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What is distributed work?
Distributed work
Distributed work refers to a way of working in which companies have one or more employees who work in different physical locations, a model on the rise—in the first quarter of 2024, an estimated 35.5 million people in the U.S. teleworked for pay. This work model may comprise:
- on-site teams at one or more office locations
- remote employees who work from home, coworking spaces, or are traveling
- digital nomads
Looking to simplify your international payroll operations? Pay your global team compliantly and on-time with Oyster.
What's the difference between "distributed" and "remote" work?
Distributed work describes how an organization structures its workforce across multiple locations, while remote work simply means working outside a traditional office.
Remote work is purely procedural (working somewhere outside the office), whereas distributed work requires a new way of thinking about how companies are collaborating and working together.
Benefits of distributed work
Why are so many companies embracing distributed work? It's more than a trend—it's a strategic advantage that unlocks key benefits for your business and your people, with research showing the rise in remote work is associated with an increase in industry-level TFP (Total Factor Productivity).
- Access to global talent: Hire the best candidates worldwide, expanding your talent pool significantly.
- Higher employee satisfaction: Flexibility and autonomy boost morale and retention, with global data showing that fully remote workers are the most likely to be engaged at work compared to hybrid or fully on-site employees.
- Greater business resilience: A geographically dispersed team is less vulnerable to local disruptions, from natural disasters to economic shifts.
- Reduced overhead costs: With no need for a large central office, companies can save significantly on real estate and facility expenses; in fact, an increase in remote workers is associated with a decrease in unit office building costs growth.
How to manage a distributed workforce
Managing a team across different locations and time zones requires a thoughtful approach. It's less about surveillance and more about trust, communication, and clear outcomes. Here's how to set your distributed team up for success:
- Prioritize clear communication: Create a single source of truth for important information and embrace asynchronous communication across time zones.
- Set clear expectations: Define goals, responsibilities, and deadlines clearly. Focus on the results your team produces, not the hours they work.
- Foster trust: Give team members autonomy—it's essential for distributed team success.
- Invest in connection: Intentionally create opportunities for social interaction, whether through virtual coffee chats or team-building activities, as research has found that creativity lessened when working virtually compared to in-person collaboration.
Tools and infrastructure for distributed teams
What's the secret to keeping a distributed team connected? The right technology stack. Your tools should eliminate friction, not create it—think of it as building a digital headquarters.
Essential tools often fall into a few key categories:
- Communication hubs: Platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams for real-time and asynchronous conversations.
- Project management software: Tools like Asana, Trello, or Jira to track tasks and progress transparently.
- Global employment platforms: A solution like Oyster to compliantly hire, pay, and care for team members anywhere in the world, handling the complexities of local laws, payroll, and benefits.
Example of distributed work
Oyster is the perfect example of a distributed workforce. With no central office, all Oyster's employees work remotely in locations around the world.
Start building your distributed workforce globally
Distributed work transforms hiring from a local challenge into a global opportunity. It allows you to build a more diverse, resilient, and engaged team by focusing on talent and skill, not location. But navigating the complexities of global employment, from compliance to payroll, can feel overwhelming.
Oyster's global employment platform simplifies the entire process. We empower you to hire, pay, and care for talented people in over 180 countries—without the need to set up local entities. Ready to build a world-class team, no matter where they are? Start hiring globally and see how simple it can be.
FAQ’s
What are the biggest compliance risks when your distributed team spans multiple countries?
The risk usually isn’t “remote work” itself—it’s accidentally treating cross-border employment like it’s the same everywhere. The most common traps are using the wrong worker classification (contractor vs. employee), issuing offer letters that don’t match local labor rules, missing country-specific payroll registrations or employer contributions, and applying one global policy to leave, working time, or terminations when local law requires something different. If you’re distributing work across borders, build country-specific guardrails early, especially around contracts, statutory benefits, and offboarding.
Should distributed team members be contractors or employees?
It depends on how the work is structured, not how much you like flexibility. If you control when and how the person works, embed them into your org (manager oversight, core hours, ongoing duties), or the role is business-critical and ongoing, you’re typically drifting toward “employee” in many countries. If it’s project-based, time-bound, and the person truly operates independently with their own tools and methods, contractor status may be more defensible. The part most companies miss is that misclassification tests vary by country, so a setup that feels fine in one place can become a problem somewhere else.
How do you create fair, consistent HR policies for distributed work without breaking local rules?
Start by separating what you want to be consistent about from what must be localized. Your values, performance expectations, code of conduct, and pay philosophy can be global. Time off, public holidays, sick leave, parental leave, working time norms, and termination processes often cannot. A practical approach is to set a global baseline (the experience you want everyone to have) and then layer country addenda that meet or exceed statutory requirements. That way, you avoid the “one policy fits all” myth while still running one company.
What typically slows down onboarding for a distributed workforce across borders?
The delays are rarely about signing the contract—they’re about missing inputs and country-specific requirements. Common blockers include right-to-work checks and identity documents, mismatched start dates that don’t align with local payroll cutoffs, incomplete personal data needed for tax setup, and benefit enrollment timelines that vary by country and provider. If you want speed, treat onboarding like a compliance project: collect documents early, confirm payroll calendars before you promise a start date, and budget time for benefits setup where required.
How do you handle terminations in a distributed team without creating legal or reputational risk?
Distributed work doesn’t make terminations easier—it makes “oops” mistakes more expensive. Notice periods, severance expectations, protected classes, and required process steps can vary dramatically by country, and some places require documented performance management before you can exit someone for performance. You’ll want a country-specific playbook that covers documentation, final pay timing, accrued leave payout, and how you handle equipment return and access removal. The safest pattern is to plan the exit as a coordinated HR, legal, payroll, and IT process, not a manager-only conversation.
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About Oyster
Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, hire, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.
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