Whether you’re struggling to keep up with high turnover rates or simply looking to expand your recruitment efforts, there’s no denying that the hiring market in tech is more competitive and fast-paced than ever before.
That’s not the only change that businesses looking to hire tech talent are contending with, either.
Even as an industry that had many early adopters of remote working, the pandemic undoubtedly increased the demand for more remote roles in tech, and this is only likely to increase over time.
What could tech recruitment without borders mean for your business?
In 2023, we’re in a globalised hiring market – gone are the days of hiring from one location only, particularly at a time when businesses need a competitive edge to hire skilled tech employees.
Recruitment without borders simply refers to companies expanding their talent pool by recruiting globally for remote employees.
16% of companies worldwide are fully remote, and 75% of global workers believe remote working is the ‘new normal’.
Research has also indicated that whilst the number of workers choosing to work remotely has increased by 24% since 2021, interest in in-office work has dropped by 24%.
For employers that are being bombarded with headlines around skills shortages, high competition for talent, and the sheer difficulties of finding the best candidates possible, this could be the solution to their recruitment woes.
After all, hiring for remote roles is hardly now a new and unexplored concept… so why not expand your tech recruitment reach even further?
Though we’d argue flexibility is an essential part of hiring tech talent, given that so many tech employees might not have traditional academic backgrounds or qualifications, there are sometimes elements of a role you don’t want to compromise on.
Whether it’s a specific degree or qualification, you might be particularly averse to accepting anything outside of these parameters.
Hiring global remote talent means that you are far likelier to have a selection of candidates that will meet these requirements.
Instead of focusing only on applicants from nearby locations and having to adjust your expectations, you can instead widen your talent pool and have a higher likelihood of having these expectations met.
In other words, you can start finding true, best-fit candidates for your vacancies!
Whilst there may have been some debate during the pandemic when mass adoption of remote working occurred around the ability to be productive when working remotely, research indicates this is not the case.
In fact, a study of workers during a full year of remote work highlighted that 61% of workers said productivity rose from working remotely.
It’s not just employees who feel this way.
32.2% of hiring managers felt that overall productivity had gone up during the remote working period, and as more businesses and workers adapted to remote working, perceptions improved and 68% of hiring managers said it was going better than when they’d first started working remotely.
In short, as the technology we use to enable remote working improves alongside our understanding of how to best manage remote teams, productivity will only continue to improve.
Both employers and employees can save time and money through recruitment without borders.
Employees no longer have to finance lengthy commutes or feel obliged to live and/or work in busy city centres.
Similarly, businesses no longer have to pay expensive rent for office spaces or recruitment efforts that yield no results.
The likes of IBM have saved $50 million in real estate costs by going remote, which is no small feat.
Hiring remote workers can also reduce absences and turnover, with Global Workplace Analytics calculating that if US professionals, with jobs that could be done remotely did so half the time, businesses could save around $11,000 per employee.
Tech employees are in high demand and low supply, so it follows that employers should be looking to try and improve their EVP as much as possible.
Remote working can be seen as such a benefit to an employee (and their work-life balance) that 1 in 2 workers would take a pay cut of 5% or more to have flexibility in their working location, with 23% saying they would take a pay cut of 10% or more.
The same study found that the leading source of stress for employees came from being back in office spaces.
Whilst remote working isn’t a miraculous cure to all workplace and recruitment issues, it certainly provides employees with a benefit that is so significant they often view it as more important than financial incentives.
Work-life balance is also an essential part of this discussion, as remote work offers employees greater flexibility and balance to stay engaged in their work and enjoy social and leisure time properly as well.
A wider talent pool is a major benefit for employers on two fronts.
Firstly, it erases geographic constraints and enables businesses to cast their net wider and further, which can make hiring a smoother and less competitive (to some degree) process.
Secondly, it provides a diverse variety of candidates at a time when many businesses are looking to improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) commitments.
Many of the remote tech employees you end up hiring will have different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, which means that your team will comprise a rich variety of people rather than people with the same/similar backgrounds.
This can encourage greater creativity and more diverse approaches to problem-solving and also attract further candidates based on the greater representation your business will provide due to having a diverse team.
There’s a remote global tech workforce out there, and we can help you to make the most of it.
At Remit Resources, we use our approach to recruitment to fill the gap between a traditional agency and consultancy by focusing on development, infrastructure and infosec.
We can identify your talent needs and provide you with recruitment solutions through our global network – if you’ve got ambitious growth plans for your business, we could be the perfect recruitment partner for you.
Get in touch today to find out more.