When staff worked in one building, equipment sat where the company could see it. Distributing the same people across many homes turns a simple asset question into a logistical one.
Ownership determines what happens later
Equipment can be bought by the company and lent, bought by the employee with reimbursement, or covered by an allowance that leaves ownership with the individual.
Each option has different consequences at the end of employment, and the tax treatment of allowances and reimbursements varies by jurisdiction and changes over time.
Deciding this before the first purchase avoids a situation where similar items are held under different arrangements across the same team.
Recovery is the part that fails
Issuing a device is straightforward. Getting it back from someone who has left, in another country, requires shipping arrangements and their cooperation after they have gone.
Recovery rates fall as distance and time increase, and the practical value of a returned device is often below the cost of retrieving it.
Companies therefore set thresholds below which recovery is not attempted, and account for the loss deliberately rather than pursuing every item.
Security travels with the device
Company data sits on hardware in locations the organisation does not control, connected through networks it cannot inspect.
Disk encryption, remote wipe capability and device management are what make the exposure manageable, and they must be in place before the device is issued rather than afterwards.
Devices that cannot be reached remotely, because they were never enrolled or have not connected for a long time, are the ones that create the actual problem.
Home working costs are treated differently everywhere
Contributions toward internet connections, electricity, furniture and workspace are handled inconsistently between countries, both in whether they are required and how they are taxed.
Some jurisdictions mandate employer contributions or specific equipment provision, while others treat the same payment as taxable income to the employee.
A single global policy will therefore be non-compliant somewhere, which is why distributed employers usually maintain a framework with local variations attached.
Health and safety obligations do not disappear
Employer duties regarding the working environment often continue when the work happens at home, though what is required varies substantially between legal systems.
Obligations may include risk assessment of the home workspace, guidance on setup, and provision of suitable equipment where the employee's own is inadequate.
Because these requirements are set locally and enforced locally, an employer with staff in several countries is subject to several different standards simultaneously.