How To Hire Offshore Software Developers: 2021 Survival Guide

The pandemic has made us realize that workers can operate from anywhere and don’t have to be office-bound. By hiring staff offshore, you can save money on office space, equipment, perks, and hiring and recruitment costs. If you’ve ever wondered how to hire offshore software developers, you should read this article.

How to Hire an Offshore Development Team: Taking the First Step

Before you can hire offshore developers, you have to know what you are asking the team to build. This includes mapping all the features you want to add, as well as your user flows. This will help you determine the skill set you require and your budget. The more complex the app, the more hours you’ll require and the more expensive it will get.

How to Hire Offshore Software Developers: Three Ways

If you’re just starting out and realized how competitive the market could be, you may be wondering how to hire software developers for a startup or wondering whether it’s even possible to find good local developers at all. Developers want perks, including bonuses, lucrative pay, and equity. This is why most companies use offshore agencies. They already have a database of trusted, qualified developers on their books. This makes it much easier and cheaper for them to find the right developers for your company.

When you hire offshore team, you can approach it three ways:

• You can approach an agency based on your country (who may charge significant recruitment fees);
• You can use your own recruitment resources (which can be time-consuming); or
• You can use an offshore agency to find your team.

Once you know what you are looking for, you can start recruiting. You can try hiring freelance developers online, but this can be confusing and expensive. For starters, vetting individuals from another country can be complex, and you may face many different cultural language barriers while trying to confirm work or educational credentials. And then, once you’ve hired them, you’ll have to manage the various team members who are based in different locations and have never worked together before. It’s going to take real juggling and lots of communication across your time zones to make sure your project runs smoothly. 

How To Hire Offshore Development Team: Finding the Right Agency

There are several ways to approach finding the right agency. You can ask for recommendations from other companies in your industry or consult a few directories and vet the agencies yourself. You can use the listing directory to filter by country, the number of employees, framework, and languages. You should also be able to read a few reviews. Even so, it’s not easy to gauge whether an agency is the right fit for you by just using the Internet.

Start by getting to know the business and its story. Ask them to describe projects that they’ve worked on that are similar to yours, their development and discovery process, and how they operate. In turn, describe your requirements and ask them how they would approach them. A good agency will provide some feedback and suggestions from the start. If they remain vague and just state that they can do “whatever you ask,” it’s a red flag. You need to make sure they understand what you need.

You should always aim to hire a company with experience in your industry and various technical projects so that they can lend their expertise to your project. Knowing your industry means they can make suggestions, understand issues, and solve bugs faster. 

Ask for references to substantiate their claims and Google any reviews that may exist online. You want to make sure that they can deliver on time. Pay close attention to their ability to communicate with you. If they can’t understand what you are saying properly, they won’t be able to deliver the right developers. It’s OK not to be 100% fluent, but communication should be clear and easy.

Conclusion

Wondering how to hire offshore software developers? Speak to the right agency and pay close attention while vetting them. The right agency has good references, technical knowledge and is able to communicate with you at all times. Good luck with your search!