Cloud computing, cloud storage, cloud storage – we hear a lot of ‘cloud’ words in the IT market these days. But the new star in the block seems to be cloud staffing. Cloud staffing has become the buzzword in the modern hiring landscape and for good reason. As organizations look beyond traditional hiring practices, hiring remote employees is quickly becoming the new norm. And the name tag for this new trend is cloud staffing. But does it live up to its reputation? Let’s understand.
Cloud Staffing – The New Norm
Back in the 80s major MNCs began experimenting by setting up their backend offices in countries like India. The trend continued all through the 90s and well into the current century. As of 2023, there’s hardly a major tech giant that doesn’t have an office in India dealing with critical functions like IT, Customer Support, Research and Development, and such.
Hiring and infrastructure costs are many times cheaper in India than in the first-world markets. This makes the country a popular destination for large multinationals. But what about startups and mid-sized businesses? Do they remain restricted to local hiring? Enter cloud staffing!
The resource pool in countries like India is abundant and talented. A strong education system bolstered by a sizeable population ensures that there’s no shortage of qualified professionals for any job role imagined. With the advent of cloud staffing, companies are no longer required to set up brick-and-mortar offices in offshore locations. They can harness the services of remote workers via offshore hiring companies like us – Remote Resource TM – and go head-to-head with their larger counterparts.
Remote Workers – Revolutionizing Hiring
The backbone of any organization is its manpower. Despite the ever-growing human population, companies still struggle to find good employees. Not long ago, human resource professionals had to sift through piles of CVs and conduct interviews to select the right employees for different job roles. Add training and retention costs and stringent employment regulations to the mix and you can imagine how difficult it is to hire and employ individuals. There have been past instances of startups folding up for the want of good employees.
Cloud staffing, however, changes the game for startups and mid-sized companies.
- Remote workers are easy to hire. Offshore hiring companies do the heavy lifting by sorting CVs and locating good resources. Startups need only share their requirements with an offshore hiring company and the latter takes care of the rest.
- Cloud staffing also makes the huge talent pool of countries like India accessible to small and mid-sized companies, leveling the playing field for them.
- Scaling up or down isn’t a problem anymore because startups can upsize or downsize their team strength at will. Local hiring laws can’t throw a spanner in the works because they don’t apply to remote workers.
- Things like payroll processing, employee retention, and such are taken care of by the cloud staffing company, making it easier for startup founders to focus on core business areas instead of fretting about trivial matters related to employee management.
So, how does the future look for cloud staffing?
Adopt, adapt, and change – these are the three mantras for surviving and succeeding in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. SaaS was unheard of in the IT industry just a few decades ago. Now, it has become the staple for IT Business Solutions. In a similar fashion, cloud staffing is quickly replacing traditional hiring practices.
Many organizations, big and small, have adopted a hybrid model. In this model, part of the workforce comprises employees hired through conventional avenues and the rest are all remote workers. The COVID pandemic opened our eyes to the potential of the “work from home” model. While some organizations are asking their employees to return to the office en masse, others have opted for a mix of “work from home” and “work from office”. This reflects the industry’s changing perception as to employee location. A remote worker can be anywhere on the globe and still be as effective as a regular worker of an organization.
As cloud staffing becomes the new norm, some aspects of doing business look even brighter.
AI and Automation
AI tools like ChatGPT are all over the news! While some predict a dystopian future, industry pundits are digressing. AI and Automation are here to stay and are already reshaping how companies worldwide operate. In such a scenario, Remote workers in tech-savvy markets like India are just what the doctor ordered for startups. They have the knowledge and skillsets to integrate AI tools with various aspects of business operations at decidedly low costs.
Skill-based Hiring
Which resource would you choose for your startup – one with a lot of paper qualifications or one with a proven track record and skillset? Of course, we suggest the latter! An experienced resource with hands-on exposure to various scenarios and tools can work wonders for a business enterprise, not least for startups.
Cloud staffing is already helping startups with skill-based hiring. Offshore hiring companies are ensuring that startups get to hire talent on a budget.
24/7 Client Support
Keep your client happy and they’ll bring in more business in the form of direct purchases or referrals. But one miffed client can destroy the reputation of your brand. As the competition heats up, more and more startups are looking for inventive ways to keep clients happy and supplied. No wonder, 24/7 client support has now become a benchmark for customer service.
Because remote workers generally come from different time zones than the startup hiring them, it becomes easy for the latter to ensure that there’s always someone to reply to customer queries. Business operations can go on even when the founder and the core team have hit the bunk. That’s 24/7 client support for you, courtesy of cloud staffing!
Scaling up Scaling Down
Startups these days handle a variety of projects from many different clients. This means they have to upsize or downsize their teams often. But with stringent labor laws and backlashes surrounding layoffs, things can quickly go southward for startups looking to scale down. Hiring remoter workers, however, frees small organizations from these liabilities. Hire more or downsize – you can do whatever you deem best for your company with cloud staffing.
Cloud staffing is the future of hiring. We have been drumbeating this point since we started, haven’t we? But the writing is on the wall and for traditional hiring practices. Remote workers are the workforce of the future, poised to turn startups into major success stories.
