Technological advancements and remote working has blurred the lines between talent pools available all over the world. It has accelerated the transformation of businesses by providing them handpicked and vetted talent from all over the world at a relatively low operational cost.

The ease of finding a top-quality developer from any part of the world has enabled teams to connect socially.

Did COVID-19 accelerate it?

The demand for hiring tech talent globally was already on the rise pre-COVID19 times but now it has gained more momentum to help ease our zoomed-in and remote-working times. COVID-19 has definitely enabled businesses to take a leap of faith and explore the treasure of the global talent pool. It has also empowered talented individuals to have a voice in this liberated recruiting process. 

Organizations with a large workforce create a deep funnel to fill just one position in the company. It begins with the career page on their website, to job boards, to LinkedIn & personal referrals, and sometimes ends at hiring a recruitment agency to expand the search.

The process becomes uneasy when startups and small businesses with limited budgets and resources create a funnel to hire.  According to Jobvite, Startups and Small businesses (up to 250 employees) need an average of 62 applications per job vacancy to make a hire. They generally conduct more interviews and make fewer offers.

Hiring full-time remote workers from countries like India is not a new concept. Many have tried franchising, outsourcing, and the gig economy in the past. The question is, does it work? 

Challenges of offshore outsourcing

Companies choose to outsource tech jobs onshore (within their own country), nearshore (to a neighboring country or one in the same time zone), or offshore (to a more distant country) to mainly save costs. In some cases, global companies set up their own local offices to reduce costs or access skills at low cost. However, this results in little or no autonomy in the quality and work processes.

However, how it has changed is the post COVID world is worth discussing. The pandemic resurfaced the problems associated with the offshoring model where call centers had to be shut down because of the economic conditions, internet access, or security clearance to work from home. 

Moreover, outsourcing is difficult to implement, and the failure rate of outsourcing is alarmingly high. Depending on whom you ask, it can be anywhere from 40 to 70 percent. At the heart of the problem is the inherent conflict of interest between companies and vendors.

The talent, on the other side, never becomes a part of the ‘company.’ When the company outsources a job position, it seeks better service, often at lower costs, than doing the work itself. The vendor, however, wants to make a profit. This results in compromised quality and an unsatisfied talent pool.

Gig Workers Help but not lead

The other prominent model is the gig economy. It is the barter of short-term services, where there’s a high degree of autonomy, payment is done by task and there’s a short-term relationship between the talent and client. This model works very well for organizations looking to fix a one-time issue or looking to hire someone for a smaller project, but when it comes to hiring a full-time talent for the team who owns the company as much as the rest of the team, the Gig economy fails big time.

In the long run, outsourcing agencies and freelancers can help you see where your business fits into the larger market, but neither will get to know the granular inner workings of your business and the nuances of its values and voice, quite like a full-time employee who works for your organization with full ownership of its job.