Who remote HR leadership is for
Three kinds of companies in the DACH region end up on this page. The first has no office worth the name: a software or services company founded remote, with a legal seat in Berlin or Vienna and a team spread across a dozen cities and two or three countries. The second is the small, scattered DACH team of an international group: fifteen people in Germany, ten in Austria, eight in Switzerland, reporting to a regional director in London or Amsterdam, with no local HR at all and three payroll providers. The third is a company with several German sites, none large enough to justify an HR lead on its own, whose previous HR lead worked from headquarters and whose successor will not be found for six months.
What they share is that presence in one city would be presence for a fraction of the workforce. What they need is someone who has actually led distributed teams, who runs HR on a rhythm rather than on corridor conversations, and who knows that a dismissal in Vienna, a contract in Zurich, and a works council hearing in Hamburg are three different procedures. I have led international teams across twelve countries, mostly remotely and in English, and the routines that made that work are the routines I bring to a remote mandate.
Typical situations for remote mandates
The DACH cluster of a UK or US group has no HR
Thirty-five people across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, three payroll providers, contracts drafted by the group's lawyers in English, and a first dismissal in Vienna that nobody knows how to do. Fractional, two days a week, remote.
A remote-first scale-up restructures
Legal seat in Berlin, a works council elected last year, 40 of 180 roles to go, employees in six German cities plus Zurich. Selection criteria, works council consultation by video, individual conversations by video with a manager present, on-site for the decisive session.
A multi-site Mittelstand company loses its HR lead
Four sites of 60 to 120 people each, one works council per site and a group works council, the HR lead sat at headquarters and travelled. The successor search will take six months. Remote leadership with a visit rota.
How a remote mandate works
- A fixed weekly rhythmLeadership slot on Monday, HR team stand-up daily, manager contact windows Tuesday and Thursday, works council slot as agreed, one-page report to the managing director on Friday. Remote HR that reacts instead of running on a calendar fails within a month.
- Taking stock by video and by documentContracts, open cases, deadlines, works council agreements, payroll set-ups per country, systems. Two weeks, structured, with a written result the managing director can read.
- One counterpart per country for payroll and counselA payroll provider and an employment lawyer in each of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland where the company has employees. I steer them; I do not replace them.
- Works council by video, in the room when it decidesRoutine hearings and consultations by video, with minutes shared. Restructuring negotiations, a first works council agreement, and the meeting where trust is built: in person.
- Individual conversations with careDismissals, performance conversations, and conflicts are not delegated to a chat message. By video with the manager present, on-site where the situation calls for it, always prepared.
- Everything documented from day oneProcesses, deadlines, per-country rules, and open items live in a shared space, not in my head. The handover to the successor is a folder, not a knowledge transfer meeting.
Austria: what changes compared with Germany
Austria looks similar to Germany from a distance and is different in the detail that matters for HR. The works council (Betriebsrat) exists under the Labour Constitution Act (Arbeitsverfassungsgesetz, ArbVG) in establishments with five or more employees, but its consent rights are narrower than in Germany: many matters that need a German works council's consent need only information and consultation in Austria, while a few, such as certain monitoring systems and some disciplinary rules, do need consent. Dismissals do not require a prior hearing in the German sense; instead the works council must be informed before notice is given, and it can object, which affects the employee's options to challenge the dismissal in court but does not void the notice.
Collective agreements (Kollektivverträge) cover a far larger share of the workforce than in Germany, because membership of the Chamber of Commerce is mandatory for employers and the chamber concludes the agreements. In practice nearly every employee in Austria is covered by a collective agreement with a minimum salary, and job ads must state the collective agreement minimum. Notice periods for white-collar employees are set by statute and are longer than many German entities expect, with notice only possible to the end of a quarter unless the contract says otherwise. Social security is administered through the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) with contribution rules, thresholds, and a thirteenth and fourteenth monthly salary that are standard and taxed favourably. An Austrian payroll provider and an Austrian employment lawyer are not optional for a German entity with staff in Vienna.
Switzerland: what changes compared with Germany and Austria
Swiss companies also work in different salary and holiday rules: a statutory minimum of four weeks' holiday, a normal working week that can reach 45 hours, and salary levels that a German group is often surprised by. Employment contracts are frequently in English and are enforceable that way. For anything that touches a contract, a termination, or a permit, I work with a Swiss employment lawyer and a Swiss payroll provider; what I bring is the structure, the leadership, and the ability to explain to a German or British headquarters why the Zurich team is handled differently from the Munich one.
When I travel, and how it is arranged
Remote is the standard, not a rule. In every remote mandate there are sessions that decide something and need a room: the first meeting with a works council, the negotiation of a reconciliation of interests and social plan, an all-hands where a restructuring is announced, the difficult conversation where the employee deserves a person across the table. Those are planned in advance and travelled to. Berlin is four hours from Frankfurt by ICE, Munich three and a quarter, Hamburg three and three-quarters, Zurich four by direct ICE, and Vienna six and a half by Railjet or a short flight. The visits are agreed as a rota or as needed and arranged as a flat amount in the services contract, so the finance team sees one predictable line.
For companies whose team is concentrated in one of the seven cities I work in on-site, the city page is the better starting point; the regional pages for Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg describe the hybrid rhythm there. The role itself, and the four-week mutual trial period, is on Interim HR Manager. How a DACH cluster fits the fixed-days model is on Fractional HR, and the day-rate logic under What an Interim HR Manager costs.
International teams led mostly remotely and in English, including operational HR across twelve countries at a bank and a region scaled from 70 to over 100 employees at a consumer goods company. Practical knowledge of Austrian and Swiss differences, local counsel for contracts and courts. More about me
Frequently asked questions about remote mandates across DACH
Does works council work function remotely?
Largely yes. The Works Constitution Act allows works council meetings by video since 2021 if the council's rules permit it, and routine hearings, consultations, and negotiations run by video in most of my mandates. For the sessions that decide a restructuring or a first works council agreement, I recommend being in the room, and I travel for those.
Do you cover Austrian and Swiss employment law?
The HR role transfers across the three countries; the law does not. I know the main differences, which are summarised on this page, and I work with local employment counsel in Vienna or Zurich for anything that goes to a contract or a court. What I bring is the leadership, the structure, and the translation between the group and the local rules.
Our team is spread across Berlin, Vienna, and Zurich with 20 people in each. Is that an interim case or a fractional one?
Usually fractional at first: two fixed days a week, remote, with one HR lead for three countries and local payroll providers in each. It becomes interim if a restructuring, a merger, or a rapid growth phase lands in one of the countries. The first call sorts that out.
How do you keep the leadership team engaged without being on-site?
With a fixed rhythm: a weekly leadership slot, a Friday one-page report, and named contact windows for managers. Remote HR fails when it becomes reactive. Mine runs on a calendar the managing director can see.
How far is it to Vienna and Zurich if you do travel?
Frankfurt to Zurich is around four hours by direct ICE, Frankfurt to Vienna around six and a half hours by Railjet, or a short flight for both. On-site visits are planned for the sessions that need them, agreed in advance, and arranged as a flat amount in the services contract.
Which language does the mandate run in?
English with the leadership team and the group, German with works councils, employment contracts, and authorities in all three countries. Swiss German in meetings is not a barrier; Swiss contracts are in standard German or, often, in English.