{"id":2711,"date":"2011-06-15T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T10:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/hr-advice\/remote-work-%c2%97-why-geography-is-the-1-factor-that-limits-applications\/"},"modified":"2024-05-09T19:42:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T02:42:33","slug":"remote-work-why-geography-is-the-1-factor-that-limits-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/remote-work-why-geography-is-the-1-factor-that-limits-applications\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote Work, Why Geography Is the #1 Factor That Limits Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"remote_work\"It\u2019s a fundamental law in recruiting that you \u201care limited to hiring individuals who have applied for a position\u201d (even direct sourced candidates will at some time will be requested to acknowledge application). Assuming you want an applicant pool that is bulging with superior talent, a logical question would be, \u2018What factors restrict qualified individuals from applying?\u2019. Prior to the most recent global economic meltdown, most recruiting professionals guessed that the top factors were pay, benefits, and employer reputation, which are important, but one factor has always trumped them: geography.<\/p>\n

95% of the Qualified Candidates Are Not In Your Backyard<\/b><\/p>\n

While there are pockets of industrialization that attract a greater percentage of highly educated and trained professionals, the vast majority of talent remains dispersed around the world. If your organization forces only local talent to be considered, there is no way your organization can claim to be hiring only top talent. Such an approach dictates that your organization is missing out on a huge group of qualified applicants (the 95% that exists elsewhere) simply because:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n
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    1. They do not live within a commuting distance of your job<\/li>\n
    2. They are not willing or they cannot relocate to the job location due to relocation costs, living preferences, underwater mortgages, or\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 family issues<\/li>\n
    3. Possible immigration<\/a>\/visa issues<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      <\/div>\n

      Restricting recruiting to only local communities can have dramatic effects on results. For example, if you are the head coach at the college basketball powerhouse University of North Carolina, and the team was restricted to recruiting only players who currently lived within a commuting distance of the campus, how many months do you think it would take until the team would begin its slide into mediocrity?<\/p>\n

      If you want to have a strategic impact as a recruiter, you need to recommend any low-cost action that would dramatically increase the size of the qualified candidate pool: remote work. While many assume geography is an unavoidable barrier, the truth is that for most knowledge jobs, it simply isn\u2019t. Allowing more remote work could literally increase the quality of your applicant pool by several hundred percent.<\/p>\n

      What Percentage Would Want to Work for You<\/b><\/p>\n

      Whether your talent pool is local and small or global and large, you still must convince the qualified individuals to want to apply and work for your firm. For the local-only talent pool, flexibility<\/a>, work\/life balance, and commute time\/costs would be among the potential selling points. If you were offering remote work, you would likely immediately meet each of these three selling points.<\/p>\n

      In addition, if you are a global firm with relatively high pay, benefits, and outstanding management practices, you will find that an extremely large percentage of those qualified individuals around the globe would jump at the opportunity to work for you (provided that they didn\u2019t have to relocate).<\/p>\n

      Great Brand, But Location an Application Killer<\/b><\/p>\n

      Zappos<\/a> is a wildly successful online shoe retailer, with a powerful employer brand built on unusual but highly effective management practices. If you were one of the best online marketing experts in the world, chances are that an opportunity to affiliate with the brand would be attractive. Unfortunately, Zappos isn\u2019t in New York or Chicago. It\u2019s in Las Vegas, a place that gets an automatic reaction (often a negative one) when mentioned. Despite a great brand and exciting culture, there are a number of location attributes that negatively impact the size of the talent pool willing to work in Las Vegas, including the historical role of gambling, and extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n

      For those outside the U.S., immigration issues could prevent application. However, remote work by itself could be such a compelling draw to overcome most if not all barriers.<\/p>\n

      Remote Work Makes the Best Even Better<\/b><\/p>\n

      The European Champions League employs the most effective and powerful recruiting model in Europe. In an environment where winning the championship for a club is nearly a life-and-death experience, teams like Barcelona and Manchester United have developed a \u201ccherry pick\u201d global recruiting model, recruiting the single best player from the best football countries around the world.<\/p>\n

      Unlike offshoring, this model focuses on recruiting a single \u201cgame changer\u201d from other countries. This approach, coupled with great team management, results in a level of performance that could never be reached if the club recruited players solely from their home country. A good as it is, this model also suffers from the \u201clocation problem.\u201d Imagine if you could build a team as powerful, but allow players to remain in their home country; could the team be even more powerful? This is not possible in a physical game like football, but in business, where many of the professional jobs can be converted to remote work, it\u2019s quite possible.<\/p>\n

      Obtaining a High ROI<\/b><\/p>\n

      Many assume that remote work jobs are expensive and that remote workers average lower levels of productivity, however, the data suggest otherwise. The most famous case of remote work, Best Buy, reported that by offering remote work options at its headquarters, resulted in as much as a 35% increase in productivity and a 90% decrease in turnover<\/span>. McGraw-Hill and Cisco have both reported multimillion dollar increases in productivity as a result of remote work options.<\/p>\n

      Almost every firm that offers remote options has also realized that the practice dramatically increases retention and reduces real estate and office expenses. So overall, not only will you attract and hire better quality candidates, you are also likely to see an increase in productivity and a reduction in costs.<\/p>\n

      Offering 100% remote work options for mission-critical professional jobs may be the highest ROI recruiting solution there is.<\/p>\n

      Tips on Creating Remote Work Jobs<\/b><\/p>\n

      IBM has taken the most scientific approach to remote work and have found that there are steps that you can take to make any remote individual or team more effective. My research has also come up with a list of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts that you should consider when creating or implementing remote work jobs. Here are some recommended actions.<\/p>\n