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The next step was to inject the remote-first culture into all the company ’ s processes , beginning with employee selection and hiring . The first upside was obvious . Limiting its hiring scope to California for its tech talent was no longer necessary . Zeeto realised it could begin hiring highly skilled tech developers from anywhere in the world at a much more competitive cost . “ One of the obvious things we started looking at was the fact that it is quite expensive to hire in San Diego . We realised that there are other areas of the world where we can hire employees in order to get access to a larger – and depending on their location – less expensive talent pool ,” Goss said .

The talent search is now global

As remote work became the standard across all the company ’ s departments , leadership faced the question of where to find the right talent .

“ Mexico became the obvious choice . We are in the same time zone . We can literally drive across the border and meet people . But , as I started looking into Mexico , that ’ s where the regulatory thing kind of became worrisome .”

Luckily , Zeeto knew who to rely on .

“[ Globalization Partners ] started helping us with all that stuff [ navigating Mexico ’ s local laws and regulations ]. And it has actually made it super easy , because trying to figure that all out ourselves would have been a much , much slower process .”

With the right partner at its side , Zeeto avoided navigating the tricky legal waters of Mexico ’ s taxes , payroll , benefits , currency exchange and cultural nuances .

Newfound efficiencies mean there ’ s no going back

After hiring professionals in Mexico and Ukraine , Zeeto began looking to other countries , such as Poland and Ireland to find top talent . It is now very confident in the benefits of combining remote work and an international talent search .

Not only has the transition to remote work been smooth , but it has accelerated the overall growth of the company . “ We had our most profitable month ever in December 2020 . The performance has been excellent , and the numbers are reinforcing that it ’ s going well ,” Goss said .

The sudden leap to remote work was a revelation for Zeeto : why would you limit your talent search to your neighbourhood ?

“ We ’ ve already told everyone we ’ re not going to force anyone to come back to the office ,” Goss said . That means that growing the team globally will also continue . “ We are definitely going to keep hiring internationally . I mean , for us , it ’ s a huge strategic advantage to be able to find the talent we need . And depending on location and position , we can sometimes hire at a lower cost enabling us to scale the business at a faster pace .”

Intelligent SME . tech spoke to Stephan Goss , CEO , Zeeto , about why the company is now very confident in the benefits of combining remote work and an international talent search .

How many employees are in the team , and what was the dynamic / team set-up before COVID-19 ?

Last March , we had 41 people – all of whom were in the US . Today , we have 44 people – 38 in the US and six in Mexico . Prior to COVID , our entire team was in the office full-time . Today , we work from anywhere .

What was the initial response to lockdown – how did you quickly mobilise a remote workforce ?

We actually saw what was coming , and the week before the official shutdown in California , we advised employees to begin working from home ( WFH ). We wanted to give our team a chance to get set up and figure out if they needed anything ( i . e . monitors , cables , etc .). We anticipated many of these items would be sold out quickly and wanted to provide our employees with as much time as possible

Previous page : Stephan Goss , CEO of Zeeto

THE NEXT STEP WAS TO INJECT THE REMOTE- FIRST CULTURE INTO ALL THE COMPANY ’ S PROCESSES , BEGINNING WITH EMPLOYEE SELECTION AND HIRING .