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Picture the scene. Youve advertised a job on LinkedIn and received applications from around Europe. The perfect candidate lives in one of the worlds top tech citiesParis, Berlin, or Amsterdam, for instance. Your company is based somewhere in Europe, so hiring them should be easy, right? Unfortunately, no. Despite their geographical proximity, countries in Europe still vary significantly in their hiring rules and regulations, making it hard to compliantly pay cross-border workers. Lets take a closer look at the problem. So close, yet so far Theres naturally a certain amount of friction in terms of labor law compatibility between European states inside and outside of the European Union (EU). But even within the umbrella of the EU, countries have their own labor, tax, and social security rules that can turn simple payroll procedures into a nightmare. Thats because EU labor law is issued via directives that allow member states discretion in how they implement rulings. For businesses, this makes an EU-wide hiring strategy impossible, instead requiring individual approaches to each and every country a company might want to hire inup to and including incorporation. This isnt something that can be done as an afterthought. Misclassifying a worker, for instance by employing someone as a contractor rather than an employee, may lead to penalties and legal trouble. The state of cross-border hiring in Europe Despite the difficulties, businesses continue to hire across borders for the simple reason that talent is getting harder to find locally. One report found that 54% of European employers expect labour shortages to worsen over the next five years. And a patchwork of talent availability means skills and the businesses that need them are rarely in the same placeforcing businesses to look elsewhere. But hiring across borders isnt getting easier. While the demand for specialized talent has increased by 112% over the last three years, the complexity of hiring talent has also increasedparticularly in the EU, with incoming requirements like the pay transparency directive. The movement of workers between countries is also a minefield. Under EU rules, employees can only be subject to one countrys social security requirements at a time (to avoid double contributions). Some countries have cross-border agreements but employee tax exposure can be hard to fully comprehend, even for the experts. Heres what that looks like in practice A London startup wants to hire its first engineer in Berlin. Expanding into a new European talent market means a costly and months-long process of establishing a business entityall to justify a headcount of one. How about a Dutch company trying to support an employee relocating to Spain? The employer wants to be supportive, but there are clear tax residency and other legal implications such as pay transparency that have to be explored. The difficulty of navigating these all-too-common issues is putting a roadblock on progress and forcing businesses to compromise on quality by hiring in their own backyards. The problem with payroll Despite most companies having employees in more than one country, the means of paying them continue to lag behind. Payroll (often the largest expense for a company at around 50-60% of spending) has historically been seen as a back-office burden. Payroll is an essential cost of business, but because of all the challenges weve discussed, its expensive, complex, and generally fails to add strategic value. When youre running payroll across borders, the complexity only goes up. Indeed, 85% of global executives say compliance requirements have become more complex in the last three years. In short, its all risk and no reward. The right software can help In response to the expanding global workforce, more workforce management companies are developing software designed to help companies hire and pay European workers without the burden of navigating complex administrative requirements. My company, Multiplier, offers one of these solutions. As a centralized platform for payroll operations, our payroll solution enables companies to pay employees in countries where they dont have a legal entity, fully compliant with local tax and social security rules. This would allow the London startup discussed earlier to hire its first engineer in Berlin without the delay and expense of incorporation in Germany. And if things dont work out, the startup wont have to go through the rigmarole of shutting down an entity in Berlin afterwards. Similarly, the Dutch company with a marketer who relocated to Spain doesnt have to worry about the tax residency implications and potential penalties. They can seamlessly support their employees without disrupting their existing payroll compliance efforts. Unlocking European talent Paying people across borders is a problem unlikely to be solved politically. In an increasingly multipoar world, theres little prospect of the increased regulatory alignment necessary to enable seamless international payments. In the meantime, payroll solutions will help remove the friction required to pay cross-border workers, helping companies to accelerate their growth and recruit the best European talentinstead of settling for the best available talent locally. Sagar Khatri is CEO and cofounder of Multiplier.
Category:
E-Commerce
Microsoft is the latest tech giant to announce its new return-to-work (RTO) mandate. The first phase of the mandate is set to start in February 2026, requiring Seattle-area employees living within a 50 miles radius of a Microsoft office will need to be in office at least three days a week. Over the next year, the company expects the same from the rest of its U.S. and international employees. Microsoft was one of the last big companies to offer their workforce flexibility. Competitors like Google, Meta, Amazon, Zoom, and AT&T have all announced their own unique policies requiring workers to be in the office. These are all innovative, technology-led companies. Yet their RTO mandates and hybrid work policies are all supremely outdated. Instead of honestly considering what the future of work means for employees and how it can benefit companies, many leaders are scared that if employees are allowed to work from anywhere, they will lose a bit of control over their workforce. Real leaders are embracing the future. At Gather, we recognize that flexibility is the key to accessing higher tier talent, bigger clients, and ultimately better business outcomes. Change of mindset Once upon a time, CEOs were huge fans of working from home. Many notable business leaders are on record stating the benefits of working from home from a business, personal, and even a societal level. Mark Zuckerberg famously said, I’ve found that working remotely has given me more space for long-term thinking and helped me spend more time with my family, which has made me happier and more productive at work. Why the sudden shift? These RTO mandates arent to build culture or increase productivity or any of the other canned responses. Instead, many companies are locked into long-term leases on office spaces in cities all across the country. For decades, a 10-year lease for office space was the norm for large corporations. It kept rent costs stable and allowed companies to set up roots in major hubs across the nation. When companies signed these leases, it was a smart move. Then came the pandemic. People were forced to work from home. Large office spaces werent just unnecessary; they became a hazard for employee safety. All work shifted to remote work, and the results spoke for themselves. A study from the U.S. Career Institute found that companies can save up to $10,600 per employee who works remotely and remote work can have a positive impact on an employees mental and physical health. Countering many productivity claims, the study also found that 79% of managers feel their team is more productive when working remotely. RTO does more harm than good Fast forward a few years post-pandemic, and these long-term leases still exist. Despite all the benefits seen from remote work, companies are desperate to justify their massive spends on office space. So, employees are coerced to get their butts back in seats with rigid mandates bolstered by claims of productivity. These mandates have already demonstrated a negative impact on employees and businesses alike. There is little evidence that RTO mandates improve a companys financial performance, according to an MIT Sloan Management Review article. RTO mandates disrupt employees established positive work routines, leading to higher attrition, especially among high-performing employees and those with caregiving responsibilitiesanother strike against corporate America and its record with women in the workforce. Whats more, RTO mandates often function as thinly veiled layoffs, further increasing attrition and the exodus of top talent while decreasing trust. A recent study from Workways found that 71% of HR leaders report eroded trust post-RTO announcements and 80% of companies lost talent because of the mandates. Even if returning to the office actually increased productivity, to make the terms of returning so inflexible disregards the way people work. Even when these mandates are classified as hybrid and only require a few days in the office, companies are missing the point. To be truly productive requires flexibility and agility. A new definition of hybrid In 2025, defining hybrid work must go well beyond the outdated discussion of where work is being done. Hybrid must be multifaceted. Companies need to approach hybrid work by considering which projects and teams come together for collaborative roles and which need the privacy and focus of working independentlyand recognizing that those parameters can change depending on project demands. It is a balance of people, places, tools, and culture. To be clear, Im not anti-office. There is a time and a place for bolstering corporate culture and collaboration. However, the decision should not be made by executives in an ivory tower but by team leaders based on the needs of their teams. RTO mandates will continue to make headlines for the rest of this year and any time a major company announces its new policy. But, as these long-term leases diminish, lets see how many mandates remain. The debate is not and has never been about the RTO mandates themselves. The real debate is on the future of work and what that looks and feels like for leaders. The pandemic made it clear: Companies are perfectly capable of adapting to the wants and needs of the workforce when forced to do so. The real future of work isnt about office space, water cooler talk, or butts in seats. It is rooted in trust, respect, and readiness to embrace change. The leaders that follow this path will set their companies up for success, winning the battle for talent and performance. Justin Tobin is founder and president of Gather.
Category:
E-Commerce
In recent conversations with customers and peers, Im not hearing Which AI model or tool should we pick? Im hearing How do we operationalize AI across our critical workflows? People are starting to understand real digital transformation doesnt come from a bolt-on solution. It happens when we treat AI as a foundational force and an engine for lasting change. The shift toward an AI-powered workplace requires leaders to enable organizational intelligence across the enterprise. WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE? At Wrike, we define organizational intelligence as the seamless integration of human insight and AI capabilities to drive measurable outcomes at increased speed and scale. Its the difference between patchwork AI adoption and true collaboration between humans and machines. Done right, organizational intelligence blends human creativity, judgment, context, and intent with AIs strength in driving automation, data synthesis, and pattern recognition. When all of that is present at the same time, AI stops being a feature and evolves into a core part of how a business learns. Unlocking organizational intelligence goes beyond a change in mindset, although thats key, too. R Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, who I sat down with recently, said everyone is avoiding doing the hard part right nowthe data strategy. But how we handle and manage data is equally critical to getting AI transformation right, alongside culture adjustments, and our enthusiasm toward the technology. Organizations require a robust foundation for data. This includes designing, structuring, and connecting information so AI can interpret not just isolated facts, but the full business context and meaning behind them. WHY AI ALONE ISNT THE ANSWER While business leaders race to bring on AI tools, adoption has often outpaced ROI. McKinsey reports that while a vast majority of companies plan to increase AI investments (92%), only about 1% of leaders say their organizations have reached true AI maturity, where AI is fully integrated and yielding substantial outcomes. Many popular AI solutions solve isolated problems, automating individual tasks without addressing deeper needs for team alignment, context, and strategy. Instead of outcome-driven decision-making, organizations end up with more fragmentation. Disconnected automations, inconsistent data, and siloed workflows compound inefficiencies. Recent Wrike research found that 41% of knowledge workers said their companies lost critical information in the past year due to scattered systems and siloed knowledge across platforms. Thats not a technology failure. Its an organizational one and a leadership oversight that can limit company growth. 3 PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE Think of the project manager juggling four different collaboration platforms, each with partial information. AI introduced in that environment wont spark clarity. It will multiply the noise. As leaders, its our responsibility to move our organizations beyond tool adoption and toward systemic intelligence: connecting people, processes, and platforms into a unified whole. That requires rewiring the way we work and rethinking how we manage data, context, and collaboration. Three principles stand out to me: 1. Build foundation over features Chasing the newest AI tool can be tempting, but fragmented adoption creates the illusion of scale without delivering true capability. Prioritize a unified foundation where AI can plug in, learn, and operate effectively by clearly documenting and standardizing workflows, improving data hygiene, and consolidating the supporting platforms to drive visibility and ownership. The question to ask isnt What tool are we adopting? but What system are we building? 2. Make context your competitive edge AI cant read between the lines if there are no lines to read between. Too often, critical knowledge lives in meeting notes, hallway conversations, or in the minds of employees. Without this context, AI produces generic outputs that lack trust and relevance. Leaders must operationalize context, as well as embed decision rationales, project outcomes, and other institutional knowledge into workflows. This may come in the form of structured fields for project outcomes, standardized post-mortems, or AI agents trained on your organizations language and workflows. In a market where business advantage often depends on nuance such as customer preferences, regulatory shifts, and competitive signals, context may be the single sharpest edge we as leaders can champion. 3. Reframe ai as a multiplier, not a shortcut AI should accelerate human creativity, critical thinking, and connection, not bypass them. This requires leaders to redefine roles: What must humans own, and where can AI extend their reach? Trust and governance are also non-negotiable. Teams will only adopt AI if they know security and ethics are protected. Leaders who ignore these responsibilities risk stalling adoption before it even begins. THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE CONNECTED Moving forward, organizations that thrive wont be defined by the size of their AI stack. Theyll be known for how intelligently they connect teams, workflows, and outcomes so the enterprise learns and improves with every project. Companies that link people, processes, and platforms into a single intelligent system will adapt faster, innovate more effectively, and build resilience in a rapidly changing environment. Leaders who prioritize organizational intelligence now are setting the stage for these long-term advantages. Your true differentiator isnt AI alone. Its connection, context, and the combined capacity of humans and machines to learn together within a shared system of record for work. Tom Scott is the CEO at Wrike/a>.
Category:
E-Commerce
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