If you're struggling to find the right accounting talent, you may overlook some hidden gems.
As the job market becomes more competitive and unemployment rates decrease, employers face difficulty finding suitable candidates for accounting positions.
The cost of hiring in North America is increasing, prompting companies to consider offshore hiring as an alternative option. However, it is crucial to identify international workers with similar working and cultural backgrounds who can seamlessly integrate with your in-house team.
The easiest way to do it is through a remote staffing agency.
What Does a Remote Staffing Agency Do?
A remote staffing agency offers access to international talent. They help companies of all sizes hire and manage remote professionals from diverse backgrounds and locations, often at more cost-effective rates.
Their services are pivotal for businesses seeking to reinforce their workforce pipeline with remote employees. Here are the key services these staffing agencies can typically handle for your company:
Key Services Offered by Remote Staffing Agencies
Talent acquisition and sourcing
Remote staffing agencies usually have access to a broader and more diverse talent poll than companies can reach locally due to their extensive global network.
They use various platforms and resources to scour the job market for potential candidates from around the world who can meet your company’s needs and criteria.
Screening and assessment
Remote recruiting agencies are responsible for the initial stages of the remote hiring process, by:
- Scouring and reviewing resumes
- Performing background checks
- Advising companies on candidate’s qualifications
Staffing agencies typically conduct a preselection process to present only vetted candidates the companies and assist them in their decision-making.
Initial interviews
Remote staffing agencies typically conduct preliminary interviews to Assess the qualifications and experience of each candidate, communication skills, and work culture.
Depending on the role, this phase includes both technical evaluations and soft skills assessments, which are crucial for remote collaboration.
Contract support and compliance
Once potential candidates are identified, remote staffing agencies make sure job seekers and hiring companies have everything they need to move forward with the hiring process. They provide the necessary background information and help with negotiations once the business makes an offer.
Payroll management
Depending on the type, recruiting agencies often handle the all legal and administrative challenges associated with international employment, such as managing payroll, taxes, and compliance with local employment laws and regulations.
Why Companies Choose To Use a Remote Staffing Agency
Many businesses have turned to remote staffing solutions as a way to address the strained talent pipeline affecting U.S. companies.
Hiring talent outside national borders can be a cost-effective solution to scale, but also offers the added value of improving service quality, increased bandwidth for other activities, and the ability to work around the clock.
Remote staffing agencies help companies solve the challenges of international hiring, especially for businesses new to global talent or lacking the structure to ensure compliance with job laws in other countries.
56% of companies report operational improvements due to delegating repetitive tasks, leveraging time zone differences, or accessing better-qualified talent within budget.
If you’ve been considering partnering with a remote staffing agency, it’s likely because you’re looking for more than just cost savings. You want a solution that enables you to scale efficiently, access specialized skills, and focus your resources where they’re needed most.
Benefits of Hiring With a Remote Staffing Agency
Remote staffing agencies' main benefit is that they handle the recruitment process and payroll and comply with local labor laws. This can be especially helpful when hiring internationally.
Working with a remote staffing agency provides various advantages, making hiring remote employees smoother and more efficient. Here are the key benefits of outsourcing staffing and recruiting:
Find talent across the globe
The greatest advantage of partnering with a remote staffing agency is access to a global talent network. These agencies connect businesses with highly skilled professionals from around the world, wherever they are located, ensuring you build a team of top-tier talent.
Cost savings
Recruiting can be expensive and time-consuming, especially when sourcing candidates from different countries.
Remote staffing agencies streamline this challenging process and handle most of the legwork, allowing you to save on the operational costs and internal resources that you’d otherwise require for recruiting efforts.
Scalability and flexibility
Most remote staffing agencies work with a non-stop talent pipeline and a pre-vetted talent pool where they can rapidly scout for every role. This allows them to offer tailored staffing plans, adjusting time frameworks and costs according to your scaling needs.
Expert recruitment knowledge
Staffing agencies specialize in recruitment usually within a niche. They have the expertise and experience to identify the ideal candidates for a given role or industry more effectively.
Faster hiring process
Remote staffing agencies can significantly speed up the hiring process because they already have a pool of pre-vetted candidates ready for you to consider. This allows your company to fill positions more promptly than if you were to handle the process in-house.
When Does a Remote Staffing Agency Make Sense?
Hiring talent outside national borders can be a cost-effective solution, but it often comes with challenges. Remote staffing agencies solve these challenges, especially for businesses new to international hiring or lacking the structure to ensure compliance with job laws in other countries.
When you lack the structure to manage international hires on your own
Remote staffing agencies streamline the process by handling the complexities of compliance, payroll, and international labor laws, so you can focus on integrating new hires into your team.
When you lack the expertise to scout for a specific role
Remote staffing agencies have deep expertise in navigating talent markets across multiple countries with different qualification systems, languages, and workplace cultures. They not only work with a pre-vetted pool of candidates but also understand where and how to source specialized roles in various markets.
Types of Remote Staffing Agencies
Niche-Based vs. Industry-Wide Agencies
Niche-based agencies specialize in sourcing talent for specific roles or industries, such as tech, healthcare, or finance. These agencies are ideal for businesses seeking highly specialized skills or expertise and usually work as long-term partners.
More industry-wide agencies are useful for growing businesses that need to fill a broad range of roles.
Region-Specific vs. Worldwide Agencies
Some remote staffing agencies can hire across the globe. Most staffing agencies, however, focus on specific geographic areas, often excelling in understanding local markets, labor laws, languages, and cultural differences.
They’re a great fit for businesses targeting talent in a country or region, or with specific needs like working overnight, with a similar culture or in the same timezone.
Recruiting vs. 360 Staffing Partners
Recruiting agencies primarily focus on finding and sourcing candidates for specific roles, leaving the onboarding, compliance, and payroll management to the hiring company.
360 staffing partners offer end-to-end solutions, from candidate sourcing and vetting to handling compliance, payroll, and ongoing talent management.
Top Regions Remote Staffing Agency Hire From
Top talent can be found anywhere—it all comes down to how you access the top 1% of professionals. The key lies in offering competitive wages and ensuring your talent pipeline is equipped with the skills and availability your business requires.
Currently, the three most popular regions remote staffing agencies source talent from are South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia (such as the Philippines).
While these regions are comparable in terms of the quality and competitiveness of their talent, the difference lies in time zones. Each region addresses unique business challenges, making them better suited for specific operational needs.
South America
South America is the emerging remote talent outsourcing region by excellence in the past 5 years. Latam talent combines the three most valued conditions for an international hire: top-quality English and academic training, US similar working culture, and time zone alignment.
Europe
Slightly more expensive than other regions, Europe benefits from cultural proximity with western countries but may encounter difficulties in aligning with US work schedules, with around 6 to 10 hours difference depending on the country.
Europe stands out in outsourcing C-level roles, traveling profiles, and digital nomads due to the ease of movement within the territory.
Southeast Asia
Asia has long been a leading region for IT talent outsourcing. With lower wages and a bigger talent pool, it's a preferred destination for companies looking for large-scale operations with low-responsibility roles.
This preference isn’t a reflection of the talent's quality but rather the challenges of time zone differences. Professionals in this region may have limited overlap with your business hours for direct interaction with clients, making them better suited for back-office or support tasks.
On the positive side, talent from Southeast Asia can work overnight, enabling them to deliver results by the time your team returns to the office, ensuring a continuous pipeline.
Misconceptions of Partnering With a Remote Staffing Agency
The most common mistakes companies make when hiring through a remote staffing agency are:
- Not treating global talent like real teammates
- Thinking small
- Not training or investing in the talent
- Treating outsourcing talent as temporary talent
- Going for the cheapest option
The first 3 of these mistakes are related. Even when they hire long-term positions, the flexibility that outsourcing offers makes companies believe that global talent is always temporary. This leads to companies not training their talent properly and not treating them as real teammates.
When this happens, employees can end up leaving the company because they don't feel valuable. It is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy where the company ends up pushing the employee out of it.
Another mistake is thinking small, this means thinking outsourcing is only fitted for large companies looking for large operations hubs or only back-office repetitive work. Today, businesses can even hire C-level executives as long as they can work in the same time zone.
And finally, there's a belief that offshore talent equates to cheap labor, which can be difficult for retention when said employee doesn’t meet expectations. Although cost savings as a significant benefit of offshoring, that doesn't mean pushing for the lowest possible pay.
At the end of the day, just like with onshore talent, you’ll pay for what you get. Outsourcing just means opening up the employable market.
So two notes when partnering with a remote staffing agency:
- You are already saving money—on additional team members, coordination costs, churn, and equipment— so paying to work with the best people should not be that much of a stretch.
- Competitive wages let you pick and retain the best people, wherever they are set.
Choosing a Remote Staffing Agency
Decide on a region according to your needs
Start by evaluating your business needs, including time zone requirements, cultural fit, and the specific skills you need. Depending on these factors, you can choose a region that best aligns with your operations. For example, if you need talent during your business hours, you might prefer a remote staffing agency focus on regions with closer time zone alignment.
Benefit niche-based options
If you're hiring for specialized roles like accounting, tech or finance, look for staffing agencies that focus on specific industries or job functions. Niche-based agencies often have deeper expertise and access to a highly targeted pool of candidates, ensuring you get the best-fit talent for your business.
Ask and search for client referrals
When considering a remote recruiting agency, always request client referrals and do your own research. International job markets as never been more competitive and there are new agencies created every day. Reviews and testimonials can provide valuable insights into the agency’s reliability, the quality of talent they provide, and how well they handle challenges like compliance and communication.
What To Look For in a Remote Staffing Agency (Checklist)
How do you know when to trust a remote staffing agency you have never worked with? Whether this is your first time hiring remote talent or you are simply trying out a new one, choosing to partner with an international company has its challenges.
That is why we came up with this simple checklist of things you should inquire the agency's rep to feel more comfortable with your choice:
- Security protocols and data protection measures
- Coverage for materials and equipment
- Termination and notice period clauses
- Clear and transparent fee structure
- Buyout and contract termination terms
- Conflict resolution processes
- Transparency in communication and reporting
- Competitive salary benchmarks (are they above or below market rates)
- Benefits, bonuses, and opportunities for raises
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