New research from global payroll and employment infrastructure company Remote shows that skills shortages are increasingly forcing UK employers to rethink where they find talent, with 46% of the 500 HR and business leaders surveyed saying they have increased their search for talent in other countries and 39% that they have expanded recruitment into additional markets.
This expansion looks set to highlight legal, payroll and compliance challenges around managing distributed workforces, with the large majority of organisations (94%) using contractors or freelancers reporting that they had experienced issues with this during the previous 24 months.
An urgent strategic response to talent shortages
As skills needs rapidly evolve, impacts of the challenge are being keenly felt, with 73% of respondents saying that they missed a key business objective, such as a product launch, expansion, or revenue target, because they could not access the talent they needed within the past 12 months.
The desire to look abroad in response is clear: 81% said finding qualified talent locally has become harder than it was a year ago, while 78% said they would increase international hiring if it were as easy and low risk as hiring domestically. On average, respondents expect 52% of new hires by the end of 2026 to be based outside their primary country of operation.
Complexity is the driver of, and barrier to, global hiring
As many organisations turn to more flexible workforce models, with 94% of companies which use contractors or freelancers increasing their use over the past two years, international hiring is no longer viewed as a niche recruitment strategy. The research suggests that, in the UK, cost flexibility (20%) and access to specialised skills (20%), rather than changing labour laws, are the key drivers in this.
However, it also uncovered a key awareness gap: even though almost every respondent admitted experiencing compliance challenges, 99% reported confidence that their arrangements complied with local employment law. This suggests that many are underestimating the operational complexity of managing employment across multiple jurisdictions, even as they increasingly rely on the strategic value of international, flexible workforces.
Building the infrastructure to build global workforces
The research suggests that processes to find international talent will need to be supported by systems that allow businesses to employ, pay and manage talent compliantly across borders as this trend continues.
“More UK businesses are hiring abroad because they can't find the skills they need at home. But finding the right person is just the start," said Job van der Voort, Co-founder and CEO of Remote. "You have to hire them quickly, pay them correctly, and follow local employment law wherever they live. Seventy-eight percent told us they'd hire more internationally if it were as easy and low-risk as hiring locally. That's a big gap between what companies want and what most of them are set up to do. And the companies that close the gap first will have a big advantage.”
