In recent years, the buzz around a phenomenon known as the “Great Resignation” has been sweeping the globe, with employers across Europe and North America struggling to find candidates across a variety of industries.
For example, in Spain alone, vacancies increased by 150 percent in the transport sector, by 111 percent in public administration, and by 91 percent in professional and technical activities.
Similarly, voluntary resignations have seen an uptick, with employees’ redefining their priorities and fleeing jobs to seize new and unique opportunities, greater work-life balance, and less stress.
In the United States, the unprecedented jobs crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic is showing no signs of slowing, with over 4 million Americans voluntarily leaving their jobs in the past 18 months, according to a Statista report published in January 2023.
These trends all have one common thread: employees are being choosier than ever when it comes to employment. Workers are no longer accepting low pay, strict or rigid working arrangements, or poor company culture simply for a paycheck. The COVID-19 pandemic enabled many people to reevaluate what was most important to them in life and work was at the forefront of this shift.
The onset of COVID-19 disrupted every aspect of our lives and one of the places it was felt most strongly was at work. Between social distancing guidelines, office closures and outbreaks, the traditional 9 - 5 office gig was flipped on its head. Working remotely became the new norm and even as the pandemic has slowed and life across the globe has returned back “to normal” one thing remains permanently shifted: where and how we work. In the United States alone, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home, while 28.2% work a hybrid model and that number is expected to climb.
This new shift has opened up a, pardon the pun, world of opportunities for employees and employers alike who are no longer constrained by geographic location. Employers can hire top-tier talent from anywhere and employees who work remotely can take their responsibilities on the road, traveling anywhere they want as long as they have strong WiFi, don’t overstay their welcome per local regulations and can keep on top of their workload.
And so, the concept of “digital nomad” is born, or rather, is popularized. Digital nomads are people who are location-independent and use technology to perform their job, while living a nomadic lifestyle, often traveling to different countries for brief stints before moving on to somewhere new.
According to a recent report by Cisco, 37% of U.S.-based employees spent between 4 – 12 hours in meetings each week. In the hyper-connected, fast-paced world of modern-day employment, that’s a lot of time spent away from projects, deep work and striving towards our long-term career goals.
As a leader, project manager or professional yourself, you might be looking to explore better ways to conduct team meetings so as to not waste anyone’s time or become a drain on productivity.
Especially for remote teams.
Chances are that you know better than anyone that effective leadership involves more than just delegating tasks and making decisions. Perhaps even more critical, is the role you play in fostering a collaborative environment where the members of your team feel valued, engaged, and supported.
Nowhere is this more important than in remote, global workplaces where much of your day-to-day operations and communication occurs asynchronously; meaning the face-to-face, real-time minutes you have with your employees is often limited and you will have to work doubly hard to make those minutes count.
Why Hire Talent in India?
India is an energetic country in Asia, known for its busy streets teeming with people, top-tier universities, natural wonders, diverse culture, and other-worldly landscapes. Beauty and energy aside, India is also the fastest developing country in the world with the third largest economy - and growing - thanks to its highly educated locals.
India is home to millions of graduates with degrees focused in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. This, coupled with a well-established IT infrastructure, makes it the ideal place to expand into if you’re looking for qualified, highly educated technical talent.
India is also a favored destination for Fortune 500 companies looking to outsource workers due to the highly connected nature of the country and the work ethic and English-speaking abilities. For North American companies looking to expand internationally, India just might be your next stop beyond the corporate HQ thanks to all these reasons and more.
But how can you go about setting up a business in India? First, you will have to set up a local entity, which enables you to legally operate in a country outside your home base.
If you’re an HR professional or business owner in the technology space, you don’t need us to tell you how to interview software engineers for your company. Whiteboarding, collaborative coding, and interview questions to assess skills, work ethic, and culture fit are second nature to you.
But, as the world of work shifts and more and more roles become hybrid or fully remote, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to transition your previously in-person hiring processes to the online world.
As you well know, hiring is an expensive and often time-consuming endeavour. In fact, a report published by Devskiller quotes the cost of hiring a software developer around $50,000+ when factoring in things like recruitment costs, internal costs for employees who handle the hiring, and loss of productivity while the role remains unfilled.
The average length of time it takes a company to find the perfect software engineer for the role? Forty-three days, which will feel like forever when you have projects piling up.
Simply put, recruiting and hiring software engineers is a massive investment of both time and money for your organization — one that doesn’t come without its risks.
Post-pandemic life has ushered in an entirely new way to work. Increasingly, employers are offering hybrid or fully remote job opportunities, expanding beyond their corporate headquarters and hiring remote teams from all over the globe.
As a remote-friendly employer, you see firsthand the benefits this new way of working provides, like access to more diverse perspectives and top-tier talent, international exposure. What’s more, it’s reported that people who work remotely are generally happier, according to a study published on Flex Jobs, which also goes on to say that remote workers experience higher productivity and better focus than they do when in an office environment.
As with hiring for in-person roles, recruiting for remote positions is time-consuming and expensive. If not done right, you can spend months and months and tons of money before finding the right person for the job. One way to avoid the costly mistake of hirng the wrong person, is to ensure your remote work interview questions probe at specific characteristics you need your remote hire to have in order to succeed.
We have compiled a comprehensive list of remote work interview questions to ensure you hire the right person, the first time around. First let’s paint a better picture of what key characteristics you need in an effective remote worker.
The key to a thriving business is the people, and hiring the right employees can make or break your success. For remote-first companies, the globe is your hiring platform, giving you access to an entire world of highly educated, qualified expertise. With so many options, It can be difficult to know where to start so might we suggest India?
This bustling country is known for its robust It infrastructure, top-tier universities and an educated workforce that has a particularly strong presence in Science, Engineering, Math and Technology (STEM) fields. Beyond that, India-based talent are desperately seeking remote work opportunities. In fact, according to the Economic Times, employee attrition for companies that announced a return to office stood at 29% in August, compared with 19% each for those working virtually or hybrid.
Time and again it’s been shown that India-based talent want remote work, and you could be their ticket to improved work-life balance, opportunity equalization and a rewarding career.
Broad Talent Pool
India is home to a massive talent pool of skilled professionals, making it an ideal location for building competent remote, global teams for a variety of your employment needs.
The shift towards hybrid work and remote teams has enabled companies to expand into new markets or recruit talent from around the world. Today, employees can widen their search and seek employment almost anywhere, as long as they have a reliable internet connection.
In fact, according to Gallup, a global analytics and advice firm, 34% of employees want a fully remote gig VS only 8% who wanted a fully remote job pre-pandemic. It’s no secret the global pandemic changed every aspect of our lives and when it comes to employment, the message is clear: people want flexibility.
While proven to increase productivity, work-life balance, and overall satisfaction, remote work can present its own unique set of challenges for employers and employees alike, including working across multiple time zones, language barriers, and flexible work hours.
The seismic shift towards remote working has forced employers to reconsider the ways they communicate with their teams and the way to do this effectively is through asynchronous communication. But before we fully dive into that, let's figure out what exactly asynchronous working is, and if your company could benefit from an overhaul in communications and project management tools for better team management.
What is Asynchronous Work?
Picture this scenario: you log onto your computer at 9:00 a.m. for a Zoom call. Your colleagues are taking the call in the office’s boardroom today but you opted to stay home since you have a mid-day appointment.
During the meeting, you quickly respond to a Slack message your colleague sent you late the previous evening with a status update on a project you’re working on together. The colleague won’t read this message for another couple of hours, since they’re located on the opposite coast and operate in a time zone that is about three hours behind yours.