After I spoke with a party interested in remote staffing, I realized that there are many different business models to actually choose from. In an attempt to make it a lot easier for people to select which model will fit their business best, I’ll explain how 4 of the main types work. These 4 include: general remote staffing, hourly services, incubation/seat leasing, and the BOT model.

General Remote Staffing

This is also called outsourcing or cloud staffing. This model is where you hire staff from outside your immediate area and they work from a remote location. This model is for people who want to grow a department without spending excess amounts of money on staff and infrastructure needed to accommodate new staff. When you partner with a remote staffing company, they will have a building and depending on their terms, may provide your staff with a workstation. You also get the peace of mind that all your HR and IT worries will be taken care of. This also includes oversight in the form of In addition, if your staff doesn’t meet your requirements or they quit, the remote staffing company will recruit for you. 

Hourly Services

This style of business is essentially like the general remote staffing model except the payment is, as its name suggests, per hour. The amount of hours your staff work each day, week, or month is determined by you. The staff that will do said work is usually chosen and trained by the remote staffing company. The hardware and software needed to do the job is usually also provided. Hourly services work exactly like how contractual employees would but working remotely. Do note that most companies will require you to hit a minimum number of hours before you can avail of this service and prices may vary depending on the skills you require.

Seat Leasing/Incubation Services

As the name suggests this model is all about the seating or infrastructure. Picture general remote staffing except the only thing provided is the space and workstations, all of the administration, IT, and HR tasks are yours. Seat leasing or incubation services are for people who have a complete set of staff but no infrastructure. For example if your building is too small for your growing team, this would be a great set up as you would have access to the location and technology that you’d need to operate. This option is also great for startups that already have staff but are looking for a temporary place in order to start.

Build. Operate. Transfer.

The build, operate, transfer, or BOT model is where you take an idea, share it with a remote staffing company, and then they will build you that business, get it stable, then transfer everything over to you. Companies generally have different time frames for how long it will take them to transfer everything over to you, make sure you pick a partner who will deliver in a time frame acceptable to you. Breaking it down step by step:

1. Sourcing, recruiting, and building your team (based on your requirements)
2. Planning and consulting
3. Daily management of everything from staff to infrastructure
4. Workspace is finalized along with all of the tools needed for the business to run properly
5. Company registration
6. Finalizing of the entire office space
7. Transfer of the team and all other assets
8. If needed, continued consulting (there may be additional charges for this depending on the company)

Selecting the right model for your business is important because it determines how successful you will be. Even with these descriptions, make sure to talk to your prospective remote staffing partners about the options and discuss which would be the best fit for you and your needs. Take note, giving accurate requirements such as the right job description or the right qualifications the first time around drastically cuts down the time needed to find staff, for applicable remote models, the more correct information you give, the easier the search for staff will be.