Web designer in India, CIO in the USA and company headquarters in Berlin. Does that work?
Due to the ongoing shortage of skilled workers, many companies are greatly expanding their radius in their search for qualified people. Corona has shown that it is not absolutely necessary to work remotely. Thanks to digitalization, many people with an internet connection can work from anywhere. The American journalist Thomas Friedmann described this scenario back in 2005 in his book ‘The World is Flat’.
But what about the corporate culture when working remotely? Is there a special team spirit? What about the official regulations?
It all sounds so simple when you imagine the digital working world on paper. However, it often fails due to individual adjustments.
In order for a company to hire employees in a foreign country, it must first register as an employer there. It is often necessary to set up a local branch. If a foreign employee is permanently employed abroad by a German company, the legal provisions of the respective country of employment apply. The German company is subject to the legal provisions of the foreign country with regard to contribution and reporting obligations.
And then there’s the matter of team spirit and corporate culture. There are now numerous guides on how this can be practiced with distance. However, there are often obstacles such as different time zones, meaning that a coffee break after German time in other locations might be a midnight drink.
The challenges
Such circumstances pose enormous challenges when it comes to establishing and communicating a corporate culture as a key success factor in business. Especially when companies are growing rapidly, hiring virtually and many employees have often never met in person, this is definitely not an easy undertaking.
According to the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the trend among German companies is that almost two thirds of companies do not want to expand the home office any further or even want to reduce it. One of the main reasons for this is that it would conflict with the corporate culture.
As described in Friedmann’s book, the world of work is indeed somewhat flattened, but roundings such as different time zones, different languages and especially corporate cultures are not easy to straighten out.
