GrowBPO
When we think of remote work, the first things that come to mind are usually 'flexibility' and 'working from home' (or wherever). After all, those are major benefits of remote working. However, there’s far more to remote work than just telecommuting. Instead of having your staff scattered around the globe, you can also create a remote office, which is a great way to conduct certain business operations, while simplifying processes and promoting a healthy culture.
In this blog post, we’ll explain why you should consider opening a remote office, where you could leverage outsourcing to do so, what it might involve and the benefits it could have for your business.
What is a remote office?
Remote offices are a non-traditional form of office space. Instead of having employees located in a single, central office, remote offices are located in one or more foreign locations. Remote offices are different from virtual offices in that they have a physical presence. Most remote offices are smaller than the HQ, but can also be far larger, depending on the degree of operations conducted on site. It is becoming increasingly popular for businesses to establish remote offices and workforces - either themselves or through the use of remote office service providers - and to outsource large portions of their operations to such offices. These offices are designed to have the same level of collaboration as a central office but with some tangible additional benefits.
Why consider opening a remote office?
A remote office may allow you to expand your business without having to invest a considerable amount of money. It can even be cheaper than opening a central office in the first place or expanding your existing central office. If you want to grow your staff complement without committing to a major real estate investment or hiring new staff directly (which comes with inherent employment risks), a remote office could be the solution.
You may also want to open a remote office to take advantage of skills in a foreign location or to provide telecommuting opportunities for your current and future employees. It can also lead to increased efficiency. By having certain business tasks outsourced to your remote office and performed solely by that office can help improve proficiency for that outsourced task. If this is performed by a specialist outsourcing company, the results may even be compounded.
A remote office can help you to promote a better culture and achieve better diversity by creating a multinational environment for your employees. It can also be of major assistance if you’re having trouble recruiting or retaining talent in certain geographical areas.
How to go about opening a remote office?
Before you open a remote office, it’s important to have a plan in place to make it successful. Here are some tips to get you started and some questions you should be asking.
1) Define your objectives: Why do you want to open a remote office? What are your strategic goals? Why will opening a remote office help you achieve those goals?
2) Assess your needs: How many people do you need? What skills do they need to have? Where do you want them to be located?
3) Identify your target locations: After assessing your needs, identify where you can engage qualified people. In one of our previous articles, we talked about South Africa as an excellent location to hire individuals, owing to their hard-working nature and abundance of talent. You can read that article here. Consider where your business already has a presence and where there is a high concentration of people with the skill sets for which you are looking.
4) Determine your hiring criteria: how will you identify and recruit qualified people for your remote office? Can you look to specialist outsourcing companies to assist with recruitment in a specific country or for specific roles? What kind of culture do you want to promote at your remote office? How will you support your remote employees?
5) Establish an execution plan: will you register a new entity in the remote location and hire your new staff directly? Would it be easier to approach a specialist provider and have them establish the remote office on your behalf, and then staff it?
Key takeaways
- Remote offices are non-traditional but increasingly popular.
- They allow you to expand your business without investing a considerable amount of money and can help with recruiting or retaining talent in certain regions. This can be leveraged further by outsourcing.
- A remote office can help you promote diversity amongst staff.
- When considering opening a remote office, you need to define your objectives, assess your needs, identify target locations and determine hiring criteria.