Companies looking to expand their services, scale their teams, and benefit from unique skills have a lot to gain from international remote workers. However, hiring such talent is challenging at the best of times, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Hiring managers need to weigh in a lot of issues vs the potential benefits they stand to gain. A deeper exploration of this problem will help to show you which way the scale tips.
The Complications of Hiring International Remote Workers
It’s scary to imagine employees you have so little management capability over such as remote workers. Yet, studies show that remote workers are more productive than their in-office counterparts. However, the problems with hiring such teams are more complex than productivity and management.
1. Finding the Right Talent
With no geographic restrictions, you suddenly have a much bigger market from which to source your teams. How do you even begin with sourcing, vetting, interviewing, and even onboarding your candidates of choice?
Whether you’re hiring contractors, freelancers, or full-time remote employees, you’ve got to make sure that the candidates you find are right for you. This is a challenging task for any HR or hiring team unless they have enough experience on the same.
2. Time Zones
Time zones are an inconvenience at the best of times, but they can quickly become a major hindrance to how you and your remote workers interact.
3. Local Laws
HR managers are under a huge obligation to study the local hiring, payment, taxation, and other regulations for their remote workers or risk going afoul with the law.
4. The Costs of Opening Facilities in Other Countries
When it comes to setting up remote offices, the costs of rent, equipment, labor, licensing, and other costs can quickly pile up.
Benefits of Hiring International Remote Workers
Even with so many challenges, it’s interesting that many organizations are making the leap to hire international teams. With the right mindset, it is possible to turn these challenges into unique opportunities and gain an edge in the competitive markets.
Small Businesses and Remote Hiring
Small businesses are especially susceptible to the dynamics of the job market. Without the right policies and structures in place, they can suffer more from international remote workers.
Interestingly, these small businesses stand to benefit most from remote workers sourced across borders. Being leaner, and more responsive, they have the agility to take up novel solutions to unique problems. A closer look at the benefits of international remote workers will make this clear.
1. Take Advantage of Opportunities in New Markets
Thanks to technology, new markets are cropping up everywhere. Tech companies and those selling digital goods stand to gain from exploring digital markets, but if they have a team as local liaisons.
2. Hiring Just Across the Border (Canada and the U.S.) Eliminates Most of the Challenges
Some major problems such as time zones, language barriers, laws, and even cultural disconnects are easily solved by hiring just across the border. Canada and the USA come to mind.
3. Have People Across Many Time Zones and Stay Live 24/7
Hiring across different time zones is a great way to ensure that you always have representatives online to handle customer queries, services requests, and ensure greater availability. This is especially true of businesses that handle online sales, shipping, software packages, cloud solutions, and other time-sensitive products.
You Don’t Have Hire Full-Time, Other Options Are Available
There are much more flexible options than full-time or part-time employees.
- Contractors — These are businesses, agencies, or individuals working for you for a set period.
- Hire an agency — You can outsource specific business processes to overseas companies and save big. These include customer experience and local marketing.
- Hire through a PEO — A Professional Employer Organization is a type of firm that manages your HR needs for you including international remote hiring. This effectively irons out the many challenges involved and ensures suitable candidates for various roles. Learn more about PEOs here.
Start Building Your Remote Team
A well put-together international remote team has valuable benefits to any kind of business, but especially SMBs. If you want to grow your business and scale your team with a talented and skilled remote team across your borders, get started now with a reliable and reputable PEO.
