Let’s start off with some quotes about the benefits of taking advantage of opportunities (and the dangers of missing them).

“Necessity is the mother of invention” – Plato

“Never let a good crisis go to waste” – Churchill

"Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them." –Andy Grove, former Intel CEO

Like it or not, we’re in a labor market shortage, if not a downright crisis.

Wages are rising significantly and finding quality employees is increasingly more difficult.

So, let’s explore how to turn this crisis into an opportunity that improves your company through necessary innovation.

Entrepreneur Magazine proposes five strategies for managing obstacles and crises successfully.

1. Keep a cool head. Yes, absolutely keep your head cool. Getting overly stressed out, losing sleep, barking orders is no solution to the labor shortage. Take a few deep breaths, get some distance from your emotions and put yourself in problem solving mode.
2. Think Differently. This is where invention and innovation come in. The type of thinking that created the labor shortage – rapid economic growth mixed with Covid and inflation – won’t be the same type of thinking to solve the problem. For instance, you can ask yourself – “Where should I look for employees where I wasn’t looking before?” This is a potentially very productive question.
3. Ignore The Rules. This is probably my favorite suggestion. There really are no rules, only consequences. In our modern fast paced business world, by the time rules are established they are likely out of date. The rules say that in order to attract high quality, dependable, skilled employees, you need to pay competitive wages, offer significant benefits and use expensive headhunters and placement agencies. Trust me, with HireSmart Virtual Employees, there’s another way.
4. Anticipate. This is like weighing the odds. What happens if I try a new plan, a new approach and it doesn’t work the way I thought it would? Essentially, what’s the worst-case scenario and is the upside worth the risk? Knowing that you have a plan to address a negative outcome will help you move forward with confidence.
5. Love Your Fate. Maybe this sounds a little strange to you, especially if things are going in the wrong direction. But this is a reminder to be persistent. Like the above quote says – great companies are improved by crisis. When you hit a wall and don’t know how to move forward, you start to look around for help. When you stay curious, invested, open-minded, you very often find the help you need in places where you would never have looked in calmer times.

At HireSmart we’re always prepared to help you in times of crisis.

We offer diversification for your labor force portfolio.

Just because labor costs are high in the US and great workers are hard to find, that’s not necessarily true in the global labor market.

By using virtual employees as an innovative solution to the current labor crisis, HireSmart will improve your company.

Once we help you manage this crisis successfully, you'll be perfectly positioned to reap the rewards when the labor market stabilizes again.

Because in good times and in tough times, HireSmart Virtual Employees brings profit to your bottom line by substantially reducing your labor costs. Click here for a free consultation.

There was a time, before globalization, before NAFTA, when buying a car made in the US was, let’s say, highly encouraged.

I knew mechanics who literally refused to work on foreign cars because they were seen as supporting a foreign country, instead of our own economy.

It made sense back then, before everything became so interdependent, multinational, with your carburetor made in one country, the engine block in another, upholstery from somewhere else and the whole thing put together in yet a different country.

All the large companies several decades ago realized that with advances in transportation, in shipping, in logistics and communication, that manufacturing can happen in many places around the world.

That same type of revolution is happening in the small business world today.

Especially since the pandemic has normalized remote work, the concept of maintaining a local workforce has become almost quaint.

I was meeting with a potential client, and my Executive Sales Assistant was there to support me. The potential client was amazed at her poise, her knowledge, and her ability to add value to the conversation.

The large corporations have led the way towards a globalized workforce.

It’s time for your business to capitalize on this development using virtual employees to increase profitability by reducing labor costs.

The challenge is finding high quality employees in foreign labor markets is even more challenging than using employment boards here in the US. You have to wade through so many rejects just to find the diamond. Add to that, the logistics on paying them, doing business properly in that country, and getting them paid properly without overpaying.

HireSmart exists for that specific purpose.

We’ve been in business going on 8 years matching companies with highly skilled, trained and dedicated virtual employees.

We’ve done the groundwork, made the international connections, built a great reputation to attract top talent, established training programs, developed assessments and language testing programs to make virtual employees a reality for you.

Technology has done the rest.

We’re ready to help you modernize your approach to building your workforce. Click here for a free consultation.