Daniel Parker outlines six factors to decide if a role suits in-house or remote work

A business’s growth potential is typically closely aligned with its availability of resources. One of these critical resources is staffing, which can be made up of both in-house employees and remote workers. 

Create temporary positions that allow you to see how the employee and business adapt to this new structure and if it seems like a viable option  

But for businesses getting ready to expand, it can be difficult to know if and when hiring a remote workforce will bring the same results as hiring an internal team of employees.  

Does it really matter where an employee physically works? Are some jobs more suited to be managed in-house versus remote? These are some of the common questions businesses and their HR teams may need to answer as new positions in the organisation become available. 

To help provide some guidance in this area, below are six considerations your business should make when deciding on whether or not certain positions are better suited for in-house or remote workers. 

1. The nature of the work 

First and foremost, you’ll want to consider the nature of the role you’re hiring for and the type of work that needs to be done. Depending on the industry and business type, you might organise these needs by department. 

For example, shipping and warehouse teams are involved with the physical movement of goods. Unless the role is dependent on working with third-party providers to handle these responsibilities, chances are only an in-house employee will be able to handle this responsibility. 

Digital tasks, on the other hand, often have more flexibility on where tasks are assigned and completed. So long as a remote employee has the necessary skills, equipment and network connectivity, most of these roles can be filled both in-house and remotely.  

Below are some questions hiring teams can keep in mind when building their job descriptions to help better decide what type of working environment might be better suited for the role: 

Will the role require hands-on work using specific equipment or hardware only available in an office setting? 

Does the role require heavy team collaboration? If so, can this collaboration happen in a virtual setting? 

• Is the majority of the role handled through the use of digital tools and resources? 

• Does the company already have a distributed workforce? If so, is the new role dependent on time-sensitive meetings, or are projects and deadlines spread out over days or weeks? 

Taking these questions into consideration will help to paint a better picture of what is and isn’t doable by a remote employee.  

2. Your required skill sets and level of experience 

When you’re hiring for a role that requires individuals to have highly specialised skills, you’ll want to make sure you’re shortlisting candidates from a wider talent pool. This makes sure you have more options to choose from when evaluating past work experience or when finding employees with various degrees and certifications. 

Local hiring pools can be quite small in comparison to sourcing remote employees. While hiring local employees may shorten the timeline for onboarding since there are likely to be fewer language barriers or time-zone restrictions, sometimes it’s better to focus on the quality of the work itself rather than operational convenience. 

3. The current company culture 

The type of company culture you already have in place will also play a factor in your decision to hire in-house versus remote. Some of the cultural elements of your business to consider include: 

– Team dynamics 

It’s important to think about the impact of hiring a remote employee, both for the individual and the rest of the business. Some company cultures are designed to build and encourage a strong sense of community that’s hard to replicate in remote environments. For these types of businesses, it may be difficult for remote employees to integrate well into that type of culture which can lead to them feeling isolated. 

However, even when businesses operate with hybrid workforces, there are steps that can be taken to help minimise some groups feeling left out. Co-ordinating virtual get-togethers or planning hosted events where both in-house and remote employees can attend can both be great ways to instil a sense of camaraderie and connection for all employees regardless of where and how they work. 

– Onboarding protocols  

Another thing to consider is your business’s capacity for onboarding new employees. If you haven’t taken steps to build digital onboarding tools or processes for bringing on new employees, this may restrict your ability to hire remote employees. 

However, if your systems and processes are more accessible, whether through a file-sharing network or company intranet, this can make hiring employees offsite easier to manage. 

4. Budget considerations 

Of course, like with every hiring decision you make, your budget restrictions will play a significant factor when it comes to where you source your employees. Typically, hiring remote employees can lead to a number of cost savings in a number of ways. 

First off, by expanding your talent pool to international markets, you’re often able to source workers at a much more affordable cost than hiring locally. For example, the cost of living in countries like the Philippines is much lower than the UK. This means that you can hire highly skilled and qualified individuals at considerably lower hourly rates. 

You’ll want to weigh the cost benefits of hiring remotely against the convenience of having an employee in-house and make a decision that’s right for you. 

5. Core business hours of operation 

Most businesses have core company hours during which most tasks are accomplished and meetings can be scheduled. However, when working with remote employees spread across various time zones, this standard can be difficult to manage. 

Depending on your own business needs, you’ll need to evaluate whether it makes sense to have employees working outside these core hours. However, there can be benefits to expanding your employee availability in different time zones.  

For example, outsourcing teams can enable the business to offer extended hours of service for customer service or IT support, which can be helpful for maximising productivity and ensuring customer satisfaction. 

6. Availability of trial runs or pilot programmes 

If, when carefully evaluating your own business circumstances, you’re still not 100% sure whether remote employees are a good fit, you can always consider the possibility of arranging a trial run or pilot programmes. 

Rather than diving headfirst into a long-term commitment with remote employees, you can create temporary positions that allow you to see first-hand how the employee and business adapt to this new structure and if it seems like a viable option moving forward. 

During trial periods, take the time to set clear expectations of the role and how it will be evaluated. You’re then able to extract helpful insights during the period that can help you decide if hiring and maintaining a distributed workforce makes sense for your business. 

Start widening your talent pool 

Hiring decisions are rarely easy to make, considering all options available when sourcing employees. If you’ve worked with remote employees in the past or are just now considering developing a hybrid working culture, the considerations mentioned will help you make the right hiring decision that helps you manage your costs and provides the business with the most long-term value. 

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Daniel Parker is the Founder and CEO of Sound Decisions