With remote work getting more and more popular amongst employees, it is time for employers to overthink their hiring strategies to allow more remote workers throughout the world to get hired. But why should companies care?
This article has first been published on RemoteML.com.
A nearly unlimited talent pool
Why would you limit your choices to the ~200,000 engineers (estimated 2013) in San Francisco, if you could have instant access to over 3.2 million software engineers in the US or over 18.2 million worldwide?
While you will have to invest more time in recruiting, you will be able to cherry pick only the candidates that fit you and your team 100%. A funny hiring stat: Fully remote company Doist reported that they only hire 0.13% of applicants. Can your organization say the same?
This is how you create a team of the best people in the world, rather than the people who agree to move near your office, making your organization more likely to succeed.
The easiest way to diversify your team
Let’s be honest: In today’s time companies should have a hiring strategy that promotes diversity or you will soon be left with a toxic team that is unwelcoming for people of different genders, races or ethnicities.
The absolutely easiest way to diversify your team is to hire globally. You’ll get confronted with issues you didn’t think about before. Will your software still work with an unstable internet connection somewhere in India? Will your new computer vision software work as good for people with darker skin? Diversity is important.
Your new Computer Vision software is not working for people with darker skin? Well…
It’s not that much work
The most common excuse is ‘hiring remotely is too much work’. Fair enough, the way bigger talent pool you’ll have to go through, managing your workforce when you don’t see them everyday in the office, the different regulations each country has — remote work isn’t something that works out of nowhere.
Like everything in your company, it takes some effort. But limiting yourself to your local market in today’s time, just because something ‘takes some work’ is a bit silly, isn’t it? Put in the effort, set up some hiring strategies and pipelines and with almost nothing, you’ll be able to create a better team.
Happier, more productive employees
The statistics are out there. Even though fully remote employees suffer from some of the downsides of remote work, overall they are happier, healthier and more productive.
You also open up your company to people you didn’t have access before — unrelated to geographical location. A new mom can still work as a graphic designer from home. A paraplegic who wouldn’t have access to your office on the 3rd floor can now pick up his work as a Software Engineer again. People are able to move away from where they don’t want to be, to wherever they do want.
Remote work is the future — if you let it be that.