Management Perspectives

Despite the ongoing challenges the world is facing as it navigates pandemic recovery, businesses across every sector are targeting growth. Having paused to meet the difficulties created by lockdown, organisations are now taking the tough lessons learnt during the past couple of years and using them to build ambitious expansion strategies.

However, despite the various opportunities for growth that currently exist, many businesses are finding themselves limited by a dearth of new and experienced professionals. Considering the pace of change seen recently in the talent and recruitment landscape, this is far from surprising.

The world of work has undergone a dramatic shift and looking beyond themes such as the ‘new normal’ and ‘Great Resignation’ reveals a new and very different mindset and strategy on the part of employers and employees alike. Taking employers first, pre-COVID, organisations in many sectors were already struggling to address talent shortages. The technology sector is a case-in-point, with the cyber security niche struggling with a global workforce gap of 2.72 million roles, according to data from ISC1. That shortfall is even more challenging given the sector employs around 4.2 million people in total—a ratio of open roles to employees that is causing serious concern.

That is, by no means, an isolated case, and across many sectors, employers are having to focus on a range of alternatives to traditional recruitment, including re-skilling, upskilling, automation, and crucially, embracing remote and hybrid working to hire talent from farther afield.

And farther afield means going global. Organisations facing talent shortages in their own country are now free to look practically anywhere for the right person for the job. Remote working represents a major opportunity, because it creates an integrated workforce in which location no longer defines access to career opportunities.

Technology has played a key, enabling role. New software tools that enable remote communication, such as Zoom for videoconferencing and Slack and Trello for remote team project management, have reduced the feeling of disconnection and lack of work oversight managers have long feared.

Empowered employees
Employment markets are changing, thanks to a major shift in employee mindset. Workers in the millions have recently taken the opportunity to reassess their career goals, their workplace preferences and their willingness to continue following the ‘old normal’ working routines.

Empowered by the volume and variety of roles available, many are being far more particular about where they work, for whom, and under what conditions. Headline data certainly seems to support this idea— according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, the number of resignations reached a record high of 4.5 million as recently as November2.

This undoubtedly includes people whose horizons have broadened to look for remote working opportunities. Pre-pandemic, many employers were skeptical about whether video-based working cultures were viable; today, flexibility has become a must-have in office environments that once were a 100 per cent office-based.

Modern challenges need modern solutions
To succeed, businesses focused on international growth must become established in new locations. Any misstep in this process can quickly become costly. Many organisations embark on expansion plans without understanding the complexity of establishing a business entity or setting up a branch office abroad.

The process can vary dramatically from one country to another, taking anywhere from three to 12 months, and requires compliance with a diverse set of rules and regulations. This lengthy time frame can dampen corporate enthusiasm as well as growth, and what business leaders often imagine as a basic administrative process leaves them bogged down by red tape and unfamiliar responsibilities.

In response to these issues, a new model has emerged that offers organisations a shortcut to doing business internationally: the Employer of Record (EoR) or global technology platform. This platform acts as the official employer for its clients and relieves hiring organisations of doing the heavy lifting of setting up and staffing a location in another country. It’s an approach designed to help businesses leapfrog over the barriers to growth so they can add international employees in a couple of hours instead of months.

While businesses still identify the talent, the EoR puts their team members on an already-existing local payroll and benefits plan. This means international, legal, HR, and finance functions are outsourced, while the EoR is responsible for ensuring that all local laws are followed during the hiring process, benefits offered are legal and appropriate for the region, and the onboarding process complies with local regulations.

A catalyst for growth
In many cases, getting started on an international hiring strategy can act as a catalyst to wider business growth and success. There are companies in every sector whose fortunes change for the better, once they take the plunge and make prudent investments in overseas people and teams.

The first step to understanding the employee recruitment process is much the same throughout the world. Posting a clear job description on LinkedIn, for example, is often an ideal starting point for finding candidates, and having tried that, many organisations are surprised by the reach it can give them outside their domestic hiring territory. In addition, specialist local sites or recruiters can help cast the net even wider. Clearly, there are pitfalls associated with hiring workers remotely, and this holds true whether the next hire is located on the other side of the state, the country or the world. At Globalization Partners, for instance, we have seen 90 per cent of those who hired international staff retain them for at least a year. This figure holds steady whether the hiring is being done in the US or anywhere else in the world.

The advantages of feet on the ground
Although many companies fear the inability to monitor workers in person, there is a significant advantage to having customerfacing employees in another country. That close customer proximity, regardless of the distance to the home office, reduces the likelihood of miscommunication and misunderstanding that can occur through other means of communication, such as email, text, and even phone.

For example, in some Asian countries, there is a strong preference for use of the phone or video call to communicate, more than email, especially if there is anything nuanced to discuss. When someone has a question or concern, they generally prefer a phone call. There are innumerable, nuanced situations like this across different countries and cultures with the potential to be mystifying. But, by working with trusted partners with the operational infrastructure in place globally and the experience to help ambitious businesses navigate these important challenges, the chances of turning domestic success into global growth are now greater than ever.