Managing the Future of Work Isn't an Easy Job

Hirings and firings, layoffs and resignations. The workforce is experiencing never-ending upheaval, and HR professionals are pivoting fast.

- Sarah Lynch

In the past few years, many of the 184 human resources companies on the Inc. 5000 have had to navigate tremendous turbulence. A wave of pandemic layoffs led to a 14.7 percent unemployment rate in April 2020, which, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, was the "highest rate and the largest over-the-month increase" since it started measuring the data in January 1948.

But when the labor market rebounded by around 2022, companies were cast into a talent war during the Great Resignation as they simultaneously battled high inflation. All the while, new remote and hybrid schedules and regulations were changing the way many companies operated, in some cases permanently. For an industry dedicated to managing workforces, the whiplash was real.

Jaime Nacach was working six days a week to build a new venture, all the while keeping his marketing business afloat and anticipating the birth of his first child. By the time his daughter was born, in August 2019, he still had fewer than 10 clients for Virtual Latinos (No. 311), a San Diego-based talent agency that connects companies with remote Latin American talent. He believed it needed just a little more time to take off.

The Mexico City native saw several advantages to U.S.companies hiring talent in Latin America rather than elsewhere around the globe. The cultures were similar, the talent was affordable, and the time zones made for easier communication with North American colleagues.

Slowly but surely, more and more clients bought into that vision. Then came March 2020, and as companies scrambled to cut costs, hiring remote talent was no longer so taboo. From 2020 to 2023, North American companies hired 70 percent more remote workers living in South America and 313 percent more living in Central America and the Caribbean, according to a 2023 report from Lightcast and Revelio Labs.