Remember the days when the staffing business was all about keeping it local? Companies focused on local offices with local sales teams that built up a local clientele and staffed local jobs with local candidates. Staffing professionals developed their clientele at the local level by making cold calls and developing relationships in the community. At the same time, agencies focused on growing their database of local candidates.
Most agencies were firmly rooted in this localized system of staffing, but different ideas about hiring had been sprouting over the past twenty years. Those ideas grew out of the dotcom boom-and-bust era. In the 1990s, when Silicon Valley emerged as the high-tech center of the US, web developers, computer engineers, data analysts, and other technology workers from around the country made the trek to northern California. But as Bay Area dotcoms amped up it soon became clear that the “hire local” approach used by most employment agencies couldn’t keep up with the demands of the region’s high-tech market.
At that time, high-tech companies also began to set up a different kind of workplace, one that embraced the notion of the remote employee. One of the early adopters of fully remote work was Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Automattic adopted the concept of a distributed workforce when the company launched in 2005 out of San Francisco.
Toptal, which specializes in matching remote high-tech candidates from around the world with global high-tech remote jobs, has been fully remote since it launched in 2010. Its employees are based around the world and work remotely.
Direct sourcing for gig workers rose in popularity with companies looking for a specific job to be done quickly. Marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr saw an opportunity to connect a remote workforce to companies looking for a specific project ranging from designing business cards to chemical engineering. In 2021, freelancing contributed $1.3 trillion to the US economy.
Companies across the globe are embracing the concept of remote work or a hybrid return to work and that’s not going to change any time soon, if ever. From entry-level customer service reps to high-level executives, working from home has become a dream come true for many reasons, including the end of commuting. The rise of remote work also led to changes in the housing market. Many people decided to pack up and move to another city, town, or even another state to be closer to their family, nature, or to save money.
Although we saw an expansion in remote work, over the past two years, several industries were hit hard during the pandemic including travel, hospitality, logistics, and restaurants. On the other hand, IT and healthcare continued to see double-digit growth year after year. These trends have impacted staffing agencies as they now have to source and relocate candidates from other areas.