Is It Worth it to Bring in Employees From Out of State?

Benefits and Challenges of Hiring Out of State Employees

When it comes to fulfilling human resource requirements, limited local talents pools can be a substantial problem. Once they’ve exhausted all immediate options, business owners often have no other choice but to look across geographic lines in search of suitable candidates. But, is it worth the cost? Here’s what you need to consider.

The Benefits

There are some pretty clear benefits to hiring candidates outside your immediate area. They include:

• Gaining access to new and specialized skills demanded by your industry, but not supported by area colleges and universities
• Securing solutions for lingering limitations that prevent you from leveraging new opportunities for growth and profit
• Adding culture and diversity to your workplace by infusing new personalities from different parts of the country

The Disadvantages

While there are some nice benefits to hiring workers from outside of your state, there are also some big negatives, including:

• Spending extra time, money and effort sourcing and recruiting distant candidates
• Having to wait long periods for new hires to begin work, due to the lengthy relocation process
• Difficulties processing background checks and gathering educational and career references

Things to Consider

As with most big decisions, it pays to weigh every cost, benefit and risk. Before hiring someone from out of state, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I willing to settle for a Skype interview before making a hire?
• Am I willing to pay travel expenses to interview a candidate face-to-face?
• Does the candidate expect me to pay relocation costs; and is this something I can afford?
• How much overhead will I waste if the candidate doesn’t work out or adjusts poorly to the area and simply decides to move back home?
• Have I really done my due diligence to make sure there are no local candidates available?

Potential Alternatives

If the prospect of an out-of-state hire has you feeling a bit reluctant, you may be able to avoid potential problems through alternative staffing methods. Many businesses successfully augment their current teams by working with staffing agencies that specialize in placing candidates in specific industries. Many times, these resources have strong talent pools with the skillsets and knowledge you need to stay competitive and meet objectives sooner.

Skilled freelancers and subcontractors can also be leveraged to create a telecommuting workforce. This will help you sidestep costs of relocation and the risks associated with unsuccessful retention. You can also avoid expenses related to overtime pay and medical insurance.

What’s Right for My Company?

While it’s always risky to bring employees in from out of state, sometimes there’s just no other way for a business to meet its goals. If you operate in an industry that requires you to expand into new areas of innovation and technology, you will need increasing skills and diversity in your team. On the other hand, if your future objectives can be put off, it might pay to conduct a prolonged local search, while working with temporary staffing agencies in the short-term.