While the pandemic has altered most of the pre-existing working norms, it has also opened newer opportunities to allow companies to work with a remote workforce. And the technological revolution has offered innovative ways to do so successfully.
This change holds enormous potential to help businesses boost their ROI (Returns on Investment), especially start-ups and SMEs. Larger enterprises have the potential to hire top talent locally, however, smaller businesses lag due to financial constraints. But the new working model has made it possible for businesses of all sizes to remote hiring without digging a hole in their pockets.
However, like everything else, remote staffing has its pros and cons. And if you are reading this blog, it means you wish to dig deeper to understand how you can mitigate the cons to your benefit. This blog will help you do just that. Let us look at the pros first.
Pros of Hiring Remote Employees
Cost Effectiveness
Who doesn’t want to save money? As they say, a penny saved is a penny earned. And that’s exactly what hiring a remote workforce would do for your business. This is no big talk. There are multiple reasons due to which this model lets you save money, and I will touch every point to make you understand why hiring remotely can save at least 50% of your employee costs.
Firstly, the cost of living in countries like India from where you can hire writers, or resources in any other domain, is considerably low. Hence, remote staffing companies can offer attractive prices, cutting your costs by at least half. Moreover, you save on other overhead and operating costs as the resource would work from an office fully managed by the company you are hiring from.
And, if that is still not enough for you then there is more! Most of these companies do not charge any recruitment fees to bring top-of-the-line talent that’s best suited for your business requirement.
Attract Top Talent from a Diverse Pool
We all know that the world is full of talented people but most of them do not get the opportunity to prove their mettle. It is only wise to go beyond the borders to explore what the world has to offer. If you look around, you may find several talented Indians working in top corporate companies. Silicon Valley is a great example. But as a start-up or a small business, hiring locally may not be a financially viable option. Now, imagine if you can hire similar talent at half the cost. Wouldn’t you go for it? Even Fortune 500 companies have realized the potential of tapping this model of hiring remote workforce. Why should you miss out?
Low Attrition, Better Retention
Employees leaving your company is one of the biggest letdowns for any growing business. It not only hampers the seamless work processes but also reflects badly on a company’s reputation. Retaining an employee is crucial for smaller enterprises to function smoothly. Yet another thing that can be avoided by hiring remote employees. By taking services from reputed remote staffing companies, you can shed the stress of attrition.
Avoid Compliance Hassles
Following the above point of retaining your employees, compliance can also be a huge issue. Have you ever had to face HR related problems with your employees? Say, paying for claims or struggling with lawsuits? Even if you’ve not, fear is always there. Again, this is an issue you will never have to face if you choose remote staffing.
Embrace Diversity
Diversity should always be welcome in any company. It allows different experiences and perspectives to thrive together making way for innovation. Can that ever be bad for any business?
Cons of Hiring a Remote Resource and How You Can Mitigate Them to Help Your Business Grow
Security Risk
The threat to data is the most real and critical issue that most employers face while making up their mind about hiring from a different country. And rightly so! Especially if you work with freelancers. One can never be sure about how secure your data is while outsourcing work to a remote resource.
Solution: When you hire from a trusted agency, you can easily shed your worry. Most of such companies are licensed and they have systems in place to ensure you don’t face data security issues. So, you can rest assured that your work is in safe hands.
Communication
This can be another major issue especially when you have a remote workforce from a different country. Besides, the message may get lost in all the emails you send back and forth. The lack of face-to-face communication can pose an issue and hamper the seamless functioning of your work resulting in lower productivity.
Solution: Technology has solved this issue for you already. All you need to do is to have easy to understand system in place. With communication ways like chatting platforms, video calling, etc. life is much simpler. As for language barriers, reputed remote staffing firms would only provide talent from the top universities and with varied experience. Communicating with them would not be a hassle.
Employee Management
Managing a workforce that is not working under your supervision can be harrowing. How would you divide time between focusing on your business growth and managing your remote resource- this is a valid apprehension. You can either just trust the employee or resort to device monitoring.
Solution: Had your employee been working from home (or any place other than office premises), this would have been a real problem. But if you have remote resources from a licensed company then think of it as your office branch at a different location. Employees work from a fully functional office space properly monitored by experienced managers.
Finding suitable employees
It’s next to impossible to find the best resource for the role you are looking for. When hiring thousands of miles away, you can never be sure of the candidate you select. Even if you find qualified resources, they may lack proper communication skills. And if everything else fits, the candidate may not be trustworthy. So, how can you find the right person?
Solution: The answer to this problem is quite simple- a reliable and certified remote staffing company. If you connect with them, they will offer properly vetted candidates who not only suit your job requirement but also fare well in all other parameters.
Conclusion
Comparing the pros with the cons of building a remote workforce, the pros have it, mainly because there are foolproof ways to cast aside the cons.
