Socially responsible employment — what are the benefits?
Talent maybe spread equally around the world, but what about opportunities?
Has it crossed your mind that getting a job increases the purchasing power, helps send children to school and may completely change the life of millions of people around the world?
For many, getting a job is a routine exercise involving a few calls to recruitment agencies or submitting a dozen of CVs.
How often do we think about those people who struggle to find a job?
The people living in high unemployment areas, people with disabilities, people living in post-war zones, women in the Middle East, single parents, stay-at-home moms, people on the Autism Spectrum…
What about them?
To leave a high unemployment area or a post-war zone, they need to relocate or even immigrate. For some even to leave their home is a challenge as there are no lifts or ramps enabling people with disabilities. The stay-at-home moms and single parents need to juggle between the time spent with their kids and making the ends meet. The women in the Middle East may join the work force only if the culture and tradition are respected.
For lots of people in Asia, getting a job is not easy and requires hours of daily commute.
According to New York Times, as Beijing becomes a supercity, the rapid growth brings pains.’ Some of the new roads and rails are years from completion. For many people, the creation of the supercity so far has meant ever-longer commutes on gridlocked highways to the capital.
And it is not just the daily commute. The infrastructure in the densely populated areas can’t support so many people.
Every morning at 5:30, Liu Desheng joins a dozen retirees waiting for the express bus to central Beijing from this small city in Hebei Province. Around 6:30, their adult children arrive. The line, now snaking down the street, has become an hourlong wait. “There’s not much I can contribute to the family anymore,” Mr. Liu, 62, said as his son waved goodbye from a bus window. “He is exhausted every day, so if I can help him get a bit more rest, I’ll do it.”
More worrying for many Yanjiao residents is the dearth of hospitals and schools.
The services are bad,” said Zheng Linyun, who works in a sales company in Beijing and commutes about five hours a day. His 6-year-old son just started elementary school and has more than 65 children in his class. “All we see are more and more people coming here.”
Being socially responsible while hiring people has to be seen on a large scale as it helps to address global issues such as unemployment driven immigration, abandoned rural areas, overcrowded cities, daily commute and carbon emissions
Many leave their home countries every year in a search of a better life abroad. Looking for a better quality of life, the immigrants have to relocate their families, adjust to a new culture, often to learn a new language and adopt a different life-style, being far from their relatives and friends. The big cities are overcrowded, the traffic is a nightmare as more and more people commute daily. Trapped in the traffic, the commuters dream of fresh air, green loans, and quiet residential areas. Well, the quiet rural areas often remain abandoned as people prefer to live closer to their workplace in order to shorten the daily commute time.
The solution? Remote work, a computer and Internet access.
Lots of regular jobs could be transformed into remote jobs. Once done, the business has access to the right talent regardless of the location; the people in need of a job get a job matching their skills.
As per a survey conducted by London Business School, by 2020 50 % of the workforce will work remotely.
A recent survey by FlexJobs and WorldatWork found that only 3 percent of the organizations surveyed were actually trying to quantify the return on investment for job flexibility or remote work.
Sara Sutton Fell, CEO and founder of FlexJobs, said of the survey’s findings -
That’s shocking to me, because it says loudly and clearly that employers and management believe flexible work only benefits the employee; they don’t even think it will benefit the broader organization…”
Many companies face a challenge — regular, in-house jobs are not easy to fill and bring extra costs — relocation expenses, administrative costs, recruitment costs, trainings, etc. Hiring remotely allows access to global talent while optimizing the costs.
A win-win situation.
Having access to talent worldwide may optimize cash flow and minimize costs while doing good to the society at large. Open roles could be filled in quickly to boost productivity. People in need will receive a chance to get a job and provide for themselves and their families which on its turn revitalizes local communities and helps to manage unemployment driven immigration.
Virtual technologies, AI, machine learning, remote jobs and outsourcing platforms, could be the right tools for a success story both for the business and millions of people around the world.
Is there a Safe way to do it?
Global outsourcing should be easy and socially responsible. However, it looks hard to reach out to contractors all over the world, find the right talent, deal with legal arrangements and NDAs…
Well, the reality is different…
• The creation of remote jobs does not require risky investment and opening of a rep office or a subsidiary in a new country.
• The investor’s business activities are governed by the applicable law in the country of domiciliation. The remote contractors are responsible for their tax and social security payments.
• There are many remote contractors worldwide, but you could find a single trusted outsourcing partner that can manage it all, including the payments to contractors worldwide and the legal arrangements.
Remote work may be the future for some, the convenient choice for many, and the only possible option for millions of people around the world.