Remote-first recruiting is an organizational strategy that prioritizes hiring candidates who work remotely without compromising productivity or performance. In this case, employees are asked to work from another location, such as a home office or co-working space, instead of a traditional office setting.
This type of recruiting enables businesses to develop a company culture where candidates are chosen based on their ability to work independently and adapt to different environments. By embracing remote-first recruitment, businesses create a more inclusive and effective workspace that promotes flexibility, reduces overhead costs, and helps companies access a much larger pool of talented professionals.
Explore the benefits of remote-first recruitment, the shift toward hiring remote employees, and three ways employers can effectively hire remote workers.
Benefits of Remote-First Recruiting
There are several notable benefits of remote-first recruiting methods. Onboarding remote employees allows business to achieve their goals without having geographical limitations.
Here are a few other benefits:
Access to Global Talent
One of the most well-known advantages of remote hiring is the ability for employers to access a global talent pool and find the right person for each position, regardless of location. Since remote team members don’t have geographical limitations, they can provide their unique skill sets and meet the requirements of their job description from anywhere with an internet connection. This is especially helpful when businesses are hiring for specialized roles such as software engineers.
Hiring global employees familiar with specialized requirements minimizes the time and money spent on training. Did you know that on average $1,252 per employee is spent on training and development initiatives? This number fluctuates depending on the size of the company and the type of specialized training an employee requires.
Access to global talent also provides businesses access to industry experts during a talent shortage. A report from Korn Ferry suggests that by the year 2030, there will be more than 85 million jobs that could go unfilled because there aren’t enough qualified candidates. However, by implementing a remote onboarding process, businesses can find top talent and hire across borders to support their business needs.
Increased Flexibility
Remote work provides both employees and employers with increased flexibility. Remote work offers talent an improved work-life balance, reduced commute time, and the opportunity to produce quality work in a comfortable environment. Employees can work at their own time and pace while balancing personal and professional commitments without the restrictions of working in a traditional office.
For employers, a remote setting provides the flexibility to easily scale up or down without significant resource allocation and the constraints of physical office space. When businesses look to enter new international markets, they already have the project management tools and culture needed to achieve any business goals.
Reduced Overhead Costs
Since remote-first recruiting reduces a business's physical footprint, companies don’t have to spend as much on physical infrastructure such as office space, administrative supplies, furniture, utilities, and other associated expenses.
The average cost of hiring an employee in Canada is $4,129, while a remote employee’s cost is determined through a percentage of their base salary. Hiring a remote employee means allocating:
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~10% of the remote employee's base salary on payroll taxes
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~15% of the remote employee’s base salary on benefits
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~4-6% of the remote employee’s base salary on vacation pay
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~5-25% of the remote employee's base salary on outsourcing fees
Remote Work is Here to Stay
Remote-first recruitment offers new hires greater job satisfaction and work-life balance while employers take advantage of the many monetary and cultural benefits of offering greater flexibility to workers.
Over the past few years, remote work has been on the rise, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work and hybrid working models became more common. LinkedIn’s data indicates a 2.5 times increase in remote job postings between 2020 and 2023.
Remote work is here to stay. During the pandemic, businesses were forced to adapt to remote work models. Whether it was improved workplace productivity, happier and healthier employees, or lower turnover rates, it paved the way for future remote work.
Benefits of a Distributed Workforce
In non-traditional work settings, when your employees work in multiple locations across the world, the term distributed workforce is used. Distributed workforces have rapidly evolved and are powered by tools such as Zoom and Slack to bridge the physical distance between employees.
Here are a few benefits of having a distributed workforce:
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Higher Productivity: Research suggests that when onboarding a remote employee, they provide quality work and are willing to spend more working hours than their in-office coworkers. According to recent research, around 62% of employees also report being more productive with flexible working arrangements.
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Global Coverage: Hiring employees from around the world enables companies to remain productive throughout the day, as each employee may live in a different time zone. Ultimately, this provides greater coverage for employers and can help them gain traction in markets around the world.
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Reduce Carbon Footprint: Eliminate the hours wasted waiting in traffic and commuting to and from work with a distributed workforce. In fact, according to research, remote working arrangements save employees an average of about 50 minutes per day. This improves a company’s sustainability efforts by reducing commute times, emissions, and other related resources.
Ways to Hire in a Foreign Country
There are multiple ways to hire international talent. However, while hiring, it’s important to consider the type of employment relationships that will work best for your business structure.
Engage Remote Workers as Contractors
The first option is to engage talent as contractors or freelancers. Engaging independent contractors is a common way businesses hire international talent since it is more cost effective and doesn’t involve any employer burden requirements. Independent contractors differ from employees and have flexibility in choosing work hours, clients, and engaging subcontractors. Independent contractors also own the equipment needed to work on projects and have the right to refuse work.
However, when taking this route, be mindful of the legal requirements to classify a worker as a contractor as opposed to an employee. Failure to meet these requirements results in misclassification penalties and consequences, which include significant fines, back pay, and more.
Establish a Legal Entity
Another effective method to hire remote employees is establishing a legal entity in the country of hire. Opening a legal entity in the country where you wish to hire your next remote employee allows you to create a branch or subsidiary and directly hire candidates. Entity establishment enables businesses to maintain complete control over hiring local workers, the onboarding process, and HR functions such as payroll. However, this also means that you must have extensive legal knowledge specific to that country or region to remain compliant with relevant employment laws.
Setting up a foreign entity is a good option if your company plans to establish a long-term presence and has the internal expertise and resources to maintain compliance. However, the cost and time required for establishing a legal entity is extensive. Ultimately, this can be a relatively complicated and lengthy process.
Partner with an Employer of Record
The last method to hiring remote employees, and arguably the easiest solution, is to partner with an Employer of Record. A global Employer of Record (EOR) acts as the legal employer of your distributed workforce and takes responsibility for HR-related tasks to keep you compliant with all legal requirements without the need for entity establishment. This includes but is not limited to, compliance with local employment laws, payroll processing, tax filing, benefits administration, and managing employment contracts.
An EOR handles the hiring and onboarding process, such as employment contracts, payments, payroll and income tax, employee benefits, and more to ensure full compliance with local labor laws and requirements.
Borderless AI: Quickly and Compliantly Hire Remote Employees Worldwide
The key to successfully hire your global, distributed team is to partner with Borderless AI. Experience the future of global HR and streamline your global hiring in over 170 countries while maintaining compliance.
At Borderless AI, our AI-powered platform allows you to hire, manage, and pay your remote teams with zero upfront costs. We also provide a dedicated team of in-house experts to assist you with any issues that may arise as you grow your business in new markets.
We also offer access to Alberni, the world’s first AI agent for global employment. Within seconds Alberni creates employment contracts, provides powerful insights, and streamlines onboarding so you can experience the benefits of hiring hassle-free.
Contact us today to see how we help companies successfully hire remote employees and scale operations around the world.
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