Building remote teams in India

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Building remote teams in India
Play to get a gist of the blog The COVID-19
pandemic disrupted a great many businesses
worldwide. The pandemic tested the resilience of
companies to doing business under uncertain
conditions. There was confusion followed by chaos
as California was the first state in the US to
lockdown. Economic activity seemed to be coming
to a grinding halt. Businesses had to rapidly
learn new ways of conducting business as their
employees were forced to stay home. Physical
teams started transforming rapidly into virtual
teams. It took a while but gradually remote work
and work from home became mainstream. In this
blog, we aim to address concerns about arriving
at the know-how of hiring a remote team. How an
Employer of Record services, i.e EOR services in
India or an International PEO can contribute to
finding the right fit with relevant experiences
at competitive rates.
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Our blog will educate you on exploring India as a
prospective location for skilled resources, the
risks, advantages, costs, and strategies for
hiring and retaining a remote team in India. As
well as how Professional Employer Organizations,
i.e PEO services in India can outrun and serve
as the best alternative compared to the other
routes of remote hiring. The remote working trend
becomes mainstream As it became evident to
businesses that high-caliber workers were easily
available in other countries like India for a
fraction of the cost, it kick-started a race to
hire overseas employees. There emerged an
opportunity for certain types of businesses using
cloud and telecom technologies to leverage
remote workforce and gain a strategic advantage
in their marketplaces. The pandemic had indeed
leveled the playing field for workers to provide
their service to businesses out of their native
country. The wave of remote working started by
platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer,
Brickworks, and the likes got expedited by the
pandemic. The pandemic has encouraged successful
remote teams work culture The post-pandemic
revolutionized the concept of work and business
ecosystem altogether. Interestingly, the
Netherlands has decided to prioritize its
employees work-life balance. They are just a
step away from becoming the first country to
provide work-from-home legally if the law is
approved by the Senate. The pandemic was
instrumental in playing a huge role in
implementing remote hiring and increasing staff
productivity. India as a preferred destination
for skilled manpower India is perceived as a land
of opportunity for its cultural, well-educated,
and diverse background. India has a talent pool
of highly educated and skilled professionals who
are adept at problem-solving abilities and are
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immensely creative. People from India hail from
different regions and bring various cultures and
thought processes to the table. As per Quora, 4.4
million employees from India were employed in
the IT and ITES sectors as of 2020. Diving into
the specifics of India, India holds the
second-largest English-speaking manpower. It
churns out a great tech talent of 1.5 million
engineers yearly from various tier 1 and tier 2
engineering premier institutes like the Indian
Institutes of Technology (IIT) and National
Institutes of Information Technology (NIT).
According to the report published by the
National Survey of India, the literacy rate of
India as of 2022 is 77.7 . India ranks 159
amongst 197 countries. The cost of living in
India on average is 64.6 lower than that of the
US. The countrys average population is young.
Moreover, it is quite easy to find staff who are
eager to succeed and adapt to new business ethos.
The salary packages are lower which means
businesses in the west can have a larger
workforce for the same budget. India has over 75
of the Worlds CMM-Level 5 companies and has the
highest number of ISO-9000 certified companies.
Whether you are offshoring to India or hiring
Indian talents, high standards, professionalism,
and reliability are a given. The Indian IT sector
today is estimated to be 235 billion. Companies
emphasizing virtual team building The journey of
global companies exploring remote hiring dates
back to global airlines like Texas Instruments
and British Airways availing their back-end
offices in India. IT/ITES companies followed the
lead realizing India has great communication,
technological and high-end telecom facilities.
It has favorable business working environments as
well. From 1945-1994, companies like
International Business Machines (IBM), American
Express, and American Telephone and Telegraph
Company (ATT) permitted their employees to
telecommute. Considering the telecommuting study
conducted by the United States Federal Government
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reduced the employees commuting expenses and incr
eased their productivity.
Today a lot of global software giants like
Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, etc outsource to India
by acknowledging its potential. India has a
strong industrial base, growing infrastructure,
and digitization. As well as an enthusiastic
start-up population, encouraging growth, and
partnering vision from the Government. In fact,
8 of Indias total Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
is accounted for in the IT/ITES industry in 2020.
The software industry of India has given out an
output of 16 billion. The leading IT companies
of India are well equipped with attractively
designed buildings and posh campuses in prime
locations. The influx of global companies during
the pandemic There was a surge of companies
coming to India. India benefited hugely from the
pandemic. Its one of the biggest countries in
the world with a
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fast-growing economy, so it wasnt a surprise why
it became the top destination for hiring a
remote team. To get some context, the Indian
Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) registered
more than 124,000 companies in 2019-20, 155,000
in 2020-21 (25 growth), and 167,000 (8 growth)
companies registered in the financial year
2021-22. During FY 2021-22, the states that
registered the largest number of companies were
Maharashtra with 31,107 companies, followed by
Uttar Pradesh at 16,969, Delhi at 16,323,
Karnataka at 13,403, and Tamil Nadu at 11,020
companies. Advantages of hiring a remote team and
leading remotely Broadens brand reach in two
countries By narrowing down on India as a
prospective location for your global business
expansion plans, you will have an opportunity to
augment your brand visibility and culture in
dual countries. Remote hiring allows you to tap
into a pool of diverse and adept
population India is a place of robust diversity.
Skilled professionals stem from different
regions, have an ingrained ability to adjust, and
are adept at problem-solving skills. The authors
of Jugaad Innovation advise the West to
consider Indians as an emerging market offering
creative solutions in the business world.
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Avail skilled resources at reduced costs
When you hire a remote team, it works out great
from a cost perspective point of view. The wage
rates and compensation policies in India are
different, to be precise they are comparatively
low. There is scope for negotiation in India.
Also, the costs of recruiting are affordable. You
can resource remote employees in India at an
affordable budget in comparison to your
on-location or in-house employees. Leverage the
variation of job vacancies in India and time
zones The number of engineers graduating every
year is way more than the job vacancies
available in Indian companies. You can leverage
the difference in this situation. You can profit
from the difference in the time zones. You can
make use of your remote team after the closure of
business hours (COB) in your country. With this,
you will be able to avail of the clock customer
service and enhance business productivity. Disadva
ntages of remote hiring Easy distraction and
experiencing isolation When employees work from
home, they can get easily distracted. Their
attention span may be compromised. In extreme
cases, some employees may even feel isolated and
can sink into depression as constant monitoring
by superiors can be disturbing.
Asynchronous communication can be inconvenient
sometimes
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The difference in time zones and geographical
barriers can prove as a hindrance in managing a
remote team. The scheduling of meetings and
follow-ups may be inconvenient keeping in mind
the availability of employees, managers, HRs,
and employers. You will lose direct control and
will have to coordinate with your employees
virtually. Meetings will have to be scheduled
considering the availability factors. Decoding
the employee mindset of India While hiring
resources from India, it is imperative to
understand their work culture. The employees in
India like to have 10-15 hikes on an annual
basis. They prefer favorable taxations, travel
allowances, health insurance coverages,
incentives, etc. They prefer a decent number of
public holidays. They like working in modern
offices and futuristic office spaces. Staying
digitally connected comes with an
expense Ensuring team coordination and
collaboration may be worrisome. You may face
security issues and also incur technological
costs to ensure a smooth virtual business
operation. Put in extra efforts This means
ensuring your employees feel welcomed into your
company irrespective of the geographical
barriers and differences in time zones. Most
importantly, you will have to put in efforts to
understand their behavioral approaches and
adjust to their culture accordingly. To gather a
better understanding of hiring employees in India
and how we, at Remunance, ease your journey,
visit hiring employees in India a guide for
foreign companies. How can you find new employees
remotely? There are different methods of hiring
employees remotely. You can source the right
talent through online job portals like Naukri and
Indeed.
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You can also use LinkedIn as a social media
platform to find activities as well as passive
talent. Linkedin has 62 million users from India
making it the second-largest market for
networking platforms. According to Linkedin
data, employees in India research mechanical and
software engineering job roles the most on
social media networking sites. University campus
placements or approaching recruitment agencies is
also a great way of resourcing talent. However,
the approach an International PEO or Employer of
Record services will offer will take off all the
stress from your plate. How do you ensure remote
team building in India? Every job seeker desires
for Google-style work environment where the tech
giant ensures employee happiness as a top
priority. While you may practically not be able
to create an adult playground kind of work
environment for your employees but you can surely
imbibe their organizational values for leading
remotely. Implementing employee-centric best HR
practices and a good HR strategy play a major
role in meeting business productivity and
execution. The sooner you dawn on the
realization that employees are the biggest asset
of your company, the faster you will be able to
climb the ladder of success. Keeping an open-door
policy Emphasizing creating a happy workplace
culture Encouraging innovation and new ideas To
know more about Best HR practices, visit our blog
Best HR practices for business growth. What are
the costs of hiring a remote team? Depending on
the way you decide to hire or the business model
you choose to adopt, you will have different
costs associated with hiring remote workers.
E.g. if you are going to set up your legal entity
or hire a contractor
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directly by using a professional recruitment
consultant to find employees then their fees can
range from 10 to 18 of the employees gross
salary. There may be additional costs like
conducting a background check etc. If you have
hired contractors directly then you will need to
pay them salaries directly into their bank
accounts. Banks will charge you a fixed
transaction fee per transfer. If you use
Remunance then we will charge you a fixed monthly
fee per employee. You make one single payment
and we will disburse the salary to each
employee. You will receive a bill for their bank
accounts. Each bank account will have a SWIFT
code with a clearly stated purpose for the
remittance. This will make it very easy to track
and audit the payments made to each remote
employee. Remunance doesnt charge you any
finders fee. Hidden costs of remote teams Remote
workers pose a greater security threat The
solution is not to avoid the risk, but to
mitigate it. It is very necessary that you
invest in VPNs. Your corporate network should be
protected and private. Remote team members
should be able to log in remotely and access the
required tools without putting the business
network at risk. Remote workers are more
susceptible to phishing and more likely to use
insecure devices If remote team members use
unsecured devices then they make the business
network vulnerable. If theyre using the same
device for their personal use and company use
then they are putting your company network at
risk. It is best practice to use devices
exclusively for work while using separate and
unconnected devices for personal use. It is
equally important to train and retrain your
employees on security best practices. Different
models to hire talent in India
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Remote teams can be formed through routes like
outsourcing, freelancing, contracting, and
subsidiary formation. You can choose your route
depending on your needs, the time you desire to
continue business operations in India, and the
control you would like to have. If you are
looking for a long-term relationship with
talented remote resources, then an International
PEO or EOR may just be the ideal option for you.
An International PEO will offer their expertise
in handling the HR department. This includes
loading off administrative responsibilities like
HR management, payroll, and tax filing onto
them. EOR services will step in as the legal
employer for your employees. The ideal takeaway
for your small and midsized business (SMB)
employees is that a PEO will offer them the same
benefits a larger company would do. These are the
different routes of remote hiring in India
Partnering with an International PEO/EOR services
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• An International PEO works out great when you are
  on the lookout for a better remote team
  selection, work allocation, deliverables, and
  cost. An International PEO will ensure a
  business continuity plan, a dedicated team in a
  full-time role, negligible upfront investments,
  and the opportunity to have an entity at an
  opportune time. A PEO model will assure complete
  protection of your projects, by adhering to all
  your companys confidentiality clauses and in a
  leak-proof secured infrastructure. A PEO
  International charges either straight costs or
  percentage costs. They will charge you per
  employee per month or take a percentage of the
  employees gross salary costs.
• Click here if you would like to explore the
  benefits of using Remunance as your India EOR.
• Outsourcing model
• Outsourcing has forever been a favorite and
  popular buzzword for global companies seeking
  international talent, especially in the IT
  industry. Once you have defined the projects
  scope, you need not monitor their deliverables
  as long as they are in line with your business
  expectations.
• However, in an outsourcing route for hiring a
  remote team, you do not have direct control over
  your resources. This will be the lookout for
  their parent organization. It is difficult to
  find the right resources within a stipulated
  time. You may lose your peace of mind when it
  comes to confidentiality in an outsourcing
  setup. Your resources will work for you for a
  finite period of time and on a particular
  project. You may have to shell out more money
  from your pockets if you would like to retain
  them for a full-time dedicated project. You may
  have to pay additionally for the added effort
  they put in other than their designated tasks.
  Such situations will be out of your control.
• Hiring and engaging contractors directly
• In a contracting model of remote working, the
  resources will work for you in a short-term or
  long-term project. The biggest drawback with
  contracting

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is you will have little control in maximizing
throughput in human resources. Contractors can
legally work for other clients or multiple
companies simultaneously. In such a scenario,
their attention span and deliverables will
perhaps be compromised. They may work for your
rival companies as well. From a cost perspective
in a long run, maintaining a team of contractors
will turn out to be an expensive affair. They
will charge on an hourly basis, and if theres
additional scope of work loaded onto them, they
will incur additional costs for the same
too. This is relatively easy for the business
when the number of international contractors or
remote workers is small, less than 10. It gets
complex, cumbersome, and expensive quite quickly
the moment you have more than 10 remote
(international) contractors. It is not easy for
remote (international) contractors who have to
face multiple challenges like local tech
support, and filing complex end-of-year tax and
GST returns. The working culture and mindset of
contractors are like near-autonomy. They like
working independently and wont go the extra mile
to meet your business expectations. 4. PEO
versus subsidiary formation Setting up your
entity in India is the most traditional and the
most obvious method known to most business
professionals. It gives you full control and
autonomy to (say) run the payroll, pay taxes and
stay compliant with the local laws. However,
this pathway is very time-consuming and also
expensive. It needs a fair amount of country
expertise in the local legal, corporate, and
payroll regulations. This method is usually used
by larger businesses that have the resources to
manage the extra workload. We do not recommend
this to SMEs and small businesses that have got
no immediate plans to hire a large number of
employees. To understand why to choose an
International PEO before you form a legal entity
in India, read our blog PEO vs legal entity.
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And to gather an even more comprehensive
understanding of the process of subsidiary
formation, simply read this blog. Build remote
teams the Remunance way At Remunance, we
understand a remote team acts as the backbone in
managing your global business. We also comprehend
the importance of building and retaining skilled
resources. By becoming your ally, we provide
complete HR admin and office infrastructure
support. We aim to inculcate a winning team
culture through our ideal selection process
conducted by our efficient team of HR
professionals. We understand the Indian pulse,
are aware of the changing trends in the market
and HR policies, and share your employee
responsibilities by finding the right fit
accordingly. Our EOR/International PEO services
will handle your employee taxation, salary
processing, and employee benefits. We have a
well-equipped self-servicing employee portal.
Our Founder, Mr. Rajendra Vaidya has devised an
innovative PEO model to offer you the best of
both worlds. Remunance has successfully served
70 plus clients from 16 countries to date. To
know more about our International PEO and EOR
services, get in touch with us here to nurture a
collaborative business relationship.