As global shipments continue to grow at a breakneck pace, the unemployment rate in the United States has steadily moved in the opposite direction — in 2019, it hit a 50-year low.

Those things might not seem to be related, and they aren’t, at least in the sense that they don’t necessarily impact one another. But the combination of the two can pose huge challenges for supply chain and logistics businesses that support ecommerce sellers.

You already know about the explosion in worldwide selling, and how difficult it can be to keep up with all the different country- and product-specific regulations for your clients. But what about finding the right people to manage that process? The competition for talent in general is as tough as it’s ever been, let alone when you’re seeking someone with a specialized skill set such as determining and applying accurate Harmonized System (HS) codes.

Hiring is costly - and it can be risky, too
The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that employers spend more than $4,000 per job on hiring, and that’s just an average — for managers or positions requiring unique expertise, the cost can be far higher.

Bringing in the wrong person adds even more to the expense: According to a CareerBuilder study, the average cost to a company for an entry- or mid-level hire that doesn’t work out is as much as $10,000, with bad managerial hires costing more than $40,000.

Those numbers are downright scary. It’s no wonder that surveys have shown hiring is a top concern of CEOs, and that they consider the lack of available talent (and skills) to be among the biggest threat to their businesses.

Automation to the rescue
What if you didn’t have to hire a person or people to manage item classification at all? What if you didn’t have to worry about preventing those skilled staffers from being poached by another firm in this ultracompetitive hiring environment? And what if you could not only save money on the hiring process, but on the cost of the work itself?

With Avalara Managed Tariff Code Classification, those aren’t “what-ifs.” They’re among the many benefits of our powerful stand-alone automated solution. By using machine learning to determine the correct country-specific HS codes for products, it’s faster and just as accurate (possibly more so) than manual processes. Simply put, you’re not just changing the way the work is done — you’re improving the results, too.

And as the number of global shipments continues to grow (to 200 billion annually by 2025, according to Pitney Bowes), your needs likely will expand as well, which is yet another reason to consider automation. Instead of adding staff and incurring the frustration and cost of the hiring process, or pushing your existing employees to take on even more classification work, you can simply let Avalara manage the heavier workload.

That means your business will be ready for whatever comes. More clients? More packages going to more countries? More competition for talent? Bring it on. When you’ve got Avalara on your side, you can do more than just keep up with the pack: You can lead it instead.

Ready to transform your process - and your business? Visit the Managed Tariff Code Classification product page for ideas and more information.