WorkMotion helps distributed teams to collaborate

During the Corona pandemic, our attitude towards remote work changed abruptly. This pandemic-fueled trend makes it possible to work flexibly in different places around the world, whether it's from vacation, at home in the garden, or even in the office. Doesn't this open up completely different doors for us? WorkMotion deals with exactly that: hiring talents from several countries in a legally compliant manner, and draws on people from all over the world to do so. Co-founder Carsten Lebtig tells us what the crucial idea for their foundation was and what tips they can give us regarding remote work in the Startbase interview.

Why did you found your startup?

One result of the Corona crisis is that many companies and employees have become familiar with remote work or telecommuting and have thus discovered its advantages. If you can manage a team virtually or in a hybrid format, you no longer have to search for employees within a 50-kilometer radius of the company. We founded WorkMotion to make cross-border hiring possible for companies. We believe that working and hiring without local barriers will have a positive impact on us as a society.

What problem are you addressing and how are you solving it?

There is a shortage of skilled tech and IT workers in Germany, the UK and many other countries. In addition, the baby boomer generation is gradually retiring over the next 10 years. The skills shortage is intensifying and it is becoming more and more important for companies to expand their search for employees across national borders. WorkMotion is your partner for easy and uncomplicated hiring of foreign employees at the push of a button. Through our platform, our customers can hire employees in over 160 countries without having to establish a local country company. This is made possible by our network of partners in each country, who already have a local subsidiary. We guarantee legal compliance with country-specific labor laws, and our software automates salary and wage payments, as well as social security contributions and taxes for the global team.

HR software is now a dime a dozen - how are you different from the rest? What is your USP?

We differ from the usual HR software management systems in that we can map salary payments, social contributions and taxes for employees in over 160 countries in a legally compliant manner. Unlike a digital personnel file, in which mainly static data such as name, salary, function, etc. is collected, we have to use the data of the employee in a way that is legally compliant. we have to be able to map highly complex, global processes via our software. Our USP is clearly that we develop software at the interface of contracts and salary payments, for processes across national borders.

Where did you meet as a team?

We didn't know each other before WorkMotion, chance brought us together so to speak. Carsten had already been working on WorkMotion for a few weeks when he met Felix. Felix was an investor at a large Berlin start-up at the time, and knew WorkMotion's business model through a competitor. He was so convinced of the solution that he was actively thinking about starting a similar company. A mutual contact then brought Carsten and Felix together. At the same time, Carsten was already in contact with Karim, who was in charge of internationalization and remote teams at another Berlin-based startup. So he knew from his own experience the challenges of hiring employees abroad. So it was a great coincidence that he found out by chance that Carsten was already working on a solution and decided to support him as a founder at short notice.

What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome at the beginning of your start-up?

As with any fast-growing company, our challenge was to find the right team members. Working for a fast growing company is not easy, things change all the time. 6 months ago we were 30 employees, 3 months ago we were 60 employees, and today we are over 150, so our company is changing from the ground up every three months. And to master these changes, we need the right employees. Of course, we have an advantage here in that we ourselves use our WorkMotion product to hire the best talent globally.

It is more important than ever for companies not to limit themselves by their local location, but to acquire talent globally.

Carsten Lebtig, WorkMotion

In which direction do you think the labor market will develop?

As already mentioned, we expect a steadily growing shortage of skilled workers in many countries, due to digital as well as demographic change. So there is an emerging labor market. Therefore, it will be more important than ever for companies not to limit themselves by their local location, but to acquire talent globally. We also believe that in the future, the flexibility of work models can be an important advantage in attracting employees. Employees want the freedom to work from their home office from time to time, or perhaps to add a 2-week "workation" to a vacation in Spain.

How do you manage to lead a team and create team cohesion in spite of "remote work"?

At WorkMotion we already pay attention to a structured onboarding of our new employees. In the past, you could look over the new employee's shoulder and occasionally give them a tip or answer a question. Nowadays, this is no longer possible when employees are spread all over the world working for the same company. We have built up an extensive knowledge database internally, which is also continuously maintained and updated. This is the only way we can distribute knowledge throughout the company in a standardized manner. Beyond team and department meetings, we also have a weekly all-hands meeting in which all employees participate. Here we share important decisions, give an outlook on the coming weeks and months, and of course celebrate joint successes.

How can "home office" or "remote work" be better integrated into companies? Do you have any all-round solutions or other tips?

We are currently around 150 employees at WorkMotion, probably over 200 by the end of the year. The majority work 100% remotely, some come into the office for meetings, workshops or team events. Remote work is therefore part of our DNA. Our experience is that an entire startup ecosystem is forming around the topic of remote management. Zoom and Slack have been around for a while, of course, but new tools for virtual feedback processes, project management and the like are springing up and evolving. As is often the case in life, I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all solution. But if you are actively looking for solutions, you will definitely find them nowadays.

And one last question: Who would you like to have dinner with and why?

Basically, I'm fascinated by people who are among the thought leaders and best in their respective fields, whether in the business world, politics or culture. Of course, Elon Musk comes to mind spontaneously, who in my opinion is something like the Leonardo da Vinci of our time.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Carsten Lebtig began his career at McKinsey. After a short time, however, he decided to become a founder on his own and landed his first success with test.io in 2011. After working as a business angel and investor, he founded "WorkMotion" in 2020 together with two co-founders. The founder is happily married and has two children