Hire Offshore Developers in 2024: A complete guide
Hiring offshore developers has become a common practice in the software development industry, driven by the global shortage of skilled IT talent and the cost-effectiveness due to lower overhead expenses.
According to one survey from Manpower, more than 75% of employers lack the right talent in IT and technology. This has increased the demand for IT professionals worldwide. Other factors that have driven the demand for top tech talent are:
- Growing global dependence on software.
- Deficit in necessary IT skills to keep up with business and customers.
To put it in perspective, US labor statistics put the shortage of skilled IT workers at 40 million worldwide, and forecast a rise to 80 million by 2030. This leaves software development companies with three choices:
- Compete for local talent within your own country or region at a significant cost.
- Outsource software development and compromise ownership and quality control.
- Consider hiring offshore developers to augment your existing team.
There are a number of important advantages to hiring a team of offshore developers, and in this short guide, we’ll explain how to do it, why it’s beneficial, and how Proshore can help.
Checklist to hire Offshore Developers
Without the right strategy, hiring always carries the risk of not getting the right people or team. Business owners need innovative strategies for both broadening their available talent pool and narrowing down to the best talent. This becomes crucial if you are to hire offshore developers because there’s a world of talent out there. With the right strategy, you can get the best resources for building your business.
To help with your hiring strategy, we have created a checklist to hire offshore developers:
- Define your business needs. Be clear about the skills you need and how they align with your goals to ensure you get the best fit for your business.
- Identify the hard skills required. Drill down to the details like which programming languages, tech stacks, tools, frameworks, and experience are needed. Know the ‘must-haves’.
- Consider cultural fit. They might have the technical skills, but do they have the cultural compatibility? To make it work, make sure you’ve got alignment on values and vision.
- Create a clear job description. Use items 1 to 3 to provide a crystal clear description of what’s required and why remote developers should want to work for you.
- Be clear on budget and timeframe. Salaries aren’t the only consideration. How much will the recruitment process cost? Will your hires be committed to the end?
- Get references and recommendations. Doing your homework will help mitigate the risk of making the wrong hire. Analyze their experience via testimonials and reviews.
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Reasons to hire Offshore Developers
For many software startups and scale-ups, hiring offshore developers is the most reliable and economical way to grow their business and meet customer demand.
1. Flexibility
Offshoring gives you the flexibility and scalability you need when you need it the most. There’s no long-term commitment, so you’re fully in control of scaling up and down as required.
From an employer’s perspective, this also means you don’t incur the costs of having long-term employees, and you also eliminate the associated hiring costs.
2. Scalability
An offshore development team can help you focus on adding or reducing capacity to meet ever-changing demands, and less time and money, overseeing a recruitment process.
When the time comes, you’re ready to ramp up development with an on-demand offshore team, instead of frantically trying to recruit in a highly competitive market.
3. Cost-effectiveness
With the global talent shortage, you can gain a competitive advantage by extending your search for software developers beyond your own country or continent.
It also enables you to tap into a broader pool of tried and tested talent. What’s more, with the availability of remote development teams, there’s an increased chance of getting a more cost-effective solution.
4. Broader talent pool
Hiring offshore developers gives you access to creative and talented IT professionals from all around the world. They can help clear your backlog and give your business the flexibility it needs to adjust to future demands.
Developers trained in Agile ways of working can be quickly onboarded and integrated into your next sprint to help you get back on track.
5. Hire offshore developers will save you Money
In comparison to hiring local talent within your country, getting an offshore development team can be a much cheaper option. If you are looking for more than an offshore developer or two, your best bet would be to hire a company to look after your offshore development needs. While the above reasons apply when hiring such a company, there are more benefits to hiring an offshore software development company.
Explore how much you could save against in-house hiring with a 15-minute call with our Accounts Director, Jeroen van der Horst.
When to hire Offshore Developers
Every software business has different priorities, so there’s not one set of circumstances when a business needs to hire offshore developers. However, some scenarios exist when a business should consider hiring offshore developers. For example, if businesses need:
- Extra capacity to accelerate time to market.
- Specialist skills, which are unavailable in-house.
- Additional resources to handle short-term projects.
- Expertise in the latest tools or technologies.
- Sustainable scaling and business growth.
- A way to ease the financial burden of hiring in-house.
Where can you hire Offshore Developers in 2024?
In regions like Europe and the US, getting hold of the best tech talent is becoming increasingly difficult – and sometimes impossible. US labor statistics put the shortage of skilled IT workers at 40 million worldwide, and forecast a rise to 80 million by 2030.
When it comes to hire offshore developers, the main players are three geographical regions: Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. All of these regions offer unique advantages over one another, and you can choose one of them as per your requirements.
Latin America
The time zone of this region matches that of the US, thus making it the ideal outsourcing destination.
Rate: €25 and €45 per hour
Eastern Europe
Countries in this region have high levels of English fluency, which is definitely a plus while communicating software and business needs.
Rate: €20 and €45 per hour
Asia
With 10+ million developers, Asia has the deepest and widest tech talent pool, so no matter what your needs, you’re sure to find the right offshore developers.
Rate: €15 and €35 per hour
With Asia being the hub for quality offshore teams, Proshore is leading the way by providing the best quality offshore development team.
Proshore is dedicated to creating highly-skilled jobs in Nepal so that the country’s talented young people can help build a more prosperous future. That’s why we’re building a strong and talented team in Kathmandu, whilst offering sustainable and remote software development solutions to the world.
Hiring offshore versus in-house hiring
Weighing up on whether to hire developers offshore or in-house is a difficult decision depending on a number of factors. Here are some pros and cons of each:
| In-house hiring | Hiring offshore | |
|---|---|---|
| PROS | Employees are part of your company from the get-go. Through your hiring process, you can ensure that they’re a good fit. That means it’s in their best interest to show up and put in a performance for your business every day. | Opening your doors to offshore development teams helps you reach out to a global market of tech talent. You get instant access to the expertise you need. For European and US companies, it can also be more cost-effective to use IT talent in another part of the world. And because your offshore team is dedicated to your project, you can expect a faster turnaround. |
| CONS | Hiring in-house is expensive. It takes time. Then there’s the cost of onboarding and training. As an employer, you also have to factor in the additional costs of providing things such as a pension, sick pay, and so on. | Sometimes too much choice can be overwhelming. With the world at your feet, narrowing down your search for the right offshore talent can be a challenge. You might also have concerns around language barriers, working across time zones, and equity in terms of the technology being used – all common myths around offshore hiring. |
Busting the myths of Offshore Hiring
There’s no question that handing over your product to a team of developers based somewhere else in the world can feel like you’re giving up control. That’s why choosing the right offshore partner is so important to the success of your collaboration, and your product.
Despite the obvious benefits of offshoring software development work, some business leaders still have reservations about it. Three common concerns are communication, time zones, and technology.
Communication
Software development is a highly technical industry where good communication is key. As most documentation is written in English, it has become the industry standard. So for the world’s best developers being proficient, and usually fluent, in English is essential.
Collaboration
With modern collaboration tools and remote technologies, time zones are no longer the barrier they once were. It’s possible to work around time zones to benefit your business. In an always-on world, time zones can also be used for 24-hour customer support.
Skills and expertise
Part of your decision-making around choosing offshore developers will involve aligning their skills and expertise with your chosen software stack. By doing this, you eliminate any perceived gaps in technological know-how.
Hire Offshore Developers from Proshore
Proshore’s ready-to-code development teams take all the strain out of sourcing, selecting, and assembling the best tech talent for your business.
- Leveraging our broad and deep talent pool, we hand-pick the right people for your needs, saving you valuable time and money on hiring.
- You can cut out training costs because our developers are matched to your stack and ready-to-code – no matter what language you’re coding in.
- Whichever direction you’re scaling in, we scale with you. By talking to us about your specific needs, we can tailor a team package to suit you, from a single developer to a complete self-managed team including testers, designers, DevOps, and Scrum masters.
With an offshore software development team from Proshore, we carefully match our developers to your requirements. Should someone leave, we can seamlessly integrate an equally skilled team member to keep your coding on track.
Together we combine technical expertise, experience, and entrepreneurship. We’re here to help your business grow – book a call to get started on hiring offshore developers.