Landing.Jobs is embracing a global workforce and this is what we’ve learned so far

The full impact of globalisation in the workplace is still unknown, but as more and more companies embrace this trend and become more diverse, certain changes start to emerge. Managing international employees is a growing reality for businesses everywhere, but it doesn’t come without challenges.

According to a forecast from The World Economic Forum, globally diversified, virtual teams will be one of the transformative drivers of tomorrow’s working world. In 2018, already 70% of professionals around the world were working remotely for their parent company at least partially. Add the pandemic and you’ll have the reality companies are facing right now: a global remote workforce. However, the sets of managerial practices and strategies for those who hire globally still cause headaches. It’s essential to have a strategic plan to manage talent, mobility and cultural diversity.?

?? Three reasons why we distributed our workforce

1. Cultural Diversity

Research shows that a diverse workforce has numerous tangible and immediate benefits to the company, but also to workers. And those benefits include increased creativity, because different backgrounds mean different perspectives and diverse solutions to tackle problems.?

A diverse workforce also boosts productivity. If you have a creative workforce it will improve your company’s brand, therefore it will boost productivity. People from different cultures bring various perspectives to the table, solutions to achieve the company’s goals, innovation and faster problem solving - employees with similar backgrounds consume a lot of time solving problems, because they all think the same way.

According to studies a diverse workforce have a higher probability of achieving a better decision-making outcome compared to individual decision-makers. Inclusion and diversity boost employee morale and that ends up contributing to employee retention.?

2. Talent pool turned into a talent ocean

The widening of the talent pool has made some companies try to figure out how to navigate the global talent landscape and we’re also going through that discovery. Nonetheless, it’s an opportunity to not only choose from top talent that lives nearby, but also top talent from all over the world.?

This talent that now is available can have the exact experience you’re looking for and can’t find in your own country. You’ll be able to hire people coming from experienced companies - and even competitors - willing to share knowledge and contribute with best practices.

And the good thing about this is that it represents an opportunity for both parties. For the companies and also for the candidates that now send applications to their dream companies, regardless of where they are in the world.?

3. Be closer to our community

Having employees all around the world means we can be closer to our community of tech talent, but also to our clients. This way, it’s? easier to involve them in our roadmaps and have better and more frequent insights.

Also, our proximity to them ends up creating proximity among them. Remote workers need this sense of community and the ability to socialize. In fact, according to a report, 16% of remote workers interviewed cited feelings of loneliness. Having the support of the team is important for remote employees to excel. We get closer to our community and our community gets closer to us. It’s a win-win.

?? Three learnings we’ve had so far

1. Communicate and engage

Engage daily with your employees. And by engaging daily I don’t mean to check on their every move, because the minute a company has a global workforce it has to trust that workforce will deliver and thrive. Engaging daily aims to create a sense of belonging and connection through interactions.

Have virtual team rituals to get to know team members, celebrate culture, people and projects, promote well-being, increase belonging, celebrate birthdays and company’s milestones. Because remote workers, just like all other employees, also stay at a job for people and connections.

2. Performance and workflows

Productive workflows can be a challenge for fully in-house environments let alone for a global workforce. Keeping projects aligned, activities coordinated, goals communicated, and project benchmarks checked off, then effortlessly passing them along to the next employee in line, requires keen dialogue and even keener tech resources.

Start by establishing an assignment protocol, because informal and verbal requests can be a problem that easily escalates. Create a central repository of documents like Google Drive or Dropbox. Use collaboration tools, because two-thirds of remote workers worry about colleagues making changes to project plans without telling them.

Schedule live check-ins that can be bi-weekly or monthly, to discuss project status, questions or concerns, but plan these ahead due to time zone differences so everyone can be able to meet deadlines.?

Once you have a global workforce, you stop measuring performance through worked hours and start measuring it through outcomes.

3. Rethinking offices

Now that offices are almost empty, it’s time to give them a new life. At Landing.Jobs we’re turning our offices into community hubs where the team can meet every now and then. We’re also opening it to clients, investors, tech talent from our community and ex-Landers who can work from there when they come to Lisbon.

The definition of office changed alongside the definition of work but that doesn’t mean the purpose of an office is lost, it used to bring workers from a specific company together, and now it can be used to bring different communities together.

?? Challenges to overcome?

Having a global workforce presents challenges, it’s not intuitive. Culture plays a huge part in globalisation because we’ve spent all our lives working with people like us. Now we’re facing different ways of communication, some cultures prefer to communicate via call, others on the phone. Different countries have different compensation benefits and it’s crucial to know which benefits are most culturally and geographically valued.

If on one hand the talent pool is way bigger now, on the other hand that means you’ll end up receiving way more applications and it can be hard to find top talent amongst hundreds of applications.

The creation of a true borderless team takes time, but we’re committed and willing to learn.

If you’re looking for the right tech talent for the job regardless of where they are in the world, and perhaps even trying to find practical solutions to help you overcome the challenges of hiring and paying people anywhere, we’d be happy to help you at Landing.Jobs. Feel free to book your free demo to find out how we can help you put your people first.