Checkly gets unexpected help to expand its global team

In the short time since its founding in 2018, Checkly has revolutionized developer monitoring and testing tools. Its active reliability platform is just what cross-functional DevOps teams need to effortlessly monitor and perform end-to-end tests on their critical APIs and UIs. But even though the company has a code-driven platform that puts development tools all in one place, the bright minds behind Checkly are all over the globe.

International organizations like Checkly deserve global HR that’s transparent and robust. Find out why Checkly partnered with Remote to tackle its global workforce expansion.

Checkly at a glance

Headquarters: Fully remote

Founded: 2018

Company size: 30 employees

Industry: Software

For Kaylie Boogaerts, director of people at Checkly, the surface-level benefits of hiring internationally have always been obvious. The company’s 100% remote policy gives her team access to a bigger talent pool, which leads to a more diverse workforce with unique perspectives and culture. But she saw an unexpected advantage develop over time — Checkly’s internal communications became refreshingly transparent.

“I strongly believe that remote work uncovers culture,” says Boogaerts. “Topics that are more easily ignored in traditional office setups require more intentionality in remote setups. For example, you need to be clear as a company how you expect communication to flow or what it looks like to take ownership of something.”

Checkly was in the enviable position of having a tight-knit, transparent workforce that was also entirely remote and spread across 14 countries. But even with these advantages, adding new global team members as a startup without international entities was difficult — as they would discover when they found an incredible software engineer candidate in another country. To keep this dream hire from slipping away, Checkly needed an international hiring partner who could move quickly without sacrificing compliance.

Empowering Checkly to hire whomever, wherever

What did Checkly do to hire a perfect software engineer who happened to live in a country where Checkly didn’t have an existing entity? Boogaerts and her team looked to Remote and its employer of record services.

As a startup with team members in many different countries, often just one or two people in each country, it’s not feasible to start our own entity in each of those countries...In the end it was either lose out on an amazing team member and continue the (expensive) recruiting process, or pick an EOR and get the engineer on board.

For Boogaerts, Remote’s handling of international payroll, country benefits, and compliance was just the “cherry on top.” She knew Remote could help give Checkly team members the “full employee experience” and bolster the company’s values of transparency and trust.

• Remote’s employment and compliance experts on the ground around the world give Checkly the confidence to hire anywhere.

• Checkly can now onboard global team members in a fraction of the time.

• With Remote’s easy-to-use self service platform, Checkly’s HR team can focus its energy on their employee experience

How Remote helped Checkly expand globally and transparently

Transparency permeates everything at Checkly, from the communication workflows of departments to the pay of the CEO. That transparency is why Checkly won “The Leading Remote-First Company” award at the Running Remote conference. But maintaining that level of transparency was nearly impossible when they used another global HR provider, because of that provider’s reliance on third parties in other countries.

See also: Why is it important for your global HR provider to own its entities?

For Checkly, an EOR partner had to be a seamless extension of the people team — a partner Checkly’s workforce could completely trust.

The main reason we chose Remote as our partner is because Remote has its own entities in all of the countries they serve. We worked with another provider before who worked with local partners in quite a few of their countries and ran into some challenging situations with them.

Checkly could rely on Remote to handle international employment compliance, global payroll, and benefits transparently, because Remote owns its entities in every country it does business.

More than that, Remote could provide insights and guidance above and beyond that of a typical EOR, as Boogaerts and her people team would soon discover.

Check out Remote’s Country Explorer to learn more about hiring abroad.

For Checkly, Remote is more than just a vendor

Checkly no longer worries about onboarding and managing international hires (or talented software engineers) since partnering with Remote. Checkly’s team has the robust, self-service HR platform they need to maintain their unique, transparent company culture. And when Checkly has needed help with unique global hiring challenges, Remote has been there.

The guidance they provided when one of our team members’ visa application was rejected...Remote really went above and beyond to help us figure out how to deal with this situation. We’re just a small client, so they could have just sent us through some standard processes. However, they were ready with quick and helpful answers at every step along the way.

Remote and Checkly also share the same values concerning fairness and equity, which has led to fascinating insights and developments at Checkly.

“Even before we were Remote customers, Remote’s VP of People Nadia Vatalidis gave us some great insights about how Remote handles fair pay for their own team members and on trends she sees with Remote clients. This was a huge help in getting Checkly’s Pay Calculator set up.”

See also: How to manage global compensation when you have a distributed team

“From these two examples, I know that Remote is a partner, not just a vendor.”

The future of Checkly’s expansion

Checkly is well on its way to achieving its mission of becoming the number one active reliability platform for developer-owned operations. Checkly also has international job opportunities and wants to grow while maintaining the high level of trust and transparency for which it’s known.

“We care a lot about the developer experience, both that of our customers and that of our own developers. To achieve that, the people department together with management focuses on the people and the culture, so that the people can focus on their work and not be distracted by not knowing what’s going on or worrying about their pay or parental leave.”

Remote will be there to help Checkly’s people department provide the best experience for their remote-first workforce, with top-tier employer of record services and customer service.

Do you want to enjoy stress-free international hiring like Checkly? Contact us today to schedule a consultation with one of Remote’s global hiring experts. If you’re ready to get started, you can set up your profile now and begin onboarding employees and contractors around the world in minutes.