4 Strategies To Build A Strong Offshore Team

Talented and well-trained software development engineers are a scarce resource in today’s global workplace. With the acute scarcity of talent in the US and Western Europe, it’s obvious that companies are keen on hiring every good engineer that they can lay their hands on.

However, given the unchecked increase in the number of tech companies in the world over the last few years, and the shortage of skilled developers, more and more companies are now looking at hiring remote teams of engineers. These remote teams are simply an extension of their existing workforce in another country. Finding talented engineers has become a classic case of low supply and high demand, with more jobs than developers.

In such a scenario, how can you ensure that you’re hiring the right people, especially in a remote set-up? That’s what we’re here to help you with. In this blog post, we provide actionable advice on how to choose the right offshore developers and build a bulletproof team abroad.

Let’s start with the basics –

Know your hiring needs

Though this may sound like a no-brainer, this is one of the most crucial steps to hiring a strong team — in-house or otherwise. If you don’t really know what you’re looking for, the chances of you finding it is extremely slim. It’s as simple as that. So take a step back, and really assess your hiring needs.

What kind of an offshore team do you want to build? What skillset, both personal and technical, are you looking for? Make a short job description if necessary, where you highlight all the “must-haves” and all the “good-to-haves.” This list can include tech stacks, experience, personal skills, and the duties and responsibilities of your offshore employee. This person is now your ideal candidate and a benchmark for the next steps of your hiring process.

Engage with the right offshore partner

Now that you have an idea of what your ideal candidate looks like, the next step is to engage with an offshore partner — a company that has done it all before!

What does that mean?

Your offshore partner is essentially a company that will be building your remote team for you. Ideally, your offshore partner must have the expertise and proven track record of building successful offshore teams for businesses in the West. This is where engaging with the right offshore company is key. We have an entire blog post dedicated to choosing the right offshore company for your business. Feel free to check it out!

While you definitely get the final say in building your dream team, their job is to make the whole recruitment process a lot easier. They source the best software development engineers, build a steady pipeline, put them through a series of technical and personality tests, and ensure that they’re hiring nothing but the best for you. For instance, we believe in 100% transparency and thus encourage our clients to monitor the entire recruitment process on a common platform that they have unlimited access to. This, in turn, helps them understand our hiring process and be a part of it too.

Don’t compromise on quality

Finding the right candidate is what every company is on the lookout for. A CareerBuilder Survey from 2017 showed that, on average, companies in the West lose $15,000 on every bad hire. That makes it all the more important to consider the cost of a bad hire.

What’s worse is that nearly 3 in 4 employers know that they’ve hired the wrong person for a position. The primary reason why this happens is that companies want to scale their existing team as quickly as possible; they end up compromising on the quality of their workforce irrespective of negative gut instinct or potential red flags.

The result is that after a couple of weeks or months, that new hire just isn’t working out. Mis-hires can cost the business far more than just wages; delayed projects and additional training costs are only some of the other factors that can lead to a costly mistake. And that’s another reason why working with the right partner is crucial — a company that will not compromise on the quality of your remote team.

Look beyond what’s on paper

Sometimes, when hiring engineers, there is too much emphasis on the candidate’s technical skills — what languages can they code in, do they know a specific design pattern, what tech stacks have they worked on before, and the list goes on. While technical skills are crucial, sometimes, it’s important to look beyond what’s on paper. The best-fit for a remote development team goes far beyond the nuances of a specific programming language or technology.

Pay attention to the candidate’s ability to grasp complex concepts, creative thinking, communication, and personality. Keep in mind that you’re hiring a remote team — a team that will be in another country. That means making sure that the person that you are hiring will be culturally compatible with your in-house team. Though these parameters may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, they can go a long way in ensuring that your remote team is a solid one.

These are some simple strategies that you can implement to kickstart your offshore hiring process.

Source: https://thescalers.com/strategies-to-build-a-strong-offshore-team/