As the job markets face an international crunch in available skilled professionals, companies are scrambling for ways to fill their increasing number of vacant positions. While business may be booming and there are plenty of people who want work, there are somehow not enough of them. This leaves the business world wondering where to find more skilled professionals. Training fresh young entry-level workers seems like a good plan but even those appear to be in short supply.
Remote Positions
What about people who already have the skills or abilities needed, but simply aren’t at work? This is a known population, as there are always a few people between jobs, raising their kids, or otherwise unable to make regular office appearances. While in the past these people have been accepted as temporarily out of the workforce, there is a way for employee-hungry companies to draw them back in. The answer is 100% remote positions. Here are four significant populations that can be accessed by offering them remote work and potentially flexible hours:
1. Welcoming the Disabled
People with physical disabilities, either from illness or accident, often don’t have the capacity to make the personal journey to and from work every day, excluding them from a huge section work positions, but this doesn’t mean they don’t work. Many disabled people find work they can do at home on the computer and are quite skilled. In many cases, people who became disabled in the middle of their careers still have all of the expertise and industry knowledge and can leverage it while engaging in what used to be considered a ‘desk job’ from the comfort of their own home when offered remote positions in their field.
2. Part Time Parents
A lot of people take time off to be with their families. Some of them moved for a spouse’s work and simply never returned while others intentionally quit to raise their kids. The world of stay-at-home moms has changes, and many of these ‘moms’ are, in fact, professionals with valuable skills who you want to hire. While you can’t pull them away from their domestic responsibilities, you can offer these potential employees a way to work for you while watching their children. Remote positions, especially when paired with flexible schedules, are a great way to reach out to at-home parents whose children will create a predictable daily routine.
3. Skilled Retirees
When someone retires from the workforce, they don’t suddenly lose all their skills or interest in the industries they were once a part of. Many healthy and capable seniors choose to take part time work in a ‘second career’ as a way to stay busy and keep their skills sharp. These second careers are often lower impact and less demanding than their original positions, and can be in a related field. Remote positions allow expert seniors work with the industries they love in the safety and comfort of their living rooms.
4. Traveling Professionals
Some people love to travel more than anything else in the world. They’ll go on bikes, buses, road trips, boats, jet-setting, and RVing across any stretch of land or sea they can find. The range and travel preferences vary for each person, but anyone with this personality type has learned to look for work that suits their needs. With the prevalence of online business, naturally, they are turning to the laptop lifestyle of remote work. If you’re missing a percentage of young and adventurous professionals in your calculations, they may well be seeking purely remote opportunities, and therefore never cross your interview desk.
The internet is opening up a new world for the modern worker. While many people enjoy office life, there are big portions of the population who are simply choosing not to participate while others might wish they could attend but are unable. From the talented disabled workers to the traveling young professionals, large portions of your skilled potential workforce may not attend your interviews, but they can still provide valuable work for your company if offered 100% remote positions.
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