Facing talent and capital crunch? Outsource the worry!

A report claims that “….U.S.-based small and medium sized businesses face an almost 12 percent chance that they it will be hit with an employment claim, with their chances much higher in certain states.”

If you own a small and medium business, how many times have you been left frowning at inflexible labor laws and rising remuneration costs? Especially in recent years? Get this, while American firms were downsizing in 2010, the U.S, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw a record 99,922 discrimination claims filed in the fiscal year ending September 30.  It was the highest number of cases brought in the agency's 45-year history. And according to EEOC, the average payout in such cases exceeded $ 2, 35, 000. An amount like that is enough to kill or at least cripple a small or medium sized business, resulting in even more job losses. And that’s why, businesses have started looking abroad, not just to cut down costs, but also escape rather debilitating federal laws. The offshore remote employee has become increasingly important in the scheme of things, and the trend is only rising.

Here are some compelling arguments as to how offshore remote staffing services can help you significantly de-stress.

Plug and play

Remote staffing solutions offered by offshore vendors in countries like India, Philippines, Poland etc., offer extremely client friendly deals. You can hire remote staff based purely on your needs. And there are a lot of options to choose from, package deals from which you can benefit and deal sweeteners which add value to the service. It’s no different than your cell connection. And the best part, you do not need to pay a dime more than it’s required. Once the project is over or your requirements are met, you can simply end the partnership with a short notice. No severance pay and stifling labor laws to worry about, since the remote staffing services are located offshore. US Federal laws just don’t apply to your remote staff.

Insulation from Workplace Discrimination Costs

A Huffington Post article reported that US businesses has to shell out around $64 billion on an average every year as workplace discrimination damages from claims, lawsuits and ensuing settlements. While tough and tougher laws are always a requirement to ensure a just and equitable work place, how many times have these laws been misused or a simple incident of employee separation been misrepresented? I think, we live in times when the question has almost become ironical. But societies have different dynamics and different social realities do not necessarily have those issues. Neither do US federal laws apply in such places. Hence, when you hire remote staff you are completely insulating yourself from such costs. As a client, even though your remote employee might report to you directly, he/she is legally hired by your offshore partner or vendor, who have to adhere to the local laws in place; which may I add are particularly robust and just and based on the social and economic realities present in that country. So in case a nagging voice inside your head is questioning the ethics and morality of offshore remote staffing, please rest easy. 

What makes offshore remote staffing solutions an even better deal for small and medium business owners that the savings accrued from being insulated from compliance and other labor related costs are mere happy fallouts when you hire remote staff. The real benefits come from the operative ingenuity and business model of remote staffing solutions.  

Pay less than a third! Its simple mathematics really. The minimum wage of a US employee around $7-$8, which is what most small and medium business owners can shell out for an employee. The corresponding figure for an outsourcing hotbed like India is 61 cents! Yes, that low! Which leads us to our next point……

Access to a talent pool which is 10 times bigger! Again very simple mathematics. A country like India has the largest skilled, English speaking workforce in the world, and largest by some distance! The sheer force of numbers is staggering. Despite English being an acquired language for India, India is second only behind the United States as home to the largest number of English speakers! It’s still just a fourth of the country’s population. But it’s a fourth of 1.3 billion! So while you might struggle to get two candidates for a job in the US, in a country like India, the figure is closer to 20! Which again leads us to our next point…..

Spoilt for choices! I think by now you have caught the drift. When you decide to hire remote staff, your offshore remote staffing solutions provider will literally spoil you for choices. And none of the remote employees you hire will be working on minimum wages, in sharp contrast to when you will hire locally. Even if you pay a third of what you normally would, your remote staff will be paid quite handsomely, thanks to the different socio-economic realities of a place like India, which is the offshore capital of the world. And since you are paying well, as per Indian standards, the talent available to you, and in plenty, will be above par as compared to North America or UK. So essentially, remote staffing takes care of another significant problem you might face locally; that of lack of good talent.

Most global IT/ITES and knowledge based organizations now maintain a bigger staff in India than the rest of the world combined. If it has worked for Fortune 500 companies, it is bound to work for you too. Through remote staffing, you can easily outsource your peripheral processes like accounts, data processing and generation, server maintenance, lead generation, customer service etc. You will then free up capital and manpower to focus on your core work areas, thus becoming capable of taking your business to the next level. You will not just be outsourcing work, you will crucially be outsourcing needless stress too!