The only thing certain in these boisterous times is change and the winners of these complicated times are the businesses willing to adapt the quickest. No trend symbolizes that change more than the transition to offshore developers, which have grown to become quite the modern phenomenon in the new millennium.
According to Zippia, 80% of businesses report planning to outsource at least some portion or other of their work with large businesses being 128% more likely to do so than small businesses. This software development business model has helped many companies grow leaps and bounds, startups being no exception.
The biggest winners have been the leading developers in the IT world, including the likes of WhatsApp, Google, Amazon, and many more, outstaffing their jobs to Eastern Europe. From the very beginning, WhatsApp employed its software engineers in Ukraine starting in 2009. Just 5 short years later, Facebook saw no other choice but to buy up its competition for 16 billion dollars.
“Offshoring” is defined as the act of moving commercial activities off to a different country, typically away from a company’s headquarters. The appeals of this method of contracting programmers have become a trend mainly for two reasons:
- A broader portfolio of human resources
- Lower prices
As if it wasn’t popular enough before, the COVID-19 pandemic kicked the hiring of remote personnel up a whole other notch, as companies that hadn’t done so before had no option but to hire workers remotely.
Taking all this into account, it is important to learn the nuts and bolts of how to hire offshore developers for a startup. It’s not the most complicated thing in the world but by overlooking this crucial area, a company may fail to reap the benefits of this wise business decision.
Table of Contents:
The Benefits of Hiring Offshore Developers
Once you manage to find an offshore development team, you can begin to enjoy a breadth of major advantages for your company. The following include some of the main advantages:
Cost efficiency
Hiring offshore developers from countries such as India, Malaysia, or Ukraine offers dramatic savings compared to the cost of local or traditional hiring.
For example, the average monthly salary for ReactJS and Java developers in Ukraine is $5,500 and $7,000. Averages 35 USD/hour and 30 USD/hour in Eastern Europe and Latin America. This is about 2 times lower (11,000 and 13,000 USD, respectively) than the typical engineers make in the United States, let alone at Meta, where programmers average in the six figures. Hiring an offshore software development team from India to handle your iOS app development or Android app development will run you in the range of $20-$45 and $20-$35 per hour. One cannot help but consider the exciting areas where these funds could be reinvested.
Global Talent
Offshoring gives you access to a much larger pool of specialists. In fact, as of 2020, the total currently employable software developers worldwide, including such areas as India, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, and East Asia number around 24.5 million people.
Skills and specialized knowledge
In hiring an offshore software development team, companies have the choice among truly sharp masters of their craft with in-depth knowledge that the business would otherwise be hard-pressed to find at home. In addition, by hiring such an expert, companies save themselves the time and money of having to train local personnel, which in many cases is impossible to afford.
The size of the global market and the talent that exists is awe-inspiring indeed, totaling at 245.91 billion per year. However, choosing the wrong market or onboarding the wrong engineers could cost a company more in the long run if done without forethought and without doing one’s due diligence.
Challenges of Offshoring
Opening up access to untold goldmines of professionals scattered across the globe and saving you over two-thirds of your budget is certainly appealing, but it doesn’t come without its downsides. Here are the main challenges you’ll have to prepare for in making the transition.
Different time zones
The time difference may pose an inconvenience if done without adjusting for this issue in advance. Otherwise, you may need to contact your software development team during their off hours, or conversely, they may be the ones needing to clarify a detail or two while you’re in bed and unable to respond.
Fortunately, regardless of the time zones your teams live in, this has long been addressed by project management tools, establishing work flowing, Agile methodology, and a smorgasbord of other crafty tools, which ensure that progress is always moving without a halt.
Language barrier
Communication issues may well arise when endeavoring to hire a person or a group of professionals from another country who may be located on another continent.
For that reason, ensuring that both your company and the offshore developers speak a common language that allows them to communicate clearly and promptly is a must. Globally, that language is typically English. Communicating the bulk of the work to be performed clearly and succinctly in writing handles this problem for the most part.
Cultural and social differences
Having a team locally and another one offshore can mean cultural challenges and challenges in connecting early on. With this in mind, it is vital to become better acquainted with each other’s customs to build camaraderie and ensure that these differences prove positive, not negative. For instance, in the Middle East, where an engrained age hierarchy has a hold in the office environment as well, there may be difficulty with older employees taking orders from a younger middle manager.
Physical distance
When you find an offshore development team, determine whether any items or employees will have to visit the location. Is there any equipment you would need shipped there?
Lack of transparency
It is very important that a company is able to operate cohesively and company policy and hierarchy play a major role in that. For instance, if a company has a special procedure for proposing and authorizing expense disbursements, employees must be trained on how it’s done to streamline the company’s processes and eliminate confusion.
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Offshore Development Models
There are two predominant models for offshoring software development: outsourcing and outstaffing. It is important to know the meaning of both in order to maximize the rewards a company can obtain from offshoring.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing entails hiring an offshore company to handle an entire project performed by its own team. For the most part, the client company speaks with the management of the offshore team rather than dealing with individual employees.
Outstaffing
In this case, the particular employees are more intimately connected to the main office’s team. The outstaffing model entails the services of an agency with professionals ready to hit the ground running at a moment’s notice.
Preparation Steps
Set your goals
One of the first steps in deciding how to hire an offshore development team is to set the goals for your project. The clearer you are on what goals you intend to achieve, the better of a position you will be in to plan to hit them.
Establish your budget
Establish your budget to determine what funds you have available for the development of your project. This will allow you to most wisely choose an offshore team and get the most out of the money you spend.
Learn the market
Carry out a little research and find out what your alternatives are on the market. Get the best programmers the world has to offer for the best value based on what your priorities are.
Compare tech stacks
You want programmers that are capable of managing the technology you already use and can code in the language you prefer. For this reason, a developer’s tech stack is a factor that cannot be ignored. If you are going to stay at the top of your industry, you need the best tools to be at your disposal.
Prepare a shortlist
With all the information you have collected in this phase, you can now verbalize a short list of your major software developer candidates.
Where to Find Offshore Developers
Freelance Platforms
There are many platforms currently offering outsourcing services. Visit them and check out the options they offer:
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- Freelancer
- Toptal
- People Per Hour
IT Outstaffing Agencies
There is also a wide variety of companies or agencies that offer IT outstaffing services. You can find information about these companies in the following directories:
- Clutch
- G2
- Upcity
- Cyber Infrastructure Inc.
- Skelia
Python Django Development Agencies
Should you need your project to be developed in Python Django, there is a broad selection of agencies like ours readily providing developers and developer teams.
Professional Social Networks
Social networks have emerged as a rich source of labor and business information. Both companies and programmers usually have accounts on these platforms to offer their services. LinkedIn is a verifiable goldmine.
Job Sites
Another source of information is job vacancy sites, where you can find ads professionals have posted offering up their services.
Online Forums
Specialized forums are a nifty talent niche in their own right. They are easily accessible and put their know-how on display in the fields you are looking for.
Locations to Find an Offshore Development Team
South America
South American professionals are highly sought after due to their experience and affordable rates. The best developers there can be found in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Panama.
Asia
The Asian continent has a wealth of qualified human resources for offshore software development. Countries like India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia are the best bargains in this regard.
Eastern Europe
In this part of the world, Ukraine and Poland steal the show. Professionals from both nations are the most popular to hire and develop applications and projects earning them a spectacular reputation and prestige.
How to Choose an Offshore Team
It is important not to be blinded by the savings so as to not end up having to pay more in the end. It is crucial to choose an offshore team whose qualifications and qualities match up with your priorities and needs. For instance, is your project based on Django? Make sure that the new staff members have a background in it. Is language proficiency important to you? Make sure their English level is high.
Check out their portfolios
One of the best tells when it comes to how to hire offshore developers for a startup is looking through candidates’ portfolios and seeing the level they’re capable of performing at. It’s a good sign of what’s to come should you decide to hire them
Study their experience
Validating candidates’ expertise is vital. Experience breeds predictability and consistency. The more situations a programmer has been in, the more skills they have and the more quickly they can adapt to bottlenecks.
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Read testimonials
The opinion of other clients is a godsend. These will serve as tips from other developer companies with similar needs to yours. This will guide you on crucial details early on, such as how promptly they do their job, what their attitude is like, whether they go the extra mile and all kinds of other qualities.
Finding out these previous experiences couldn’t come at a better time, as you are literally operating in uncharted territory. This will give you much-needed confidence and shorten the learning curve for operating in that country.
Check the pricing
This is one of the most key areas determining how to hire offshore software developers. As you verify or consult the talent your offshore candidates have, the rates of the programmers or programming teams are one of the biggest reasons for offshore jobs in the first place.
Conduct the first interviews
Based on all the information you have collected in the previous steps, you can start screening applicants in your first interviews.
Your first meeting is important. Through communication, various details will surface that will be very critical in deciding whether to move forward.
Pay attention to your candidate’s tonality in the interview, and as they respond to your questions regarding their experience in critical areas. Find out if they’ve developed a project similar to the one you need for your startup, and the finer details of how they did it.
If you notice too much rambling and wandering off-topic, you can take that to be a bad sign. An experienced professional typically communicates clearly, to the point, and displays profound expertise.
Ensure your requirements align
In this respect, make sure that your candidate’s professional interests and ambitions coincide with that of your company. Make sure not to hire a lone wolf or one who is uninterested in getting with your program.
Review your contract
This is the last step, however, it is just as important as the previous ones. You must meticulously check each clause or point of the contract before having it signed.
Meticulously validate the terms as to delivery time, security, as well as data confidentiality. Specify whom the property of the final product belongs to and how it can be handled, to avoid serious legal or financial issues later.
Advantages of PLANEKS as an Offshore Development Team
PLANEKS is a cutting-edge smart technology company with a focus on Python development, producing each custom development project from scratch and on an individual basis. Here are some of our proudest qualities.
Meeting deadlines
By choosing PLANEKS as your offshore software development team, you guarantee that all delivery deadlines will be met. This is due to the sense of responsibility our company’s professionals take and the pride they invest in everything that they create.
Reliability
The offshore software developers at PLANEKS are highly trained professional engineers with prestigious degrees. Programming and technology is what we spend all day on, first and foremost because we love them. For that reason, we produce top-flight quality only, no matter what.
Experience
PLANEKS has completed projects for over 100 clients across over 20 countries. Most of our software engineers have extensive experience and stay at the forefront of technology, constantly familiarizing themselves with new tools, tricks, and best practices in the industry.
Our Core Business Focus
We produce nothing but top-notch software to help launch startups to a hot start with total transparency, keeping our clients up on all the details in every phase of the development process.
We’ve completed projects not only for small companies and giants alike in the eCommerce, eSports, healthcare, and manufacturing industries in addition to financial institutions, media, B2B, tourism, leisure, and a number of other industries.
Prompt Response Time
We are available at a convenient time and always respond swiftly during our operation hours to the complete satisfaction of your needs. We also ensure that whatever issue arises is swiftly eliminated, ensuring that your product is operational at all times.
Risk mitigation
By choosing to hire the PLANEKS team, you will considerably minimize the major risks that your project faces. We are always quick to adapt and are well-versed on the latest technologies. Our engineers are among the best when it comes to planning ahead, adapting quickly when necessary, and securing you against any downtime or technical issues.
Reasonable prices
The value in the quality-to-price ratio that you get from PLANEKS is a major asset for your company. We will not only accelerate your growth in terms of technology and team size, but we will also strengthen all other areas of your business thanks to the finances you will retain.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main advantage of offshoring?
The main advantage of this employment model is that the service can be obtained at much cheaper rates, compared to local contracting. It also comes with a much larger pool of talented applicants to choose from who are available to work when it’s nighttime at the region of the head office.
How much does offshore software development cost?
Rates vary according to the offshore software development team or professional you hire, and the size of the project. But the range for outsourcing rates across countries such as Vietnam, Colombia, Poland, and Ukraine is between $18 and $50, usually on the lower end, according to Glassdoor. This is substantially lower than that of programmers in the United States, UK, and Switzerland, who are now earning just below six figures on average.
Conclusion
Searching, finding, and hiring the services of offshore developers for a startup is by no means a complicated process. However, one mustn’t deceive oneself – it does require your due diligence. You must do a thorough, prudent job in the very beginning if you are to truly benefit from such a move.
Having professionals who dedicate themselves immersed exclusively in developing your project will yield incredible dividends in a short period of time. Remote hiring is worth the initial effort, as it will afford you the luxury of completely taking your mind off your application and concentrating solely on the key processes of your business.
By following this guide on how to hire an offshore development team, you’ll hire the right people and enjoy high-level development for your business along with extra money to redirect to the further growth of your business.
