Remote, the leader in building, managing, and supporting global distributed workforces, released the results of a survey of remote work adoption among Asia-Pacific companies. The IDC InfoBrief sponsored by Remote, “Bridging the Talent Gap: The Future of Hiring in the Asia/Pacific Region,” March 2023, IDC Doc #AP241420IB, features findings from the IDC AP SMB and Mid-Market Hiring Trends 2023. It highlights the growing trend of remote hiring and distributed workforce strategies in India, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore.
The survey demonstrates that three years since the global remote work revolution began, Asia-Pacific companies have come beyond temporary work-from-home arrangements to embracing permanently distributed teams spread across multiple locations, with the aim of widening their talent pool, improving cultural diversity and productivity, and expanding globally. In the post-pandemic world, Indian companies lead the pack in hiring remote international workers while they transition to the Future of Work.
Key findings include:
About 50% of SMBs/mid-market companies in India are planning to hire 40-60% FTEs or contractors in the next 12 months. Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, on the other hand, are planning to hire only 20%-30% remote FTEs or contractors.
India has the highest EOR (Employer of Record) adoption (70.5%), followed by Singapore (64.0%), as Indian companies are looking to globalise their businesses while reducing workforce costs. As more SMBs and mid-market businesses hire employees to work remotely from various locations, they are using EOR (Employer of Record) solutions to simplify the complexities of payroll, tax, and compliance.
India is the least mature when it comes to hiring maturity. SMBs and mid-market companies in New Zealand are the most mature, integrating technology into their HR processes, enabling their internal teams to hire and retain workers from geographies where they do not have a presence.
Surveyed companies state that cost-effective workforce options are the top business priority, and finding the right mix of skills is a key challenge in hiring internationally.
“The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way businesses operate, and we are seeing that companies in the Asia/Pacific region have been among the fastest in the world to adapt their hiring and workforce strategies for the current era,” said Job van der Voort, CEO and co-founder of Remote. “As remote work continues to gain traction, companies that are able to tap into the international talent pool will have a significant advantage over those that do not.”
The InfoBrief highlights that most companies rely on internal expertise to hire and retain international workers, which could become unmanageable as the ratio of international remote hires in their total workforce grows. One in three Indian companies (31%), however, are using Employer of Record (EOR) platforms for onboarding and management of their global workforce. EORs help companies employ and pay international employees living in countries where they do not have a legal entity and manage the complexities of local compliance, payroll, benefits, taxes, and more. This enables business and HR leaders to focus on tasks such as workforce planning, sourcing, and retention strategies to drive the new and emerging work culture.
The IDC AP SMB and Mid-Market Hiring Trends 2023 study surveyed respondents from SMBs and mid-market companies in Australia, India, New Zealand, and Singapore at the end of 2022, with the aim of understanding international hiring trends in the region.