How to Hire Offshore Developers?

Today businesses are no longer required to find professionals at their location to perform an extensive array of services. These days, talent can be found all over the place, even in other countries. 

The basic premise is that companies can look for skilled workers with unique sets of abilities anywhere in the world. Here we are talking about offshore software development.

In this post, we will learn more about offshore software development and the steps your company can take to recruit developers located in other countries.

1. What is Offshore Development?

The term “offshore development” refers to the practice of outsourcing software development to a group of people in another nation. The term refers to the process by which a business contracts with a group of persons situated in a different nation to develop, build, and manage its software applications.

Software development, support and maintenance, mobile application development, product design, and basic coding are just a few of the many uses for this approach. When a project requires specialized knowledge and top-notch results that can’t be achieved in-house, most businesses discover that outsourcing development to a foreign country is the solution. 

2. Who are Offshore Developers?

Offshore developers take care of every aspect of your tech project, from developing, implementing, and providing support and testing, thanks to their extensive expertise and combination of technical and soft talents.

Offshore developers are often a part of big offshore development teams and could be working remotely. They complement each other’s unique viewpoints and inventive skill sets, providing new ideas and approaches for your tasks.

A diverse work team that promotes creativity and finds innovative solutions to challenges to provide high-quality products is often what you can expect from an offshore development model, and knowing that the majority of the team members are from other countries is a big reason why.

3. Benefits of Hiring Offshore Developers

3.1 Cost-Effective Option

Maintaining an in-house team can be pretty challenging and costly at the same time. By hiring offshore developers, one is no longer compelled to invest in creating their infrastructure and wasting time building up a software development team, including developers, designers, and testers who might not be in use for the rest of the year. While offshoring, you pay only for the work assigned. Pretty cost-effective, isn’t it?

3.2 Wide Pool of Developers to Hire

Another advantage of an offshore development team is the global talent pool. You get to hire a wide range of talented and skilled developers, and programmers for your business. Successful survival requires continuous innovation and quality work. This is achievable when you gather a bunch of the best developers, and software engineers leading to the creation of something unique.. 

If you want to test your boundaries within the resources that are available to you, an Offshore software development team is the best option to consider.

3.3 Increased Flexibility and Productivity

Another interesting advantage of hiring offshore developers is the increased flexibility and productivity. In most scenarios, organizations often prefer to hire offshore developers and leave everything including all project management-related duties to their offshore development team, so that they can focus on their core competencies.  When you hire an offshore team, you have the flexibility to choose team members ranging from designers to project managers.

3.4 Improved Quality

By bringing together top professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds, offshore development offers a fresh outlook on software.

New ideas brought to software development by someone with a different perspective may open up numerous possibilities. Many company owners struggle to find qualified developers to fill open positions as the current talent pool tends to favor developers with specialized yet robust expertise. The versatility of outsourcing allows you to collaborate with developers processing specialized technical expertise, which in turn enhances your outcomes.

3.5 Reduce Recruitment Time

The standard procedure for recruiting involves reviewing several applicants, conducting multiple rounds of interviews, and then finalizing the employment. This does not cover the costs associated with training a new employee or their onboarding process. If you’re a startup, hiring engineers from overseas frees you up to focus on what matters, which is growing your business.

4. How to Hire Offshore Developers

Your startup’s success hinges on your choice of offshore employees. There is a certain way to determine if developers are a good fit. To help you choose the offshore development team, follow the steps below:

4.1 Define Requirements

Considerations such as project scope, country, and cooperation model are part of this stage. To construct a comprehensive cloud solution, you’ll need a team of broad specialists rather than just a single skilled developer.

You should also give some thought to the ideal model of cooperation for your startup. Decide on the hourly or project-based fees while also finalizing the country. Since Eastern European nations and the West have a lot in common culturally, the next step is to choose whether you want to collaborate with them or not. 

4.2 Shortlist the Developer

After making a note of the needs and objectives, the next step is to identify engineers that suit your team well. Starting by asking friends and business associates for suggestions is a good idea. You can also use search engines to locate it. To choose the greatest possibilities that you think will help your business grow, consider their ratings, past projects, and experience.

4.3 Conduct Technical Interview

Conducting interviews with the top candidates is the next phase. To conduct this, you can either visit them in person or use the video calling method. To select the most suitable team, your company’s managers should ask important questions. Coordination heavily relies on team members’ soft skills, so make sure to assess these too. 

4.4 Sign the Contract

Successful, long-term collaboration begins with an explicit business agreement. The agreement must address data protection regulations, warranty terms, software requirement details, and the most up-to-date code ownership information. A non-disclosure agreement and statement of work should also be required to prevent data leaking.

4.5 Onboarding

Offshore staff-augmented teams require much less time for talent onboarding compared to in-house hiring. It is your responsibility to ensure that the newly recruited staff have access to all the tools, documentation, and knowledge they need to begin working efficiently on the web. 

5. Top Destinations to Hire Offshore Developers

Tech firms interested in hiring remote offshore engineers often encounter difficulty in selecting the appropriate outsourcing location. By keeping an open mind and realizing that people’s practices throughout the globe aren’t drastically different from your own, you will be able to locate excellent IT experts almost anywhere. South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe have emerged as top offshore destinations due to the rising need for IT outsourcing. Let’s explore what each region has to offer.

5.1 Eastern Europe

The information technology outsourcing market is dominated by Eastern European nations such as Romania, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine. Regarding price, skill, cultural and linguistic familiarity, and a tolerable time zone, the region is ideal. 

Developers from Eastern Europe aren’t always as affordable as their Asian counterparts, but they more than make up for it in reliability, excellence, communication, and speed.

Some important things to keep in mind while recruiting from Eastern Europe are:

  • If you’re looking for an Eastern European IT hub, consider Romania, Poland, and Ukraine.
  • The region’s software development market is expanding at a rate five times higher than the world average.
  • Central and Eastern Europe is home to more than 470 famous IT service companies that bring in over $5 billion a year.
  • Over a million talented developers, with expertise in fields like e-commerce, fintech, education, healthcare, and telecom, call this area home.
  • Vendors in Eastern Europe mostly serve customers in the US and EU.

5.2 Latin America

When looking to outsource software development, Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru consistently rank high. In recent years, these nations have been among the most influential in the development sector. Their offshore software developers have consistently been among the world’s top, regardless of the service they offer.

Some important things to keep in mind while recruiting from Latin America are:

  • The Kearney Global Services Location Index ranks Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile among the top 25 nations that are business-friendly.
  • When it comes to the number of developers in the area, Argentina and Brazil are at the top.
  • Outsourcing to local tech hubs is common for North American IT organizations because these locations are usually in the same time zone.
  • When compared to the rest of the world, Latin America has a 1.8-fold higher rate of workers working remotely, putting it among the top regions for completely remote enterprises.

5.3 Asia

Asia continues to have a significant presence on the world stage, with over 10 million offshore developers and some of the largest offshore software development service companies based in the region. 

Some important things to keep in mind while recruiting from Asia are:

  • India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia are well-known offshore development countries in Asia.
  • India is home to 5 million people working in IT and outsourcing, making it the biggest hub for developers globally.
  • Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are the primary emphasis in educational institutions worldwide. Annually, 4.7 million IT professionals enter the workforce in China alone.
  • Asia is predicted to be the most rapidly expanding IT outsourcing industry over the next years, driven by an increase in collaborations between enterprises and IT service providers.  

6. Challenges of Hiring Offshore Developers

Numerous benefits, such as access to a worldwide talent pool and cost savings, can be gained when you begin to consider growth. It is crucial to recognize and address any potential issues that may arise during this process.  Offshore partnerships can be guaranteed to be successful and efficient if these risks are identified and addressed in advance.

6.1 Time Zone Differences

A big problem that most companies encounter when working with offshore developers on their projects is late responses. To avoid any confusion over due dates or other time-sensitive matters, it is essential to have a strategy in place for communicating with freelancers, which includes identifying suitable working hours for both parties and being aware of their local time.

Likewise, many countries have different time zones. You should look for a team that offers round-the-clock help so that you can discuss your project at any time. 

6.2 Cultural Differences

Take into account that various cultures can have diverse ways of accomplishing tasks. As an example, people from Eastern European countries tend to be quite thorough. They consistently meet their deadlines and offer valuable suggestions to enhance the product. To get the most out of their sprints and projects, developers worldwide usually adopt an ownership mentality.

6.3 Communication Challenges

Since “offshore” implies being based in a foreign country, it’s clear that there will be a gap between the co-founders of the firm and the engineers working remotely. But there is a way around this: visit the offshore team site periodically to meet your remote coworkers, in person. Another option is to have frequent video conferences where you can start with a small chat randomly instead of diving straight into work-related topics. This way your partnership can become more friendly.

6.4 Establishment of Trust

Building trust necessitates an intentional strategy. Uncertainty regarding output and dedication may arise when monitoring is lacking. Therefore, trust is no longer a nice to have; it’s an essential component of fruitful offshore partnerships. That being said, you should make sure your crew is well-managed. There are many ways to ensure that duties are divided up while developing software abroad. You may start leading the team independently using different methods.

6.5 Too Many Vendors to Choose From

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the abundance of resources. There are a lot of offshore development teams out there, so picking one might be a real challenge. The most crucial thing to remember is to have faith in the developers you select.

Get in touch with them by phone to discuss any queries you have about the products or services before you start outsourcing. Both you and the offshore development team will save time and effort if you opt to continue using their service. That being said, it’s not mandatory.

7. Conclusion 

Hiring a dependable development provider makes the process easier, allowing you to free up more resources.  Before hiring a startup developer, you need to establish your needs precisely, establish the necessary skill set, secure the funds, and begin your search for offshore locations. In any case, you should be prepared for difficulties.

Outsourcing and offshore development offer an opportunity to reduce development costs. Organizations worldwide find this option appealing because of the unique experience and abundance of talent it offers. With a detailed job description, TatvaSoft’s offshore development team can assist you in meeting your needs.

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Itesh Sharma

Itesh Sharma is core member of Sales Department at TatvaSoft. He has got more than 6 years of experience in handling the task related to Customer Management and Project Management. Apart from his profession he also has keen interest in sharing the insight on different methodologies of software development.

Comments

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    1. John Woods

      Hiring Offshore Developers is the most critical when you are outsourcing software development services. All the steps mentioned by you are correct. However I would like to add some of mine too -- check the reviews, success stories of the offshore development team, size of the company as small sized vendors can't provide complete resources and has years of experience in the industry.

      1. Collin Wales

        Nice steps John, here mentioned by you for hiring offshore developers. This blog mentions complete process from how to find offshore developers, how to start with hiring process and things to be kept in mind during hiring, which I believe would be of help especially to startup companies. For Startup companies, the main hiring process criterias should be client's proven track period, don't go for cheap quotes, focus on frequent meetings, etc.

    2. Theobald Jones

      Hiring Software Development companies includes many stages like vendor qualifications, industry experience, technical knowledge, budget, and the same stages and criterias we need to keep in mind while hiring offshore developers. Thanks for this blog. It gives complete layout from start of hiring process to things to keep in mind during hiring. Good article!

    3. Kevin

      Offshore is the trend in the market nowadays. But problems arise once you have hired a team which doesn't matches your expectations. These is even bigger problem if you have a startup company. For people who has startup company, they need to go through this steps of hiring offshore developers so as to avoid any mistakes. Offshore software development if done properly can become boon for the organizations. Thanks for sharing this quite essential info.

    4. Charmi Shah

      Hello, Thanks for sharing this information with us. Due to covid times, organizations are forced to opt for offshore software development whether they are small, medium or large enterprises. And hiring offshore developers is the vital part of this process. Each and every step for hiring third party vendor should be precisely planned.

    5. Jamie

      The article provided practical tips and highlighted the benefits of offshore development, which helped me in making an informed decision for my business. Overall, it was a well-written and insightful piece that I would recommend to anyone considering offshore development for their business.