Why Should You Hire Remote Talent From an Offshore Location?
According to a Korn Ferry analysis, the marketing and digital industries are acting in reaction to a projected scarcity of trained labor. When examining the US, UK, AU, and NZ talent markets at the moment, one finds that the demand for salaries is at an all-time high, access to competent labor is scarce, and startups are under extreme pressure to justify their personnel costs.
Conversely, throughout the last 18 months, over 12% of digital agencies have begun to employ personnel from Latin America, East Asia, Eastern Europe, and India. This indicates that, particularly in light of the fact that many of them were forced to let go of staff in 2021–2022 due to financial difficulties, startups are searching for faster, more dependable, and flexible ways to hire new personnel and reassess their hiring strategy.
- What caused such a shift in approach for agencies?
- Hiring top talent is the key- What should agencies know about it?
- “We want to hire digital and tech talents remotely, but where to hire them from and how?”
- More than 20% of global agile agencies have hired remote talents from offshore locations- but should you too?
What caused such a shift in approach for agencies?
A panic struck various agencies when growing inflation and operating costs coincided with the recessions that the US and the EU experienced in 2022 and 2023, respectively. In an attempt to save costs, they were forced to fire a sizable portion of its local staff. Finding affordable personnel in offshore locations is the only practical way to hire under these conditions.
The talent was also impacted by the economic instability; in order to keep up with the growing cost of living, they requested larger compensation. According to a survey by Upwork, local talent is currently 14% more expensive than distant talent. Naturally, agencies that are unable to satisfy these wage requirements will look elsewhere.
To slow down the increase in expenses, agencies must continue to run their businesses. It makes sense to hire specific positions from offshore locations that don’t break the bank when there is a reduced local workforce.
As of 2022, 52% of digital marketing agencies in the United States are bootstrapped—that is, they rely mostly on their operations and are self-funded. In contrast to established agencies, these startups must discover economical means of growing their workforce in order to keep up with the latest developments.
Agencies aiming to enhance their employer brand and guarantee a bias-free workplace have as their forward-thinking goal creating a diverse workforce. According to a recent poll, businesses with a diverse workforce have a 35% higher chance of outperforming the industry median in financial returns. An analogous study revealed that inventive and agile work environments were six times as likely to be inclusive.
Hiring top talent is the key- What should agencies know about it?
An individual that possesses exceptional competence in their industry, is flexible, scalable, and easily integrates into the culture of an organization is considered a top talent. The main components of any hiring plan are the ability to work remotely and international work experience; finding and keeping such talent over extended periods of time is the aim.
Hiring excellent people remotely, however, is a whole different ballgame than hiring locally; the priorities and check list are different. Finding the proper fit can be a daunting undertaking when hiring for specific roles overseas.
It’s crucial to remember that identifying talented individuals is simpler because you need to assess their problem-solving and technical expertise, among other things.
However, as cultural adaptability varies depending on the workplace, recruiting firms must take particular care when evaluating potential applicants for this skill.
“We want to hire digital and tech talents remotely, but where to hire them from and how?”
Hiring managers of international marketing agencies most frequently report, “When we decided to hire for marketing roles, our natural inclination was to hire from India for obvious reasons but it was overwhelming- we hear great things but we were clueless on when to start.”
By 2022, 63% of all businesses—including agencies—were using remote workers for certain positions. Global agencies select one of four offshore locations for remote hiring: India, Latin America, East Europe, or East Asia.
Let’s review these nations in brief:
As you can see, India is the top choice for international agencies looking to offshore. It is the region with the youngest population (66% of people under 35), the largest talent pool (5 million highly qualified tech and digital skills), and the lowest cost of hiring remote personnel (nearly 40% cost advantage).
More than 20% of global agile agencies have hired remote talents from offshore locations- but should you too?
A 2022 survey states that 35% of international agile agencies have employed remote workers from foreign countries. This figure is anticipated to rise in the upcoming years as more companies realize the advantages of employing remote workers on a worldwide scale. However, before you follow suit and hire remote workers from abroad, let’s talk about a few important priorities:
Understand the roles you are hiring
It is imperative that you thoroughly assess the distant function you are employing in terms of the necessary expertise, technological know-how, and duties. These factors will aid in determining whether it is preferable to hire people for these positions remotely or not. For example, remote recruiting makes more sense for professions that include working with clients (business development), operations (SEO specialist), or project management (campaign manager). Individuals possessing robust teamwork and communication abilities can effortlessly handle these duties in a dispersed environment. However, it is preferable to recruit on-site if you are searching for someone in a leadership position (CXO, board member), which entails frequent meetings, deciding on important policies and choices for the companies, managing sensitive information, and having clients in your local area. (Not that agencies don’t employ these positions from offshore; nevertheless, because these positions have leadership duties, it is preferable to hire them on-site.)
Hiring for the first time
Assessing whether your business is prepared to engage a distant distributed team is essential if, as an agency, you have never before hired remote talent from overseas locations and are only investigating the notion. Assess your organization’s readiness to manage, hire, and retain personnel. Along with this, find out if you can guarantee scalability and cross-cultural inclusion with a varied pool of remote hires. As part of your preparation, you must set up the appropriate infrastructure, obtain IT support, develop efficient remote talent management skills, and guarantee work/time flexibility.
Have hired before
If you have previously employed remote workers, then scalability and retention have to be the fundamental mutual expectations. If your previous experience with employing remote talent was unsatisfactory, there are a few things you can do to improve future effectiveness. Examining your abilities for aptitude and cultural acuity, as well as selecting the best hiring strategy for a smooth hiring process that reduces your labor-intensive work, You must have a well-defined hiring strategy and know what qualities of elite talent you require. This can facilitate a better remote hiring experience and help you increase your retention rate.
Evaluation
Weigh your priorities as a company and consider your options, including hiring platforms, freelancers, job boards, traditional outsourcing companies, and local recruitment partners. The recruiting of “your team” is ultimately the main goal here, therefore it’s critical to accept full accountability for the hiring procedure and talent retention rather than wasting time and energy ineffectively.
Both the talent environment and the hiring market for agencies such as yours are evolving. It is critical to be prepared for these changes and to make sure you are well-equipped to handle them. Maintain a flexible mindset when assessing your priorities, all the while monitoring the expansion and scalability of your business.
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