As a remote employer, there are a lot of things to handle, from hiring and training to compensation and tax compliance. One thing you have to take care of, especially in the finance aspect, is reimbursing your remote employees for spending their money on business or work-related activities.
While reimbursing your remote employee is an important aspect of running a remote company, some employers may not see the need why they should do so, and as a result, may reject reimbursement requests from their employees. That’s why we wrote this guide to help you understand that if you weren’t already doing it, then it’s time to start receiving reimbursement requests from your remote employees and start reimbursing them for their work expenditure.
However, if you’re doing it already, then you should continue because there are a lot of benefits to it. And you can use our free Reimbursement tool that allows your remote team to request reimbursements for approval.
Buffer is an example of a remote company that accepts reimbursements from its employees. The company makes provisions to reimburse employees for a lot of things, including a co-working space membership, a coffee shop working for employees who prefer working from a coffee shop, internet, conferences, learning and development, and books among others. This puts Buffer as a company that values employee expenses on work-related activities, which builds more trust between the company and its employees.
Do you want to join Buffer as a remote company that reimburses employees? Or need more excuses? Here are the reasons why honoring reimbursement requests from your remote employees helps build trust for your brand and keep the organization growing.
Removes employee fear when they’re spending on work-related activities
While going about their daily work activities, employees may find something that they think would help them accomplish their work. It could be a training program, a workshop, or a new tool they will need separately. This would mean that employees would have to spend their money on this item or activity.
If you’re a remote employer who accepts reimbursement requests, employees would not feel fear when spending their money on such activities or items. That’s because they know that once it is related to their official work, you will reimburse them at the appropriate time after they send their request. This removes fear and allows employees to get the tools that will allow them to do their work better. It also leads to building more trust between you and your remote employees when it comes to spending.
Shows employer’s commitment beyond compensation and builds trust
There’s a practice in some companies that isn’t quite right. Apart from salaries, some remote employers don’t spend on any other thing, even if the expenditure is related to work. This is a bad organizational practice that remote managers shouldn’t involve themselves in. However, if you’re a remote employer who accepts reimbursement requests from your employees, it shows that you care for your employees and the expenditure they’re making to make sure that they accomplish their work. This tells your remote employees that you’re ready to spend on them apart from the normal salary, which helps build trust for you as an employer and motivates the employees to do more.
Employees get to pursue goals that will help the employer
In their daily work, employees come across different things that may help them do their work better. And sometimes, to do this, employees may need to buy a software package or subscribe to an online course. If you’re an employer that accepts reimbursement requests, then your remote employees would be open to pursue courses and take decisions that are beneficial to your remote company knowing very well that you have them covered.
What next for accepting reimbursement requests?
As a remote employer, allowing your employees to make reimbursement requests and honoring their requests will allow them to undertake decisions that are beneficial to your company, show that you care for their work-related expenditure beyond the usual salary you provide them and helps cement their trust in you.
To allow your remote employees to request for reimbursement, you first have to install the reimbursement app on the RemoteTeam dashboard. This will allow your employees to request reimbursements, set the amount and purpose of the expenditure, and upload a receipt confirming the transaction.
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