The working world is increasingly distributed. At least 50% of the US population now work remotely, and a similar trend can be observed globally. The days of punching in to undertake a 9–5 seem archaic to vast swathes of today’s working world. White collar work now takes place behind screens that are located not in sprawling open plan offices, but in coffee shops, airport lounges, and home studies.

Tech-based industries, including the burgeoning cryptosphere, have been among the most ardent adopters of remote working. There are cost and skill reasons why it may be beneficial to have your developer team in Ukraine, your graphic designer in Slovenia, your CMO in London and your CEO in New York. For all the benefits that remote working can bring, however, for both the company and its employees, there are also challenges that must be met. One of these concerns payroll.

Considerations when paying a global workforce

If your employees are distributed, they will be accustomed to being paid in different national currencies, and via methods that vary from country to country. From bank wire to PayPal, and from check to cash-in-hand, the way in which people are accustomed to being paid can differ wildly. So too does the taxation requirements, including pension contributions and national insurance, in different territories.

Which jurisdiction do you adopt — the one where your company is incorporated? The one where most of its employees are based? Or do you attempt to determine matters on a case by case basis? Whatever option you go for, it’s an administrative headache. One solution is to have your workers set up as contractors so that they invoice you monthly, which means it falls to them to arrange their own tax contributions. This eliminates some of the administrative work, but you’re still left with the task of processing dozens of invoices manually at the end of each month. When you’re trying to run a lean startup, it’s a burden you could do without.

Cryptocurrency Without the Drawbacks

It’s common for businesses with a global workforce, particularly those working in the crypto sector, to pay their staff in cryptocurrency. This yields a number of benefits including fast settlement (no waiting days for international wires to clear) and no grappling with multiple fiat currencies: staff are free to convert crypto to fiat and cash out as they see fit, or to stay wholly or partially in cryptocurrency if desired. Despite the convenience that crypto payments offer, there’s still a significant amount of manual processing to be done in sending digital currencies to each staffer’s wallet, complete with triple-checking the address and that the amount has been entered correctly to avoid an irreversible error.

8Pay’s solution is to enable batch payments to be sent to employees in one shot. Not only does this save time and gas fees on having to send multiple transactions, but it allows for setting up scheduled monthly payments to a workforce of around 10–20 people. 8Pay’s split payments feature allows small businesses to pay multiple recipients in one go, on either a one-off or recurring basis. Split payments are easy to schedule and provide a cheap and efficient way of sending funds to multiple staffers.

Wherever and whenever, 8Pay allows small businesses to pay remote workers directly, with no intermediaries and minimal administrative effort. It’s just one of the many ways in which 8Pay is supercharging crypto payments. Find out more about what 8Pay can do for your business at 8pay.network.