Need Business

Does a Virtual Workforce Make Sense for Your Small Business?

Back in the day, being a small business owner was a bit simpler. You needed help getting things done so you went out and hired people, usually locally, to work for you. The idea of hiring a staff member on the other side of the country — or even the other side of the world — was pretty much unheard of.

But, as they say, “That was then; this is now.”

And from a small business owner’s perspective, now is so much better. Thanks to technological advances, global educational achievements, and a 21st-century mindset, we are no longer restricted to where we do business, or who we “hire” to help us get it done.

I’ve discussed the power of the cloud in a previous column. Recently, I caught up with Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, a global employment company (the company describes itself as an “employment platform”) that enables business owners to hire and manage an online workforce, whether they be actual employees or independent contractors.

Swart believes we’re living in a “borderless economy” where a large amount of work originates in one country and is actually carried out in another. Cloud-based staffing, claims Swart, “solves a global talent challenge” — and it’s a two-way street. He says there is a big demand, particularly from businesses in Australia and Europe, for American workers. However, Swart claims the U.S. is leading the way “as our mindset shifts more and more to the cloud.”

Using the cloud to tap into talent is a logical extension of where technology has taken us. “Salesforce.com started it all,” he says, “by offering software as a service (SaaS). Now we’re offering labor and talent as a service.”

Swart says cloud staffing is exploding in popularity because it enables small businesses to shorten their “time to market” and gives them access to talent outside of their local area. It solves, Swart adds, “the challenge so many small businesses face of not being able to afford to hire the people they need to enable them to grow.”

oDesk practices what it preaches. There are 54 full-time employees, many working in their northern California headquarters. Others, however, live in Tennessee, Philadelphia, New York, and Russia. In fact, Swart says he has employees he hasn’t seen in more than two years. Like many entrepreneurial enterprises, the impetus for oDesk’s evolution came about when it was helping a company manage and pay remote workers. The company asked oDesk to help it hire as well. Last month there were 850,000 jobs available on the site, and new postings were up 78 percent from April 2010.

Study after study has shown that the use of remote workers is a win-win scenario. Employers not only have a bigger talent pool to draw from, but they save money by not having so many employees onsite. On the flip side, workers can have a more flexible work schedule, a big boost for employee morale.

Cloud workers are obviously not for every small business. Swart says it’s the “innovators and early adopters” who first embrace the value of hiring in the cloud. But in this increasingly competitive global environment, you have to explore every available avenue. What does your company need in order to better compete with the business across town or on the other side of the world? Do you have access to the skilled workers you need to grow your business?

The innovations come at us so fast these days it can be hard to keep up and sort out what you do and do not need. But understand this: Cloud staffing is no passing fancy — this is the future of work.

Tags: Business, Small Business