If you’re struggling to find employees to fill out your talent roster, you’re not alone. Hiring is a challenge many businesses around the country are facing in the wake of the Great Resignation of 2021. But just because hiring is a challenge doesn’t mean there aren’t incredible people out there looking for work. You just need to use the right methods to search in the right places. So here are three untapped talent pools that your business could be taking advantage of and how to reach them.
1. Find Employees Overseas
U.S.-based employers might not realize that the Great Resignation hasn’t been limited to the United States. Many talented and capable workers overseas have also quit their jobs. Unsatisfied with the opportunities around them, these individuals are actively looking for more rewarding jobs. However, what that constitutes varies from country to country. The right role coupled with attractive compensation could draw overseas employees to your door.
Now, hiring overseas can be a tricky proposition to take on. Predictably, different countries have different legal systems, tax regulations, and paperwork to file. Capably navigating the employment landscape in the United States can already be tricky enough. Thankfully, there’s an excellent alternative to figuring it all out by yourself.
An employer of record is a legal entity that has an official presence in the foreign country you’re looking to hire in. An EOR’s job is quite literally to hire the employees on your behalf — and do all the administrative work to boot. They may even have more direct access to talent in that country and can recruit workers for you. Contracting with an EOR is a great way to streamline the hiring process in foreign countries. So if you’re having trouble finding workers stateside, turn your gaze overseas.
2. Hire Footloose Americans
There’s no shortage of talent if you’re willing to open your doors to global employees. And it’s also true of global employees who aren’t necessarily foreign. Many U.S. citizens have taken to traveling the world as remote workers, often called digital nomads. Digital nomads are location-independent workers enabled by worldwide internet access.
Many digital nomads are people who quit their jobs during the Great Resignation, seeking a life of greater freedom. However, don’t conflate their lifestyle choices with a lack of responsibility or work ethic. Digital nomads can be incredibly qualified and disciplined. After all, their lifestyle is only possible if they’re able to successfully find and keep work.
Another benefit of hiring digital nomads is that you can increase your productivity if you play your cards right. Some employers may see hiring workers in other time zones as a downside. However, you can assign farflung workers asynchronous tasks. Since your night is their day, they’ll be knocking out to-do list items while you’re sawing logs. This is just one of many ways you can tap into the talent pool of remote workers and use them to your advantage.
3. Entice Resigners Back Into the Workforce
There’s been much discussion of the difficulty of hiring U.S. workers ever since the Great Resignation began. And it’s true that, at the moment, many Americans are still leaving their jobs in hopes of finding better work. However, the Great Resignation will not last forever and may begin to plateau in 2023. All things come to an end eventually, and many observers predict a recession looming on the horizon. The reality is that most people can only go for so long without a steady income before mounting bills come knocking.
Rising prices on everything from eggs to rent are proving challenging for many individuals to overcome. There are many people who are experiencing that reality already and are starting to return to the workforce. That said, people are still looking to increase their quality of life and will take the most attractive job offer. One of the best ways to lure workers to your company is to treat them well, and that starts with your compensation package. So it’s a good time to reevaluate yours now.
Take a look at what your competition is offering and see whether you can one-up it. Of course, you can only offer something that you can afford to sustain. So don’t promise pay and benefits that you can’t actually deliver. However, you should consider your employees as an investment in your company’s success and compensate them accordingly. The better they do, the better your business will do, as they’ll feel motivated to produce their best work.
Adapt Your Business
As technology and society continue to change, so too does the modern workplace. Companies that rely on the traditional in-office 9-to-5 paradigm of work have been struggling. And as a business owner, you know how cutthroat the business world can be. It’s adapt or die, and adaptation in the 21st century means embracing technological and social change.
Developments in global infrastructure have made international hiring more possible than ever before. And people worldwide are actively seeking new work opportunities in this period of economic instability. So use these new structures and styles of work to your advantage to tap into previously unreachable pools of talent.
