Nearly half of Asia-Pacific companies plan to hire international remote workers to bridge talent gaps 

Remote, the leader in building, managing, and supporting global distributed workforces, today 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 the region.

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.

Key findings include: 

• 43% of surveyed companies plan to hire 20-30% of their remote workforce (including employees and contractors) from other countries in the next 12-18 months.
• Respondents’ top three business goals for global hiring: Finding more cost-effective workforce options across geographies, improving profitability, and addressing a talent gap.
• Asia-Pacific SMB and mid-market companies plan to increase their number of contractors by at least 20% in the next 12 months, primarily in an effort to reduce overhead costs.

“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. One in three companies (32%), however, are using Employer of Record (EOR) platforms for onboarding and management of their remote 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 400 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. For a copy of the IDC InfoBrief, "March 2023, IDC Doc #AP241420IB", visit https://idcdocserv.com/AP241420IB_FINAL . To sign up or learn more about Remote, visit remote.com.