There is no shortage of lists out there eager to tell you which company of the day you should choose if you’re looking for remote talent. What very few explain is whether remote work is even the right response to the skills gap inside your business.
As harsh as that sounds, it’s something we hear from our clients time and time again. Many arrive ready to hire before they have defined the problem they are trying to solve.
The issue isn’t a lack of available options; in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
But the answer isn’t always another job posting or new outsourcing strategy. Sometimes the better move is to widen the talent pool. Sometimes it’s to rethink how tasks should be structured.
In this post, we’ll look at what causes workforce skills gaps and how to identify them. We will also explain where global staffing fits, then compare when to build capability internally and when to bring in support.
What Is a Workforce Skills Gap?
A skills gap is the difference between the capabilities your business currently has and those it needs to meet its goals.
It can affect one employee, an entire department, or your company as a whole. That is why diagnosing the type of gap matters before deciding what to do about it.
Individual Skills Gaps
An individual skills gap exists when an employee lacks a capability required for their current or future responsibilities.
For example, a financial analyst may understand reporting but lack proficiency in a new business intelligence platform. Training could be appropriate because they already have the relevant background knowledge to use that skill effectively.
That said, training becomes less practical when the missing expertise would take years to develop. At that point, the issue may extend beyond one person.
Team Capability Gaps
A team capability gap occurs when a department cannot perform a required function at the level the business needs.
In these cases, you should determine whether the team lacks knowledge or simply needs another dedicated professional. That distinction separates a viable skills gap from a capacity problem.
Organizational Skills Gaps
An organizational skills gap affects the company’s ability to execute a broader business objective.
These gaps require broader workforce planning. Yet even a well-defined need can remain difficult to fill when the available talent market is too narrow.
Recruitment-Market Gaps
A recruitment-market gap exists when the required capability is available, but not in your immediate location, timeframe, or compensation range.
This is where global hiring and recruitment process outsourcing becomes relevant. Remote work allows you to search beyond local boundaries, but the role still needs clear requirements and effective candidate validation.
Why Are Skills Gaps Growing?
Skills gaps are growing because business requirements now change faster than job design and workforce planning or local hiring pipelines can keep pace.
The World Economic Forum found that 63% of employers consider skills gaps a major barrier, and 39% believe workers’ core skills will change by 2030. This pressure is most evident in tech, where job titles easily mask very different day-to-day requirements.
Technology Is Changing Roles From the Inside
LinkedIn estimates that 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change between 2015 and 2030, with AI acting as a major catalyst. In fact, AI literacy has already become one of the fastest-growing skills in the United States.
Consider how several established roles are evolving:
| Role | How Tasks Are Changing | Capability Now Required |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Analyst | Reporting is becoming more automated and data-driven | Dashboard tools and data interpretation |
| Customer Support Specialist | AI handles more routine interactions | Exception management and judgment |
| Marketing Operations Professional | Campaign systems are increasingly interconnected | Automation and platform integration |
| IT Support Specialist | Infrastructure is moving into cloud environments | Cloud administration and security awareness |
Local Hiring Pools Are Becoming Too Small
Remote work can remove most geographic constraints, giving you access to professionals in other markets. However, broadening your search only helps when the role itself is realistically designed.
Sometimes the supposed shortage exists because the job description is asking one person to cover several distinct disciplines.
Some Skills Gaps Are Job-Design Problems
An overloaded role can create an artificial skills gap by combining responsibilities that are individually reasonable but rarely found together in one candidate.
This is what we refer to as a “unicorn role”: overloading one role and expecting it to adapt to every new departmental requirement on the fly.
Credential Filters Hide Qualified Candidates
Credentials matter in regulated occupations and highly specialized fields, but companies unknowingly use them as screening rules for work that can be evaluated more directly.
Instead, remote hiring focuses on tangible skills. 93% of recruiters believe skills assessments are crucial to improving quality of hire. Companies that used the most skills-based searches are also 12% more likely to make a quality hire.
How Can We Identify a Skills Gap?
Your process should begin with the work your business cannot complete, improve, or scale.
Otherwise, you risk treating a capacity shortage as a training problem or hiring for a role that does not address the actual constraint.
Five Steps to Identifying a Skills Gap
A standard skills gap analysis moves through five stages:
- Define the business outcome.
- Identify the capabilities required.
- Assess current proficiency and available capacity.
- Locate the point where performance breaks down.
- Choose the most appropriate workforce response.
The first stage is often the most important because a vague objective creates an equally vague hiring brief.
Step One: Start With Your Desired Business Outcome
The first step is to state what your company needs to accomplish and why its current workforce cannot deliver it.
Use questions that expose the operating need:
- What work is delayed or not being completed?
- Which business result is being affected?
- How often does the problem occur?
- What would competent performance look like?
- What happens if the gap remains unresolved?
These questions move the discussion away from job titles and toward the capability your business needs. Once the outcome is clear, you can break the work down into the required skills.
Step Two: Map the Capabilities Behind the Work
Capability mapping shows which skills, tools, and forms of business knowledge are required to complete the work successfully.
This matters because different gaps call for different responses. Software training may solve one issue. Poor data governance may require process ownership. A lack of forecasting expertise may justify a dedicated hire.
A skills matrix can make the comparison easier to see.
Mapping the required capability is only half the exercise, and you also need an honest view of what your employees can do now.
Step Three: Assess Proficiency With Evidence
Current capability should be assessed through demonstrated performance. Evidence can come from:
- Completed work samples
- Quality or error data
- Scenario-based exercises
- Manager observations over time
- Certifications where they are relevant
- Results from recent projects
Your assessment should also define proficiency levels in practical terms.
| Level | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Foundational | Can complete routine work with guidance |
| Working | Can handle standard responsibilities independently |
| Advanced | Can resolve complex issues and improve the process |
| Expert | Can design the approach, coach others, and set standards |
These definitions are more useful than a simple one-to-five rating because they connect proficiency to actual work.
Step Four: Separate a Skills Gap From a Capacity Gap
A capacity gap means the capability exists, but the people who hold it cannot absorb more work.
Use this diagnostic test:
| Question | If Yes, The Likely Issue Is |
|---|---|
| Can someone inside the company perform the work to the required standard? | Capacity gap |
| Could an existing employee reach the required level through focused development? | Trainable skills gap |
| Does the work require experience that does not exist internally? | Capability gap |
| Is the requirement temporary or tied to a defined project? | Short-term resource need |
| Will the capability remain central to ongoing operations? | Long-term workforce need |
This distinction prevents you from sending employees to training when the real issue is workload. It also prevents you from hiring another person when a modest development plan would solve the problem.
Step Five: Prioritize Gaps by Business Impact
Not every skills gap requires immediate action. The priority should depend on the damage the gap causes and the value of closing it.
A gap that delays a future initiative may be important but not urgent. A gap that creates recurring financial errors or prevents customers from receiving support requires faster intervention.
Validate the Diagnosis Before Choosing a Solution
A precautionary step is to test whether closing the identified gap will genuinely improve the desired outcome. This check prevents expensive misdiagnoses. A skills gap analysis narrows the decision without automatically leading to another vacancy.
How to Set Up a Skills Gap Analysis
A skills gap matrix compares the capabilities a role or team needs with the proficiency and capacity currently available.
For the example, we’ll use one of our previous successful partnerships with a SaaS company. Feel free to use it as a template for your specific situation.
Its customer success team performed well with smaller accounts, but leadership was concerned about renewals, implementation complexity, and executive-level client communication.
Their business outcome was to build a customer success function capable of onboarding and retaining enterprise accounts without weakening service.
| Required Capability | Required Level | Current Level | Capacity | Evidence | Gap | Business Impact | Recommended Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Onboarding Design | Advanced | Working | Limited | Current process supports smaller accounts but lacks multi-stakeholder planning | Significant | Slow launches could delay revenue recognition | Hire or augment with enterprise onboarding experience |
| Renewal-risk Identification | Advanced | Working | Available | Team tracks usage but lacks a formal risk-scoring process | Moderate | At-risk accounts may be identified too late | Upskill team and improve the process |
| Executive Business Reviews | Advanced | Foundational | Limited | Managers lead most senior client presentations | Significant | Weakens credibility with enterprise stakeholders | Hire an experienced enterprise CSM and coach existing staff |
| Product Adoption Analysis | Working | Working | Available | Team can interpret usage reports independently | No material gap | Existing capability supports the expansion | Maintain current ownership |
| Complex Implementation Coordination | Advanced | Foundational | None | No team member has managed integrations across several client departments | Critical | Poor coordination could cause failed launches | Add dedicated implementation capacity |
| CRM Workflow Management | Working | Advanced | Available | Operations specialist maintains automation and reporting | No material gap | Existing systems can support a larger client base | Retain current model |
| Enterprise Contract Knowledge | Working | Foundational | Available | Team understands standard terms but not complex service obligations | Moderate | Commitments may be missed during delivery | Provide targeted legal and commercial training |
| Time-zone Coverage | Working | Working | Insufficient | Current team cannot consistently cover priority client hours | Capacity gap | Response times may decline as the account base grows | Add a dedicated professional in an aligned region |
This matrix revealed that the company did not have one general “customer success skills gap.” It had several separate issues. Some could be addressed through training. Others required experienced talent or additional capacity.
Should You Upskill, Hire, Augment, or Outsource?
You should choose based on how quickly the capability is needed, who should manage the work, and whether the gap is temporary or ongoing.
No model is automatically better than the others.
- Upskilling preserves institutional knowledge, while direct hiring places the capability permanently inside the organization.
- Staff augmentation adds dedicated capacity without requiring the company to manage international employment infrastructure.
- RPO improves the recruitment function, while BPO transfers responsibility for a defined process and its results.
| Workforce Response | Estimated Cost Benchmark* | Who Manages The Work? | Best Suited To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upskilling | $360 to $399 per learner annually for self-service business learning platforms | Existing manager | Adjacent skills that employees can develop while remaining productive |
| Direct Hiring | Average recruiting cost of $5,475 for a nonexecutive hire and $35,879 for an executive hire, before salary or benefits | Company | Permanent capabilities that should remain fully internal |
| Staff Augmentation | $25 to $49 per hour in Clutch’s 2026 Staff Augmentation Benchmark | Company manages daily work; provider supports the employment arrangement | Dedicated capacity or specialized experience within an existing team |
| Recruitment Process Outsourcing | Published RPO structures may place 20% to 80% of recruiting costs into a management fee, with transaction fees added according to activity | Company retains hiring decisions; provider manages agreed recruitment activities | Recurring hiring demand or an overextended talent acquisition function |
| Business Process Outsourcing | $25 to $49 per hour in Clutch’s 2026 Outsourcing Benchmark | Provider manages the process within agreed performance requirements | Repeatable functions where the business wants an operational result |
*The figures above reflect published benchmarks from SHRM, Coursera, Udemy Business, Clutch, and the RPO Association. Actual costs vary according to role complexity, location, and scope.
Match the model to your gap:
- Upskill when the employee already understands the surrounding work and can reach competent performance before the business deadline.
- Hire directly when the role carries lasting internal authority or supports a capability the company wants to own permanently.
- Use staff augmentation when the work is full-time and ongoing, but the required talent is difficult to find or employ locally.
- Use RPO when the bottleneck lies within recruitment rather than in the department requesting talent.
- Use BPO when the desired outcome is a managed business process rather than an individual addition to the team.
How Does Global Staffing Help Close the Skills Gap?
Global hiring helps close the skills gap by expanding access to qualified professionals beyond your immediate labor market.
With that in mind, it should not begin with a country or cost target. It should begin with the work to be performed and the experience required to do it well.
Global Hiring Expands the Available Talent Pool
A local search can stall when the required combination of skills is scarce in a given city or region. A global search gives you more markets to consider.
This does not mean every role should be recruited internationally. It means geography becomes one hiring variable rather than a fixed limitation.
Better Matching Can Reduce the Learning Curve
International hiring can improve fit when candidates are evaluated by functional ability and operating context rather than job title alone.
| Matching Factor | What to Assess |
|---|---|
| Functional Capability | Whether the candidate can perform the core responsibilities independently |
| Industry Context | Whether previous work involved similar customers or processes |
| Technology Alignment | Whether the candidate understands the required systems or comparable tools |
| Communication | Whether they can explain issues clearly in writing and live discussion |
| Working Hours | Whether their schedule supports customers and internal dependencies |
Two candidates may hold the same title while bringing very different experience. A customer success reps from a high-volume eCommerce environment may not be suited to complex enterprise software accounts.
Strong matching improves quality, but some companies don’t lack expertise. They are missing enough people to apply their existing expertise.
Global Talent Can Add Dedicated Capacity
Global hiring can relieve a capacity gap by adding a full-time professional to an existing team. These dedicated remote professionals can take ownership of the recurring work while the manager retains oversight.
This model works best when:
- The workload is ongoing
- The role requires full-time attention
- The client wants to manage daily priorities
- Performance needs to remain visible
- Business knowledge will become more valuable over time
That structure is different from using a freelancer for occasional work or relying on a shared pool where resources may rotate.
Cost Efficiency Should Support Better Hiring Decisions
Global hiring can improve cost efficiency by giving you access to talent markets with different compensation levels.
A sustainable model gives your company room to hire stronger talent while allowing the professional to earn competitive compensation in their local market.
Global hiring, therefore, creates more options, but it does not eliminate the need for clear roles or careful vetting.
How Can We Build an Effective Distributed Workforce?
Remote employees should know what they own, where decisions are recorded, and how their work will be evaluated.
Without that structure, distance magnifies confusion that may already exist inside the organization.
Build the Operating Framework First
You should define how tasks progress before adding more meetings or collaboration tools.
| Operating Area | What to Establish |
|---|---|
| Ownership | A named owner for each recurring responsibility and clear approval boundaries |
| Communication | Which channels are used for updates, decisions, urgent issues, and feedback |
| Documentation | A reliable home for processes, handoffs, templates, and decision records |
| Performance | Role-specific outcomes that measure quality and business impact |
| Time-zone Overlap | Shared working hours based on customer needs and team dependencies |
| Management | A named manager responsible for priorities, coaching, and performance conversations |
This framework allows remote employees to act independently without becoming disconnected from the business.
Once ownership is clear, communication should support the work rather than interrupt it.
Use the Right Format for Each Type of Communication
Distributed teams lose time when every update becomes a meeting or when important decisions remain buried in chat.
A practical communication system uses:
- Team chat for quick clarification
- Project software for work status and deadlines
- Shared documentation for processes and final decisions
- Live calls for complex discussion or sensitive feedback
You should also define expected response times. An urgent customer issue needs a different standard from a noncritical internal question.
Documentation becomes especially important when employees work across time zones. A useful handoff should show what was completed, what remains open, and who owns the next action.
Measure Outcomes Instead of Online Activity
Remote performance should be evaluated through results rather than visible busyness.
Managers should be able to use these measures to identify whether the employee needs coaching or whether the process itself is causing poor results.
A regular review can ask:
- Are responsibilities still clear?
- Can employees find the information they need?
- Are decisions being delayed by time-zone differences?
- Are remote employees included in relevant planning?
- Do performance measures reflect the actual role?
A distributed workforce works best when remote professionals are treated as part of your core team rather than as external help. They need access to relevant context and direct feedback, as well as the same opportunity to contribute ideas.
Does Dedicated Remote Staffing Help Access Specialized Skills?
Yes, remote staffing agencies help hire distributed workers while reducing the sourcing and employment burden of international recruitment.
The client keeps control of the work. The staffing provider finds suitable candidates and supports the employment relationship, which makes the model useful when the required capability is difficult to source locally.
| Responsibility Split | |
|---|---|
| The Client Owns | The Staffing Provider Supports |
| Daily priorities and assignments | Global candidate sourcing |
| Performance expectations and feedback | Skills and communication screening |
| Internal training and business context | Payroll and local compliance |
| Team integration and workflow | HR administration and continuity |
| The final hiring decision | Curated candidate shortlists |
This division gives the company direct visibility into the employee’s contribution.
It also differs from shared outsourcing models. A dedicated professional works within a single client’s operations and builds knowledge of its systems, customers, and standards over time.
When Is Remote Dedicated Staffing a Good Fit?
Remote staffing is most appropriate when:
- The work is full-time and expected to continue.
- The company wants to manage the professional directly.
- The required skills are scarce within the local hiring market.
- The role depends on ongoing collaboration with internal employees.
- International payroll or compliance would otherwise delay the hire.
- Individual ownership matters more than access to a rotating resource pool.
It is less suitable for occasional assignments or a narrowly defined short-term project. Those needs may be better served through freelance or project-based support.
Hiring Remote Talent with 1840 & Company
1840 & Company helps businesses turn identified skills gaps into full-time remote roles filled by dedicated global professionals.
Our Remote Staffing Process Explained
Our process moves from role definition to candidate selection without requiring you to sort through an oversized pool of loosely matched résumés.
- We begin by defining the role around the capability your business needs. We also clarify who will manage the professional and how successful performance will be measured.
- We then source and vet candidates against your requirements. The assessment covers everything from functional experience to software familiarity and remote-work readiness.
- You receive a curated shortlist of candidates who have already been evaluated against the agreed criteria. You interview the candidates and choose who joins your team.
- After selection, the professional works full-time and exclusively within your operation. We support payroll, employment compliance, HR administration, and ongoing role continuity.
What Happens Next in Five Steps?
Getting started with 1840 & Company follows a clear process that confirms the workforce need before sourcing begins.
- Tell Us Which Capability You Need: Complete our contact form with the role, department, expected start date, and the business problem the hire should help solve.
- Meet With an 1840 Specialist: We review the responsibilities and required experience. We also discuss the reporting relationship, expected workload, and any international employment considerations.
- Confirm the Role and Engagement Model: Together, we define core responsibilities, required capabilities, software and systems, working schedule, performance expectations, and escalation boundaries.
- Review Qualified Talent: For global staffing engagements, you receive a curated shortlist of vetted professionals to interview and select. For managed BPO engagements, you review the proposed scope, delivery model, and performance requirements.
- Onboard and Launch: 1840 coordinates the employment setup and payroll. We also support compliance, HR administration, and ongoing continuity. You provide system access and role-specific training so the selected professional can begin working within your operation.
Candidate profiles can be presented within three to five business days. Total hiring takes one to two weeks, depending on the role and the speed of your interview process.
FAQs About Closing A Skills Gap
How Often Should a Company Review Its Skills Gaps?
A company should conduct a formal review at least once a year and revisit its findings after any major operating change.
Which Metrics Show That a Skills Gap Is Closing?
The best metric is the business outcome that first revealed the gap. That could be faster project delivery or fewer errors. Other roles may require improved customer satisfaction or a smaller work backlog. Course completion and hiring activity show that action occurred, but they do not prove that performance improved.
What Is Skills-Based Hiring?
Skills-based hiring evaluates candidates based on demonstrated ability rather than relying primarily on degrees or previous job titles.
Can AI Help Close a Skills Gap?
AI can help companies identify emerging capability needs and improve candidate matching. It may also support more personalized employee development. However, AI-generated recommendations still require human review because incomplete data or unsuitable proxy measures can produce biased outcomes.
Can Small Businesses Benefit From Global Hiring?
Yes. Global hiring can help a small business access specialized experience that is scarce or unaffordable within its local market. The company should begin with a clearly scoped full-time role and a manager with sufficient capacity to support the new employee. Starting with one defined capability is usually more manageable than attempting to build an entire distributed department at once.
Close Your Skills Gap With the Right Global Talent
Closing a skills gap starts with understanding what your business lacks, then choosing the workforce model that solves it without creating new problems.
Remote work expands the available talent pool, but access alone does not guarantee fit.
Role clarity, practical vetting, compliant employment, and strong management determine whether a remote hire becomes useful capacity or another expensive mismatch.
1840 & Company can help your business source, vet, hire, and support full-time remote professionals across more than 150 countries. Schedule your commitment-free consultation to build a dedicated global team that closes critical skills gaps and supports long-term growth.