Could the answer to talent shortages be location-blind equal pay?

With staff turnover showing little sign of reducing, and companies struggling to get the critical skills and talent that they need, many are increasingly looking at more flexible approaches to identifying and hiring staff. One approach being considered is to allow managers to hire talent in any country that they see fit, often referred to as 'above market' or 'location agnostic hiring'.  

The concept of location-agnostic hiring is not new but few companies are embracing it given the myriad of operational challenges that are associated. Those challenges will likely include the processes for posting and advertising for talent across multiple countries, the logistics of recruiters or HR specialists managing a hiring process for multiple countries and the challenges of offering and onboarding new employees in a country for which the hiring manager isn't based.  

Another key challenge of course is cost. Whilst an ideological view may be to say 'we want to hire the best talent with digital skills and we don't care where that talent is based', that ideology may come unstuck if the best talent is likely to cost >300% more than the cost of that talent within an organization today. But demonstrating the value of skills and talent, here's a truly brave and innovative approach to hiring talent being demonstrated by Airbnb - a commitment to pay staff the same rate regardless of location.

I'd love your thoughts - please join the discussion on LinkedIn.