LEARN Recap: How to Create High-Performance Remote Teams

As the employee-employer landscape evolves rapidly, HR and People leaders must adapt, pivot, and overcome unprecedented challenges. 

During his keynote session at WorkRamp LEARN Spring, Alex Bouaziz, CEO and Co-Founder, Deel, shared insights about new and emerging HR trends, the role of leaders in remote teams, and how businesses should view learning and development (L&D) and employee training.

Read on to discover Alex’s insights, or watch the full on-demand session.

What are some developing HR trends to watch in 2023? 

Deel was founded in 2019, less than a year before the COVID-19 pandemic struck and upturned the global economy. Today, the platform provides full-stack HR solutions for nearly 18,000 businesses, including iconic brands like Calvin Klein, Subway, and Nike—so its CEO and Co-Founder, Alex Bouaziz, is an expert on HR tech and how it has evolved. 

In 2020, for example, businesses were driven by the need to develop successful strategies for dealing with hybrid and remote work. The following year—when “tech really took off,” says Alex—marked the beginning of a shift toward talent acquisition and hiring. So where does that leave businesses now, and what HR trends are dominating 2023? 

“One of the things we’re seeing a lot of,” says Alex, “[is] companies shifting their hiring strategy from local hires to international hires so that the unique economics of the business makes more sense.” 

There’s also been a trend toward placing a greater emphasis on people.

“People have always been the hearts of companies,” Alex says—but in 2023, they’re “on everybody’s mind.” 

Read more: Why You Should Put People at the Heart of Your Business

How can businesses create a high-performance culture?  

Every business has unique needs when hiring, onboarding, and training employees—but no matter the specific goals, creating a high-performance culture that values continuous learning is vital to any brand’s success. 

How can businesses foster a culture where employees are driven to perform and achieve? 

Here are some of Alex’s tips: 

• Scale your culture as you grow. Gallup and the Harvard Business Review offer strategies like clearly defining company values and prioritizing communication.
• Focus on speed—without sacrificing quality. “You should never push something that you could do today to tomorrow,” for instance.

As Alex says, “The culture at Deel has always been intense to deliver for our customers”—and to thrive, you need to have “love for the mission, love for the product, that insane customer obsession.” 

How can leaders successfully manage and coordinate remote teams? 

Alex explains that people generally gravitate toward companies whose structures and cultures align with their needs. 

“The leadership culture, the founder’s culture, really has a strong effect on what people you’re going to bring on the team,” he says, adding that businesses “have different operating models and…people will join the company that fits their needs best.” 

But what if a team member is struggling with aspects of remote work? How can those in leadership roles, such as HR leaders, navigate these situations? 

If an employee’s needs aren’t being met, there are several ways that businesses can provide support. Alex shared one example of a strategy used by Deel: 

“I’ve definitely had a couple of people that…thought that [remote work was] what they wanted, and then after a year or two, they miss having more office interactions. We try to solve this through build[ing] different frameworks for them to meet their teammates,” such as quarterly employee dinners. 

And if it’s genuinely not a good fit? 

“If you don’t feel comfortable, if you want to go to a different type of structure, we completely understand, and we’ll support you in that,” says Alex. 

Read more: 7 Things Employees Want From Employers

Pros and cons of a remote workforce 

“People always tell me,” Alex says, “‘Wouldn’t you be more efficient if you were all in an office?'” 

“Sure,” he agrees, even adding that doing so could increase efficiency by up to 20 percent. 

If so, why are companies like Deel embracing an entirely remote workforce? And why might other organizations consider doing the same? 

Alex shares two significant pros of a remote workforce that outweigh any efficiency-related cons: 

• Employers have a broader and more diverse talent pool to draw from
• Businesses can focus on employees’ output instead of their activities, eliminating the need for micromanagement

 “You’re looking at your customer success,” Alex explains. “That’s what’s important—not how many hours a person worked or [if they] were looking…at their screen all the time.” 

Read more: How to Create a Sense of Belonging in a Remote Work Environment

What is the future of HR technology?  

“There are amazing companies that have been built in the HR space over the last few years,” Alex says. So what’s shaping 2023, and how might the future HR tech landscape be impacted?  

One major shift he highlights is that CFOs are now “step[ping] in a little more than they have” historically—a trend he expects to continue.

“We’re seeing more and more CFOs involved in the conversation,” he explains, with a particular focus on consolidation. For example, he highlights a push towards bringing more software together—something that’s also bringing more CFOs and HR leaders together. 

“If you look at the average HR stack today, you’ve got 16-plus HR tools on average for one HR leader,” he says. To determine where money can be saved, and processes can be optimized, “CFOs are definitely…using some of this product,” which makes collaboration between CFOs and HR critical.  

“Seeing my CFO and my head of people interact, I can tell you that they work a lot together on all fronts,” Alex says.

Read more: What is People-Centric Leadership? 

Ultimately, businesses must remember: “Your people team and your finance team are the real machine that makes the company work. […] You need to align with the CFO’s expectation, and…you need to make sure that from a pricing perspective and the right accounting integration perspective, you get this right.” 

How should businesses look at L&D and training in 2023 and beyond? 

Broadening the conversation beyond HR, Alex also spoke briefly about companies’ needs and challenges in learning, development, and training for remote teams. 

What companies need to be doing, he says, is “connecting people through a simplified way to digest knowledge” so that team members aren’t wasting time trying to track down clear information. 

However, as he also acknowledges, “Maintaining knowledge and having one real source of truth when it comes to internal and external questions is such a challenge in a distributed team”—a challenge that the Learning Cloud by WorkRamp can help businesses overcome. 

“I’m so excited and so happy you’re building a product in that space,” Alex said.  

Grow faster and empower your teams with WorkRamp

How can businesses maintain accessible and reliable knowledge bases while delivering a best-in-class onboarding and training experience for employees? 

Empower your teams with the Learning Cloud, a single platform for all your employee and customer learning needs. With the Learning Cloud, you can create and track employee training, deliver engaging educational content, fuel your HR processes, and more. 

Discover how the Learning Cloud can help you develop your employees. Contact us to schedule a free, personalized demo.