The global pandemic had a profound impact on expectations about where people work. With lockdowns, companies were forced overnight to implement the remote work practices that had often been discussed in the past but rarely executed. For many employees this was a positive experience and lots of people have been keen to maintain remote working practices even as the pandemic has retreated.
Employers have had a mixed response to this development. Some employers have welcomed the change and have permanently implemented remote working practices, and some have even gotten rid of all physical offices. Other employers have demanded that all employees get back to the office, with Elon Musk at Twitter making international news with his demands that people physically work from the office (and accept long working hours). Most employers have taken more of a middle pathway, with policies in place that allow workers some days at home and some in the office and more flexibility with working hours than pre-pandemic. In the Energy Chamber, we have implemented a hybrid approach, with employees and their supervisors being able to make up their minds about where they can be most productive.
With remote working policies here to stay, more and more companies are also willing to allow workers to base themselves in other countries either permanently or for short periods of time. The Energy Chamber policy states that employees could be based outside Trinidad for reasonable time periods, once they are available during normal Trinidad office hours and once their supervisor approves.
So-called digital nomads received a lot of attention during the pandemic and some Caribbean countries, including Barbados and Dominica, made a pitch to attract these individuals as temporary residents.
With increased experience and confidence in the ability to manage remote employees and with an intense fight for talent in many major markets, some companies have adopted borderless hiring policies. This means that they will extend their talent search to the whole world and hire the best fit for a role, wherever they happen to be physically located.
This trend of remote working poses interesting questions for local content policies and rules about the nationality of the work force. If a job can be executed from anywhere in the world, does it make sense to insist that an in-country job can only be filled by a national? Or is there a danger that the company will simply say, “Well, we don’t actually physically need to bring that person to the country of operations as they can just discharge the role from Houston, Mumbai or wherever they are currently located.”
There are undoubtedly potential managerial, employee relations, accounting and taxation challenges for this sort of approach, but given shortages in talent it might be an attractive option for international companies. For host countries, this development could mitigate against the value-added objective of local content policies, as that particular employee’s spend and income tax will not circulate in the local economy.
Obviously, this could not apply to roles where employees need to physically carry out tasks. But even here, developments with digitisation and some of the innovations developed during the pandemic mean that in some cases specialised skills can be delivered remotely, for example, a certified technician supervising a less-skilled worker via a video conference link to complete a specific task.
To an extent, this new remote working practice has simply accelerated trends in place over the past few decades, with many back-office functions already having been delivered remotely prior to the pandemic. Local service companies have often found themselves submitting paperwork to service centres in other countries.
While this trend might seem like a threat, it also presents an opportunity for Trinidad and Tobago. A few years ago, one major multinational operator created a service centre in Trinidad for accounting functions for their U.S. onshore operations; unfortunately, a change in company strategy meant that the U.S. assets were sold and as part of that divestment the Trinidad service centre ceased operations. There are also other examples of Trinidad-based companies relocating functions out of higher-cost locations in the U.S. back to Trinidad, where it is often possible to hire skilled and certified professionals at competitive salaries.
Local content policies are going to need to consider this remote working trend. It highlights the need for a nuanced policy that focuses on the overall value retained in country from the spend of operators, rather than narrow considerations on nationality of employees. Creating an overall business and social environment that means talent is attracted to the country and wants to remain in places like Trinidad and Tobago might be more important than meeting regulatory targets.
