Can a fully remote contract role work for your business?

With the well documented candidate and skills shortage, are you struggling to find the right talent to get that project finished? Need a skill set that you just don’t have in your team that seems hard to find? Then you may want to consider looking at fully remote contract staff.

One of the things a post-pandemic world has given us is a very definite skills shortage. Contractors with specialised skills often come from a variety of backgrounds and many from countries other than the UK.

When the pandemic hit, a lot of skilled workers left their work country and went back to the UK or Europe to be with family. This left a large hole to be filled, both here in the UK as well as abroad. The Middle East is definitely struggling with this at the moment. A number of those British skilled workers moved back to other parts of the UK, out of London, to Manchester/Leeds area or Scotland, again to be closer to family and friends.

With the wonders of modern technology, you can run projects from anywhere – that’s the one thing this pandemic gave us. So why not consider this in your next project planning?

Planning Questions

Some questions you should ask yourself when considering a remote hire:

• What skills do we need to complete this project?
• Is finding someone with the right skills to complete an important project more important than having someone sat at a desk in the office?
• What communications tools do we have available? Zoom, Teams, Webex, phone etc? People email each other in the same offices so is communication REALLY an issue??
• Time difference considerations;  Europe is only an hour ahead and someone working remotely in the UK has no time difference at all
• Does the proposed resource actually need to visit site? Or would they be sat in an office somewhere?

Sometimes we need to think ‘outside the box’ to find a solution to a problem that we haven’t tried before. When you weigh up all the pros and cons of hiring a fully remote contract worker – you may just be surprised at what you find…

Case Study 1:

A client recently contacted us for a Contract Structural Engineer for a 12 month contract, to undertake designs on RC frame residential building structures using Robot software. They were full open to looking at fully remote contract staff.

Kostis is an experienced Contract Engineer, currently living and working remotely from Greece:

Working for a full year now remotely on a contract basis, through Energi, has been a very smooth and seamless process, more than I ever imagined. In the end it comes down to bringing together the right engineering skills where demand requires them. The day to day practicalities were easy, using the platforms and tools of communication and the lessons of pandemic years where that was a necessity for all. I never had any issues with distance, or the 1-2hrs time difference, or communication problems, with both clients I had this year. It’s something I’d strongly recommend to my colleagues and convince clients to be more open minded towards. 

No deadline was ever lost due to remote working. Work was completed without the added disctraction of a busy office or unnecessary meetings, and communication was easy. Quick chats, quick video calls, proper meetings, short informal mails, long formal mails, it never felt like I was away or not available, and the other way around.”

Case Study 2:

We have also engaged Marian, an experienced Engineer working from Scotland. He has successfully been working as fully remote contract staff for another London Client for several months:

“It’s been 9 months since I started working with the practice you referred me to and it has been a great experience. I am part of one of London’s major practices, involved in some of the biggest projects across the UK whilst working fully remote. The use of technology makes the communication process easier and the distance is not a problem. The client is very happy with how we work and communicate and is even talking about extending my contract.”

With the current lack of candidate and skills needed in the market – this could definitely be a step forward for our industry. Using today’s technologies and tools to bring together talent and value across borders – remote options could just be the answer.

Further Reading:

• Benefits of being a Contractor
• Candidate and Skills Short Market
• Hiring Remote Contractors Overseas: A Guide for Employers