobs. This means most larger U.S. firms have digital nomads on their payroll, whether they know it or not.
See the article - written by us and Miles Everson, CEO of MBO Partners - for more details. Also, see our Digital Nomad section for more on this topic.
