Did you know that India globally ranked in first position for its employment outlook from January to March 2025? The outlook stands at 40%, 15 points higher than global average. This shows that Indian talent is in the highest demand ever.
Global companies are leveraging this strong talent for global business expansion. But why are Indian employees a popular choice amongst foreign companies?
To answer this question in one statement,
Foreign companies are hiring remote employees from India because there is an abundance of skilled and talented professionals available at reduced hiring costs.
Now, there are multiple factors contributing to this one statement. This blog details these contributing factors and how they have shaped global hiring. It helps you understand why global companies hire talent in India and how you can hire this top skill.
Hiring in India: Key Sectors and Countries Leading the Trend
Key sectors
- Information Technology
- Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
- Digital Marketing
- Financial Services
- Legal Services
- Education & E-learning
- Human Resources & Talent Acquisition
Top Countries
- United States (US)
- Canada
- Sweden
- United Kingdom (UK)
- Germany
- Australia
- Singapore
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Ireland
- China
Before we understand the whys and hows of hiring remote employees in India, let’s first understand the global trends surrounding this topic. I compiled a list of Indian sectors that foreign companies hire from and the countries that majorly do this.
What are the dominant sectors of India that foreign companies hire from?
Observation Research Foundation put together a list of 10 sectors that have and will boost employment growth in India. Now, these sectors benefit both local and foreign companies. However, the following are the top sectors foreign companies hire Indian workers from.
- Information Technology – The IT sector of India has become the backbone of global tech operations. For instance, a Times of India article says, global tech giants have more employees in India than in their own home country. An example of IBM shows that India has an estimated count of 1.3 lakh employees in India. This makes it one-third of the total employees of IBM and 40% more than US employees.
This further means every one in three IBM employees is an Indian.
2. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) – Indian employees forming the foundation of call centers and customer support for global giants is a known relation to all. The BPO sector, however, has moved beyond basic call centers. Foreign companies are now hiring Indian professionals for advanced tech support, virtual assistance, and even data analytics.
3. Digital Marketing – While BPO is the oldest sector foreign companies have been hiring from, digital marketing is the newest and emerging sector. Indian digital marketers offer strong marketing skills. They blend creativity with data-driven strategies and measurable results that grab the attention of foreign companies. From marketing agencies to freelancers, foreign companies leverage this sector quite well.
4. Financial Services – Foreign companies hire remote employees from the finance sector in India for a range of services. Services like investment banking and fintech keep India’s financial professionals in high demand in the global business landscape.
5. Legal Services – Many foreign firms rely on Indian legal professionals for contract management, compliance, and intellectual property research. The legal outsourcing market has grown significantly, with Indian lawyers well-versed in global laws and corporate governance. Companies love the mix of expertise and efficiency they bring to the table.
6. Education & E-learning – Indian educators are world-famous. Quite literally. The rise of global EdTech has created good demand for Indian employees who play a significant role in curriculum development, tutoring, and subject-matter expertise. Indian educators are a changing force in shaping online learning programs for students worldwide.
7. Human Resources & Talent Acquisition – We come to the last but the most important sector of it all. The talent acquisition sector in India makes it easier for foreign companies to hire from the sectors mentioned above. Indian HR professionals offer services like recruitment, payroll management, employee administration, HR tech implementation & support, etc. This sector plays a major role in making top Indian skill accessible to foreign companies and building remote teams.
Which countries majorly hire remote employees from India?
There are multiple countries that hire remote employees from India. According to SHRM, we have four top countries hiring remote workers globally. However, when it comes to India, the list gets much bigger.
In our company alone, we have clients from over 20 countries hiring employees pan-India. We have experts working for our clients, helping them hire Indian employees. And coming right from the industry experts, this is the list of top countries hiring remote employees from India.
- United States (US)
- Canada
- Sweden
- United Kingdom (UK)
- Germany
- Australia
- Singapore
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Ireland
- China
Okay, now that we know the top countries that hire from India, let’s understand the reasons why they do.
Why are foreign companies hiring remote employees from India?
Reasons why foreign companies hire remote employees in India
- Reduced hiring and operational costs
- Global talent deficit in STEM employees
- Business-friendly destination
- Ease of operations
- Fostering trust and collaboration
- Large talent pool
- Political stability and government initiatives
- Robust digital infrastructure and global connectivity
One of the key factors that fanned the flames of global business expansion was the rising trend of remote working. It allowed companies to tap into excellent and relevant talent beyond their home countries.
At the same time, India came into spotlight as a destination for remote hiring. The main reasons were the size of the talent pool, strong educational background, and good proficiency in English and communication skills. Let’s explore these reasons in detail to understand why India became a pot of honey for global business bears.
1. Reduced hiring and operational costs
An article by Business Line depicts that when compared with Eastern Europe, India can offer up to 40% lower operating costs. This naturally attracts the attention of global companies who want cost-efficient resources and top quality.
India also has a much lower purchasing power parity (PPP) as compared to countries like the US or UK. This makes the cost of living much lower, therefore creating a considerable gap between salaries here in India and in other countries. All while getting the same, if not better talent and skills.
2. Global talent deficit in STEM employees
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation addresses the shortage of STEM professionals in the U.S. From here, we find out that more than 16 million skilled technical jobs are waiting to be filled by STEM graduates. And this number keeps increasing.
And while the shortage unfolds in the United States and other countries, the number of STEM graduates in India keeps steadily rising. And by rising, I mean India alone holds about 31.7% of the world’s STEM graduates. And hence, India here brings a dynamic workforce to fill this gap. Even European countries like Germany are hiring remote employees from India to fill their gap of STEM graduates.
3. Business-friendly destination
India is a business-friendly destination. It has the kind of environment that makes it easy for global companies to hire employees in India and enter the market. This business environment is strongly backed by the government.
Programs like Digital India and Startup India are put in place for businesses to thrive. India also has a strong infrastructure in place that suits remote work culture. All of this put together makes India a business-friendly country to hire employees from.
4. Ease of operations
There are a variety of options available now to hire employees and provide ease of operations. Many of these hiring options are HR service providers, who take a considerable amount of operations headache off of your mind.
These are service providers like employer of record (EOR) and Professional Employer Organisation (PEO). These services make it possible to hire full-time employees without setting up an entity. We’ll cover more of this further in the blog.
Point being, with these hiring models, you can directly hire Indian employees without even worrying about legal and compliance hassles as these hiring partners manage that for you.
5. Fostering trust and collaboration
It is rather difficult to build and maintain trust when it comes to employees working remotely. However, India seems to have cracked the code to that too. Indian employees are prompt in their work and believe in values like integrity and hard work. Most Indian professionals like to work by these principles which make them trustworthy enough, despite being remote.
6. Large talent pool
You must have read quite a bunch of times that India has a ‘large talent pool’. We mean it. When we say large, we mean large. India ranks second globally in terms of the current and future workforce. The country has the largest youth population and is home to more than 808 million people under the age of 35. This means, 66% of the total population is Indian youth. More than 51% of this youth is actively in the workforce.
7. Political stability and government initiatives
We now know that India is a reliable destination for global hiring. We spoke about the government supporting foreign companies with initiatives. Let’s double down on the government making it easier for foreign companies to hire talent in India. India is safe and reliable because it has a stable political environment.
It is the world’s largest democracy and hence, has a well-established governance structure. This governance structure ensures continuity of policies, economic growth, and a supportive business environment for foreign companies. This structure is duly followed despite changes in government bodies or parties.
8. Robust digital infrastructure and global connectivity
If anything has made the whole remote work culture successful in India, it has been a super robust digital infrastructure. This has not only been a game changer but has been a key agent in making Indian employees accessible to foreign companies. India is leveraging initiatives like Universal Connectivity and Digital India and is ensuring internet and connectivity even in rural and semi-urban areas.
According to a McKinsey report, India is the second fastest digital adopter in the world. It has growing access to mobile networks, cloud computing, and AI-driven services.
And that folks, covers the scope of why foreign companies are hiring remote employees from India. We covered the ‘why’. Time to jump to the ‘how’. Let’s understand how you can hire remote employees in India.
How to hire remote employees from India?
In this section, we are going to discuss four primary hiring models that are a popular choice for foreign companies to hire Indian employees remotely. These four models are:
- Freelancers
- Contractors
- Outsourcing
- Employer of Record
Let’s understand them one by one.
1. Hiring freelancers
It would be almost impossible to cover this list without the mention of freelancers. India has the largest freelance market globally with over 15 million freelancers working with foreign companies. A significant number of these clients are based in the US, the UK, Australia, Europe, and South America.
Foreign clients hire these freelancers through sites like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, LinkedIn, etc, and are mostly useful for short-term, project-based work.
However, with freelancers, you can encounter issues. These can be delayed work, higher prices, possibility of working with competitors, lack of data security, lack of control, etc. Issues like these make freelancing a risky space to tread in.
In such a case, companies can go to other alternatives like contractors. Let’s understand how contractors work.
2. Hiring independent contractors
Independent contractors may be self-employed or businesses that enter into contractual agreements with their clients. You can do projects with them for longer periods like three to six months. They mostly work full-time and may or may not be dedicated only to one client at a time. They are not considered full-time employees and are not added to the payroll. This is again a good option for short-term projects.
While this reduces some of the issues you might face with freelancers, contractors come with their own set of them. Issues here can be worker misclassification, lack of confidentiality, lack of control over employees, etc.
To tackle these issues, companies mostly seek full-time employees who will work dedicatedly for their company. Let’s understand the alternatives where you get full-time, dedicated employees.
3. Hiring HR outsourcing companies
HR outsourcing companies offer services where they hire and manage the HR services of the employees on your behalf. These employees dedicatedly work on your projects and are treated as full-time employees by the outsourcing company. The benefits of outsourcing in India are that it eliminates the issues of worker classification, lack of confidentiality, etc.
However, there are risks to data security, lack of control over employees, etc. With outsourcing, there’s also a chance of constantly changing employees, making it difficult to get proper work consistency.
So if you want dedicated full-time employees without all these above disadvantages, which can be the ideal hiring model for you? The answer is our fourth hiring model in the list – employer of record (EOR). Let’s understand how this can be an ideal hiring model.
4. Employer of record (EOR)
Employer of record is a hiring model that allows you to have your own full time employees who work solely for you. This means you get to hire employees in India how you would in your company. Only without setting up your company on Indian soil as your EOR partner becomes your legal employer.
This hiring model solves all of the above issues we discussed so far. Your data is safe as you enter into tight data security policies. You get full operational control over them. All while the legalities and compliance are managed by your EOR partner. This means zero compliance burden with complete employee control.
There’s no scope for worker misclassification, delayed work, or employees working with potential competitors.
We have a complete guide curated with everything you need to know about EOR. Check the guide out here: What is an employer of record? A guide for global businesses.
Remunance as your hiring solution
I now present to you, a tangible solution to your hiring needs in India – Remunance. We are an EOR company that specializes in providing top-quality hiring services. We have teams of highly experienced HR, legal, and finance professionals who work round the clock for our clients.
Talking about our clients, we have more than 85 clients spread over 22 countries, who we have helped hire more than a 1000 employees. We are a highly scalable business model with the motto of delivering the best service at the highest speed possible.
With Remunance, you can hire top Indian employees in days, not months. This helps you outpace your competition and grab the cream layer of Indian talent.
Conclusion
India is a country with a robust remote work infrastructure with diverse industry expertise and government policies that further enhance its appeal. Additionally, India has a well-established employer of record (EOR) ecosystem and Remunance Services is a thought leader in this space. This makes hiring highly seamless for you without setting up an entity.
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