As you start your company, hiring can be tricky. At Reinventing Events, we hire for talent and not location which means we have employees in multiple states. This can be quite beneficial but it will add a different dimension and dynamic to your team, clients, as well as to the background and daily operations of your business. So we wanted to share how Reinventing Events works with employees in multiple states.

Things to consider when hiring employees across different states:

Laws, Requirements, and Regulations are different everywhere

Do your homework! Find out what state, city, county, parish you are looking to hire additional employees within. Do online research and call those government agencies to find out all the laws, requirements, and regulations that you will need to be in compliance with. If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch with the state first and get as much information you can from them regarding who to call next.

SIDE NOTE: This may be different for employers that have multiple offices spread across the states versus those that hire remote workers in different states that do not have a physical work location.

One of the first things to check out is the state’s withholding accounts for taxes and unemployment. Some states have multiple accounts and but others only have one. Some states let you apply for these account before the first payroll but others make you wait until then. Ask questions! Find out what you can from each agency to make sure you have everything covered.

Compensation may vary

Hiring team members anywhere allows you to have a presence everywhere. It also allows you some flexibility in what you pay your staff, but you should be realistic and fair about what that should be. Consider the cost of living in the home state of each employee and factor in the median salaries in the professional industry acrossl the different states. You want to pay competitively and take care of those that are taking care of you.

Having a great payroll company is a HUGE help when having employees in multiple states! We highly recommend Gusto (affiliate link). They make it so easy to work across the different state agencies. They offer help with onboarding team members, staff benefits, reimbursement to employees, and basically anything else we’ve ever needed.

A few other free assets we love when working with employees in multiple states are Expensify and Chase QuickPay. Expensify allows employees to easily expense items back to the company and Chase QuickPay allows us to quickly get payment back to our team and contractors without mailing them a physical check (even to those that don’t have a Chase checking account). Quick and easy solutions make everyone happy.

Don’t forget the insurance

You will want to make sure that new employees are added across the board for the obvious things, like payroll, to the not as obvious areas like your insurance policies. This is critical. Call your insurance agent to add them to your coverage. Workers’ Compensation is where I suggest you start. You cannot afford for anything to happen to your employees if they aren’t covered. 

Next, I would move to your General Liability insurance. If you are hiring remote workers, does their home address need to be added or do you have coverage that will include all of your employees regardless of location? Then move on to your Auto or Fleet coverage if it isn’t covered under your General Liability Insurance Policy. Also, make sure you don’t have any additional insurance or professional licenses that every employee needs to be added to or listed on. Get this done up front, in the beginning. You will be so thankful you did! 

Time zones don’t have to be tricky

Working across multiple states can be really amazing and may take a little bit of time to get used to. As a team of remote workers from one coast to the other we’ve had team members in every time zone. Get creative with meeting or call times when scheduling. If you need standing calls/meetings, try to schedule them at a convenient time for the majority of the team. Be flexible and consider your team and client when setting work hours. Also, utilize software that the entire team can use to easily communicate with others in the different time zones which we share in the next section. Reinventing Events typically has our entire team working from 8:30am PT through 2:30pm PT to allow people in other time zones to be off at their normal times. Other time zones start earlier in their day but this way the team overlaps working hours the majority of the time.

Must-have applications for remote or distance working teams

We utilize Slack, which allows us to interact all day and know when we can connect with our counterpart on the other side of the map! Another team favorite is Asana for task management. We utilize Asana so we can collaborate on tasks. It allows flexibility within time zones and the ability for the team to share, assign, and/or comment on tasks. We also live in the cloud! We use Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets to allow ease in sharing documents.

 

It IS possible to have employees in multiple states!

Having employees in multiple states can be very beneficial for your company, your team, and your clients. And there are so many great tools out there that make it easy to work and communicate with everyone.

Ready to grow your team? You can also check out How to Love Remote Work as a Team and 9 Epic Resources for Managing Your Business for more tips.