While OFFSHORE REMOTE HIRING IS ON THE RISE, MORE Businesses are bringing their U.S. Employees Back to the Office.
We all remember how it began: The horrific Covid pandemic hit our country with vengeance, and most businesses, including law firms, were forced into remote operations. After the initial shock of being forced into remote operations, workers all across the country began to realize a host of advantages to working remotely, while employers were just grateful to maintain operations, albeit remotely.
For workers, remote employment meant significant savings of commute time and expense, and the added benefits of being able to work from anywhere, including their back porch or a table by the beach. They also enjoyed the comfort of working in their pajamas, or gym shorts, and the pleasure of being home with their pets. Although some employees, particularly those with small children at home, found the demands of trying to juggle home life and home-work life untenable, others thrived. Some employees found they were even more productive when working from home because they no longer had the inevitable distractions and interruptions from an office environment filled with coworkers.
Employers, while skeptical of the success of this newfound remote arrangement, had no choice but to make the best of the situation, recognizing at least a savings in some overhead costs. Having remote workers also opened up the opportunity for business owners to hire from a much larger pool of potential candidates than ever before since it was no longer necessary to hire employees in their immediate area. Nonetheless, as the pandemic eased up, many employers wanted business life to return to a pre-Covid “normal” with employees in the office, at least most of the time. But, many employees did not feel as eager to return to brick-and-mortar positions. Instead, record numbers of workers sought to remain in fully remote positions or at least move to a hybrid schedule of office and home rather than returning to full-time work in the office.
There’s no question that the COVID pandemic transformed the American workplace. In 2019 only 4.7 percent of US workers performed their work from home, as compared to a whopping 61 percent as of May 2020. (The Hill; Workers Dig in, De Vise, 2/20/23) And as of January 2023, nearly 30 percent of all work is still happening at home, according to WFH Research, a data collection project. (Id.)
However, growing numbers of employers are putting their foot down when it comes to bringing their employee’s back into the traditional office setting, either full-time or part-time – According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Return to Office Rate has now risen to over 50% for the first time since the pandemic began. (WSJ 2/1/2023) Companies like Starbucks, Walt Disney, Amazon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Google, JP Morgan, Apple, and Salesforce, are mandating that workers return to the workplace, many full-time, and others with at least a 3-4 day in office mandatory requirement. (Business Insider, Major Companies Requiring Employees to Return to Office, A. Canale, et al, 2/24/2023) .
What employers across the board are recognizing after several years of remote operations and empty office desks is a loss of company culture and collaborative thought that fuels productivity, problem-solving, and innovation, as well as the difficulties of effectively training and onboarding new employees in a fully remote setting.
Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, in a recent office memo to his corporate employees requiring them to be in the office at least 3 days per week, noted that he and Amazon’s leadership team decided it would be easier for employees to collaborate and that in-person work would strengthen the company’s culture. (Id.) Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, put it more directly, in requiring staff to return to the office 4 days per week: “Nothing can replace in-person work.” (Id). For Goldman Sachs, it will be mandatory 5 days per week.
It’s a hot topic for law firms, too. Some law firms brought all their staff back into the office almost immediately after the first pandemic crisis subsided. Others have embraced a more hybrid approach. In following our PILMMA Members Listserv, I’ve seen a number of our members grappling with the issue of hybrid work. Some firm owners are implementing a 4-day work week to accommodate the attitudes, needs, and desires of employees post-Covid. For others, the 4-day model gives staff some built-in flexibility without jeopardizing the law firm’s productivity and firm culture. For many, it’s an ongoing debate, and the juries are still out…..
In contrast to the number of US employees working remotely, the number of offshore hires is growing. This has been and continues to be a hot issue for law firms all across the country and a topic of much discussion in PILMMA Mastermind meetings. Many of our members have found that certain types of law firm positions lend themselves to offshore remote work quite well, and provides a tremendous financial savings, since the hourly rates for offshore employees are a fraction of that for U.S. employees. (If you want more information on outsourcing via offshore hires, check out the podcast The Secret Sauce of Outsourcing.)
In the cost benefit analysis, you may find that hiring offshore is a savings too good to pass up, even if it means some extra effort to foster firm culture and collaboration with these employees.
Covid caused law firm owners to pivot, and the realities of our post covid world are causing business owners to pivot once again. While returning to the old normal is impossible, the good news is that there are creative avenues and new opportunities for law firm owners to continue to propel their law firms forward.
****If you want to stay up on the latest trends impacting law firms today, make sure you register for PILMMA’s upcoming Super Summit in New Orleans, May 16-18, 2023. It’s being offered LIVE and LIVESTREAM, and has a money-back guarantee, so there’s no reason not to check it out!
