Welcome to RemoLabs! This research series presents insights derived from anonymized customer data, utilizing RemoFirst's Employer of Record platform, as well as surveys and third-party market research. We then share our findings to help you hire smarter and navigate global expansion.
The war for talent isn’t just heating up; it’s boiling over.
And if you're a growing company with 500–999 employees, you're likely feeling the burn more than most.
In our recent State of International Hiring report, every single respondent said finding qualified talent is a challenge. Not one person said it wasn’t.
Let that sink in.
But mid-sized companies? They're under extra pressure.
61% of companies with 500–999 employees said talent shortages are very challenging, a significantly higher rate than smaller startups.
These organizations are often stuck between agility and scale: too big to move fast, too small to throw money at the problem like a large enterprise might.
So, what does this mean for HR, finance, and people leaders trying to scale their teams? Let’s break it down.
Why It’s Hitting Mid-sized Companies Hardest
Startups may face their own hiring hurdles, but they often benefit from agility, a scrappy reputation, and fewer roles to fill. Enterprise companies have their pick of the global talent pool backed by big budgets, name recognition, and robust benefits (although they are facing challenges too!).
Mid-sized companies are in a tricky spot:
- They need to scale quickly but can’t always match enterprise-level salaries or benefits. Luckily, that’s getting easier thanks to global hiring tools — especially Employer of Record partners like RemoFirst, which help companies offer competitive and compliant benefits options.
- Their hiring processes are slower than those of startups, but not yet optimized at scale.
- They’re under pressure to deliver, especially in competitive sectors such as AI, tech, and product development.
This leads to a bottleneck that directly affects growth. Unfilled roles delay product roadmaps, stall expansion into new markets, and burden existing teams with extra work.
Where the Skills Gap Is Widening
While talent shortages affect nearly every function, the most critical gaps are in:
- Engineering
- Product development
- AI and machine learning
- Cybersecurity
These roles aren’t just hard to fill; they’re crucial to your growth.
A delayed hire in engineering can set back a product launch by months. A missing AI lead can mean falling behind your competitors’ innovation pace.
And as more companies adopt hybrid and remote models, the demand for top tech talent has gone global. You're no longer just competing with companies in your city; you're up against offers from San Francisco, London, Singapore, and beyond.
So, What’s the Solution?
To compete, you need to expand your hiring horizons. Our top recommendation: go global.
Hiring internationally through a compliant partner like RemoFirst allows you to:
- Access untapped talent pools in regions like Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia
- Fill roles faster without compromising on quality or compliance
- Offer competitive salaries in lower-cost markets without straining your budget
- Scale responsibly with local expertise, without needing to set up a local entity
Mid-sized companies that build a distributed team early gain a long-term edge. They stay lean, adaptable, and prepared to compete globally — not just locally.
Combine global hiring with investing in re-skilling of talent, and you’ll find your team and new hires meeting the demands of growth.
What This Means for HR, Finance, and Legal Leaders
If you're in HR or People Ops, the priority is obvious: speed and experience. You need to hire fast without sacrificing the employee experience or making legal missteps.
If you’re on the finance side, this approach helps control costs while unlocking ROI from otherwise slow-to-hire roles.
For legal teams, compliance-first hiring through an Employer of Record (EOR) like RemoFirst dramatically reduces your exposure to risk in unfamiliar jurisdictions.
The Big Takeaway
Talent shortages are real, and they're not going away.
But global hiring is no longer a luxury reserved for enterprises. It's a necessity for mid-sized companies that want to scale and stay competitive.
At RemoFirst, we help you hire full-time employees or contractors in 185+ countries without the overhead or legal complexity.
Whether you're hiring a senior engineer in Poland or a product designer in Brazil, we’ve got the local expertise and tools to make it happen fast and compliantly.
Next Step: Don’t Wait to Fall Behind
If talent bottlenecks are slowing your growth, it's time to look beyond borders. Let RemoFirst help you unlock global talent compliantly, affordably, and fast.
Talk to our team about how to start hiring globally today.
About This Data
Our data is anonymized from customer insights and trends as well as surveyed from hundreds of HR and People Ops leaders globally. While this does not include millions of data points, this is collected among thousands of companies globally who are finding and open to talent based in countries around the world.
