SMEs face newer challenges with the ever-changing complexity of global businesses. As customers get more demanding and competition gets more intense, companies try harder to stay agile, innovative and profitable. This is why, it is necessary for companies to have their workforce aligned with their business goals, rather than just being a tool for enhancing operational efficiency. In order to be flexible and adaptable to enable people to respond faster to changing business needs, a global workforce is a must.
A few decades ago, employers would’ve turned down the idea of hiring someone they’ve never met in person to complete and submit an important task over the internet. But in today’s world of rapidly changing technology, businesses of all sizes and industries are turning to freelance and contract workers as an affordable way to run operations without ever meeting these partners face-to-face.
Outsourcing workforce without borders gives business owners the opportunity to learn, adapt, grow and evolve without being country-specific or geography-dependant. It allows more freedom and flexibility in decision-making.
Here’s why more and more hiring managers are turning to a global gigger workforce:
- Different experiences, better perspectives
Companies often complain about millennial job hoppers, but if you hire giggers on project basis there is no scope of job hopping. Freelancers who move from one challenging project to the next hone their skills faster than people who have the luxury of complacency.
Freelancers from different backgrounds, cultures, nationalities bring different perspectives to the table. A diverse workforce gives a better customer insight as everyone shares a slightly different approach to the job and problem at hand. This is one of the major benefits of a diverse group of freelancers; the more innovative they are and the more willing they are to think outside of the box, the more benefit they are to organisations.
- Creativity in abundance
They say two heads are better than one, well, in today’s world it means two freelancers are better than one employee. When freelancers from different regions come together to work on a common goal, it enhances the creativity of doing the task at hand. Sameness breeds sameness; having a homogenous workforce limits creativity and innovation. Since two people can’t think exactly alike, a company can get varied viewpoints from freelancers all over the world to create a pool of ideas.
- High productivity
When gig workers collaborate with fellow team members, they hone skills required for the job quicker and better. That is because the more diverse the workforce, the more diverse the brainstorming, the more diverse solutions and more productive the team. Freelancers are often committed to multiple projects and will try to accomplish more in less time. The productivity of freelancers increases because they care about completing the deliverables assigned to them and know how to fit into a new team in a high-stakes situation, which makes them the perfect partners for outcome-driven companies.
- Range of services
Having a diverse group of giggers from around the globe means they get more to the table which in turn takes care of many challenges faced by the company. From multilingual employees to those that are able to communicate across cultural boundaries in other ways – for example, understanding certain cultural customs that make your company more appealing to different customers in different regions. A diverse collection of people with different experiences, skills, cultural understanding, languages and other differences enables a company to provide customers services on a global basis. A global workforce gives you a competitive edge over those competitors that might not value diversity as you do.
- Creates a global impact
A workforce without boundaries gives you global perspective. It offers a point of view rich with incredible nuances of human experience and culture. A global workforce also gives an opportunity to take your business beyond boundaries. Freelancers you outsource could spread a good word amongst their network which could translate into collaboration and leaving a global footprint.
The professional gig economy is growing and going beyond boundaries. So next time you think of hiring a workforce, go glocal and don’t interview giggers for fit or culture – engage with the most qualified person, regardless of time zone, who can get the job done.