Growing Your Team: Should You Hire Internationally?

Assembling a team able to properly execute your business goals can make a significant difference between failing and succeeding. You want a team that can foster cohesiveness while maintaining accountability; nonetheless, there are other business aspects you should consider. Effective teams should feature key members who can bring creativity, cultural awareness, innovation, and knowledge of regional markets to the office.

The associates, contractors, and employees you need for your team don’t have to be local candidates. The global market for business and professional talent has been thriving for decades, and many of the world’s most profitable companies have carved a path for success through international hiring.

Tapping Into the Global Job Market

When business process outsourcing (BPO) became an established practice in the 1980s, cost-cutting was the main focus. As BPO matured in the enterprise sector, corporate executives recognized that they could derive other advantages beyond cost reduction. BPO was a stepping stone in the diversification of the American job market; it introduced many business executives, managers, and entrepreneurs to other strategies like offshoring, nearshoring, remote work, and international hiring.

Let’s take a closer look at these strategies:

U.S. Employment Visas

During the early days of BPO, the United States labor market was mostly jurisdictional and regional. By the late 1980s, industry leaders and lawmakers had recognized a strong need to address shortages in engineering, scientific, and technology talent. This need resulted in the modern H-1B visa program authorized by the Immigration Act of 1990.

Essentially, H-1B visas allow American employers to sponsor foreign skilled workers so they can be formally added to their payrolls. The program quickly became a critical tool for U.S. companies to access a global pool of highly skilled talent. Of all the international hiring strategies, work visas are considered to be most traditional because the process involves applications, interviews, skill testing, and negotiation.

Most employers who hire H-1B employees retain immigration law firms to handle the visa paperwork. After the visas are granted and the candidates are deemed eligible to enter the U.S. as non-immigrant workers, the responsibility to maintain legal status falls on the candidates. While the H-1B visa for foreign workers is the most well-known, American employers can also evaluate other programs like the O-1 visa for employees with extraordinary abilities, and the H-2 visas for temporary or seasonal work.

Offshoring and Nearshoring

Although these BPO strategies do not add foreign workers directly to American payrolls, they allow employers to manage the candidate selection and international hiring processes. Offshoring involves setting up a business process or service in another country. Nearshoring is almost the same; however, the BPO happens in nearby jurisdictions to facilitate real-time communication and collaboration with a more nuanced approach to cultural awareness.

Both strategies increase the potential for substantial cost savings and access to a larger and more diverse talent pool; plus, employers don’t have to retain immigration law firms. Instead, U.S. employers who adopt BPO strategies must develop efficient processes for remote supervision, management, and training.

Remote Workers and Foreign Contractors

The global job market includes many freelancers and independent contractors who live abroad and can work in a remote capacity. You can do this through established platforms that manage compensation and offer various levels of supervision. Remote workers don’t have to be on payroll if they work independently; you only pay them for their services, and the payments can be reported as business expenses on your company’s financial statements.

While remote workers and freelancers offer flexibility and cost savings, you must understand the independent contractor relationship, which features a high degree of autonomy. Another advantage of this strategy is that many digital nomads relocate to nearshoring countries, so you can find American professionals offering freelance services at very competitive rates.

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