How Employees Working in Multiple States Can Impact HR Strategy
Written by:
Erica Jones
Sr. HR Business Partner
In hybrid and remote working environments, employers must adjust their usual HR strategy. They have to consider policies and regulations they didn’t before and ensure their company is in compliance with the laws in the states where their employees work. They must also prevent remote employees from feeling isolated and disconnected from the rest of the company.
What is the best HR strategy for dealing with employees in multiple states?
This article will discuss how having multi-state employees can impact your HR strategy, as well as some best practices for keeping in compliance with state laws and regulations.
Factors to Consider for a Multi-State Employer
There are many considerations when you’re managing employees in multiple states with their own requirements and regulations. To create a successful multi-state working environment, take into account these factors:
1. State Employment Laws
You must analyze how different employment laws will impact your policies, and then decide how to approach applying them to your staff. Currently, companies with employees in multiple states can choose to enforce the most generous and beneficial laws for their staff. For example, Connecticut’s Family and Medical Leave Act allows 16 weeks of leave, while most other states only offer 12, so if you have any employees performing work in Connecticut, you can apply its leave policy to your entire staff regardless of where they work.
Each state is unique and may have different laws in place, so you must communicate each employee’s rights in accordance with the state in which they’re working. Make sure posters with federal and state laws are not only displayed around your office but also provided digitally to offsite staff. A detailed employee handbook available digitally with addendums specific to certain state laws can also help provide consistency and clarity.
All this adds to the burden of understanding how to be a legally compliant employer across all states. Ignoring state-specific regulations can lead to legal issues or financial penalties.
2. Remote Work Policies
You’ll need to consider what guidelines to provide employees working from a home office regarding data privacy and proper information storage, or health and safety concerns relative to an employee’s work environment (i.e., do they work from a couch, coffee table, or a dedicated office?). You must also determine if you will establish core work hours across time zones to help teams collaborate, and what equipment the company will provide to remote employees.
3. Culture and Employee Engagement
Consider how employee engagement initiatives need to be adjusted to include a remote workforce; how do employees feel connected with the company, manager, and team? How often will employees travel to the headquarters?
How Do Policies, Regulations, and Laws Differ in Multiple States?
Depending on the states your employees are working in, there could be many differences in requirements that can affect your HR strategy. These may include:
1. Job Posting Requirements
If you are posting a remote position, your company needs to be aware of pay transparency laws that may apply to applicants from states that require compensation ranges to be included in job advertisements.
2. Leave Policies
States may have differing requirements for employees to take job-protected leave under various State Family Medical Leave Acts. Additionally, sick leave accruals and other policy details can vary widely by state. It can be complicated to ensure your leave policy complies with differing accrual rates, carryover, or usage requirements.
3. Paid Family Leave or Other State-Specific Payroll Tax Requirements
Many states are rolling out Paid Family Leave programs, which require payroll tax contributions by the employee and/or the company. Other states, such as Washington, are implementing state programs such as the WA Cares Fund, which requires payroll tax contributions for long-term care insurance if an employee exemption is not in place.
4. Expense Reimbursement
Some states, such as California, require employers to reimburse employees for necessary expenses incurred at the employer’s direction while working remotely. State requirements are not all the same and it can be complicated to know when certain expenses, or a portion of them, must be covered.
Best Practices for Managing Multi-State Employees
Here are some tips to avoid problems when dealing with employees in multiple states:
Be sure you are properly registering your business in each state that you have employees.
Overlooking tax implications for state or local tax requirements in payroll processing can result in tax compliance issues for both the company and employees.
Don’t neglect employee engagement.
Remote employees can feel disconnected if not included in company activities or decision-making processes about items that may affect their work. Foster a sense of belonging and engagement through virtual team-building activities and involvement in company initiatives. You can try implementing virtual “water cooler” forums or employee interest groups using technology platforms, like Slack or Teams, to allow staff to connect outside of their regular meetings.
At least once a week, consider building additional time into internal meetings for informal discussions with cameras on. For example, schedule a meeting for an hour but ensure the agenda items will be covered in 45 minutes to allow time before, or after the topics, for casual dialog and connection among employees.
Time zone differences can make coordinating meeting times difficult when employees are spread across regions.
A good solution is to establish core hours for the entire company to ensure employees are working common hours for at least a portion of the day.
Be sure you’re not using too many communication platforms.
This can create confusion and hinder streamlined information sharing. Create a centralized communication hub, such as an intranet or team collaboration software, to share important information, updates, and announcements. Also, use targeted messages for specific audiences when necessary. For example, do not send an all-employee email to announce snacks in the breakroom if the distribution includes remote employees who cannot participate.
Train managers how to manage at a distance and avoid remote work bias.
Each employee is different, with specific needs and personality traits. Some workers crave in-office interaction, while others do not. Now that remote work is more common, we need to rethink how we handle career paths for remote employees and avoid remote work bias. Teach your managers to cultivate, manage and lead team members who are remote and create a career succession path for them. They deserve the same opportunities as employees you see in the office regularly.
HR Support for Multi-State Employers
Managing employees in multiple states can create several challenges for your HR strategy. It can be difficult to stay up to date on the ever-changing laws and regulations in every state, as well as ensure all employees feel connected to the company, no matter where they’re located.
A trusted partner can provide you with the help you need to stay in compliance and keep your staff engaged and connected. OperationsInc offers HR support services to assess your organization’s policies for legal compliance to various state requirements and tailor HR strategies and employee engagement initiatives to your unique culture.
We also provide multi-state payroll administration or tax compliance support, and we can help you administer and track employee leaves.
Learn more about managing teams in different states in our other blog articles:
You can also reach out and talk to our experts to get all your questions answered about hybrid work environments and managing multi-state employees.
