A tectonic shift is underway, from company to people and from profit to purpose, as 2021 draws to a close. With the changing dynamics of businesses, work, employers and employees, the world of work has transformed – for the better - offering global leaders a new opportunity to reframe work, the workforce and the workplace. The disruptions in the last couple of years have accelerated trends, including remote work and virtual meetings, alongside increased adoption of automation and AI.

This is causing people to step back and truly reassess and revisit what it is that motivates them, what it is that they care about. A phenomenal amount of change has happened.

“What working professionals are looking for now has gone beyond the transactional aspects like pay and benefits, they want to feel connected. They really want interactions. Those don't have to necessarily be in-person interactions, but they're looking for interactions,” said Charles H. Ferguson, General Manager, Asia Pacific, Globalization Partners, the world’s leading Employer of Record.

A real sense of urgency has set in for businesses and leaders to take bold steps towards a world of work that is fairer, more people-centric and inclusive. Employees continue to evaluate how their employers treat them, how they react in difficult circumstances, and how they care about them as humans.

Aligning your business with the changing priorities of talent

If you take a step back and listen to what's happening in your industry, you can align your business to address the needs and expectations of your workers. Charles suggests you can do two things:

“You can future-proof your business so that you are prepared for the new role you will be playing as the pandemic continues to evolve. If you listen to what the employees in the talent market are saying, you must step back and also take a moment, particularly in HR, to get your leadership team around the table and address the changing needs of talent, reprioritise and address your people's agenda.

To continue to operate your business under the guiding principles you used to navigate two years ago is a flawed strategy. Now, I'm not saying you have to change everything, but what I'm saying is that in this new operating environment, it's a very good idea to revisit your values, your mission, and your vision, and reassess if it's still aligned to how everybody's operating today,” added Charles.

This would lead to creating new types of job descriptions, requiring new skills with new cultural indicators of success to drive better business growth and ensure an improved employee experience.

So what are some of the biggest trends you must not miss out on?

The rise of remote work driven by talent’s demand for flexibility

The new world of work is remote. People and businesses have realized that a job is not restricted to a location or a place and some types of work can be done from anywhere. In the 2021 Globalization Partners’ Global Employee Survey, about half (48%) of employees say working remotely has positively impacted their perception and they feel happier about work. 63% of companies plan to make remote work a permanent fixture following the pandemic. While for 12% remote work is already a permanent fixture and will remain that way.

With remote work here to stay, companies have access to a global talent pool making hiring limitless, but this can also present challenges. Hiring and onboarding global employees is a complex process. Getting access to the right people, managing costs, learning local laws and regulations, and hiring at speed, are just a few of the many challenges companies are facing.

In a workplace that no longer functions on face-to-face human interaction, technology is the best way companies can get access to a global talent pool and hire them at speed and with efficiency.

“This is an opportunity for companies to go out and find talent all over the world,” said Charles. “Technology enables a company headquartered in Singapore to hire talent in Canada, India, the Netherlands--anywhere in the world with internet access.”

Talent is everywhere. To get access to this talent and set up a connected remote workplace, what companies need is an ecosystem.

“Companies are willing to create that opportunity for meaning and promise to take their core values and attract the very best talent and get ahead of the war for talent. In order to make that happen, what I would suggest to you is an operating system or a software application like the Globalization Partners, global employment platform,” said Charles.

Globalization Partners is to global employment what Amazon is to retail, “We have the AI-driven technology platform, the local expertise, located across 180+ countries, with our own entities in 100+ countries which means our customers do not need to set up themselves. With a consistent 98 percent customer satisfaction rating, we give them peace of mind and allow them to onboard and hire talent anywhere on the planet,” said Charles.

Talent is everywhere: It’s time to explore borderless hiring

Borderless hiring creates complexities for the HR teams as they have to deal with a lot of diverse compliance issues.

Hiring globally involves regulatory requirements like provident fund contributions, social taxes, labor taxes, among other things. The entire process can be costly and frustrating. “So bearing all that in mind, we at Globalization Partners have set up our own entities in countries where our customers wish to grow, using our global employment platform to hire talent on their behalf,” shared Charles.

With that structure, Globalization Partners operates as a local company, in the 180+ jurisdictions that it operates in.

“So it's literally like, you hire someone, and we act as your HR professional on the ground, representing your business and taking care of all compliance,” said Charles.

“For instance, a company based in Canada was having an extraordinary challenge in finding data scientists in abundance in their market. After some research, they found a lot of talent in India, South Africa, and China. Now, the problem was, how do they attract these people away from their current great jobs, away from their current location, where they feel more secure?” Charles explained.

“They said: we are going to pay you at the rate you would be paid here in Canada. For a certain period of time, these people operated from their different locations, and later if they wanted, they could move to Canada. But how does this particular company enable that to happen? They can't go to South Africa, India, and China to set up a structure just to do that, even if they decide to, it is going to be expensive, chaotic, and time-consuming. This is where Globalization Partners came in and helped the company connect with the localized partners, who helped meet all the requirements and carried out the entire hiring process, spread across geographies, seamlessly,” shared Charles.

As these companies required an ecosystem that enabled them to hire internationally in an efficient and compliant way, Globalization Partners provided them with this ecosystem via its global employment platform, its AI-driven technology, the required legal assistance, and acted as their local HR in every corner of the world. With more and more companies exploring the world of remote hiring, Globalization Partners continues to support them and make borderless hiring a reality.