The online workforce is an employee pool that more small businesses are beginning to look toward for skilled workers. Recent research from online employment platform Elance found 73 percent of small firms are hiring more online contractors than in previous years.
According to the survey, small business owners believe 54 percent of their workforce will be online within the next five years, while 40 percent of respondents said they believe they can find better talent online.
“These results are further proof that the online workforce is powering the economic recovery and support our prediction that 1 out of every 3 people hired in 2020 will be hired online,” said Fabio Rosati, CEO of Elance. “Online employment is expanding as a core strategy for companies around the world as they realize the tremendous benefits of hiring talent on-demand.”
Small business owners also believe that online hiring gives them a leg up on the competition with 84 percent seeing the advantages created by online hiring.
While more employees are being brought in over the internet, business owners still need to remain protected in case these employees don’t work out. By purchasing small business insurance policies companies can protect themselves from the financial repercussions of some kinds of data loss that may occur online.
