Hiring offshore developers

For decades now, offshoring has been an ideal solution for businesses to cut down operating costs and boost productivity. Companies from all fields and sectors are known to outsource their work to offshore locations to reap the benefits of offshoring. It includes the IT sector. Companies big and small hire offshore developers from countries like India to cover their project requirements. US giants such as Ford Motors, CISCO, and Microsoft have been leveraging Indian developers for their IT projects. Suffice to say offshore developers have been and still are in demand for businesses in the western countries.

While big organizations set up their own development centers in offshore locations to make use of the labor available there, small businesses usually have to hire offshore developers using other mediums. One such way is to work with a reliable offshore staffing service provider. They work with you to hire your employees who will be working for your company remotely. While staffing agencies largely manage the hiring process, the final call is yours. The developers you hire can have a considerable impact on your project’s result, so it is necessary to proceed with caution. We share with you some points to keep in mind when hiring offshore developers for your company.

Communicate your needs

Before you even begin to look for potential developers, you need to know your requirements. A general assessment of your company and your project will let you know the role that needs to be filled and the skills you require from your developer. It is essential that you communicate these requirements to your offshore staffing vendor. Your staffing vendor has a large database of candidates that they use for shortlisting potential candidates. Their search is based on the job profile that you create and the instructions you give to them. The more explicit you are about your candidate requirement, the better your chances of landing a developer with the skills you need. Give your service providers a clear picture of your objectives for them to be able to deliver suitably.

Interview the potential candidates

Once the potential candidates have been shortlisted, schedule an interview with them yourself. As the developer will be working remotely for your company and cannot come to your office in person, the interview should be conducted through a video call. A video call is a much better medium than an audio call. You will be able to examine their body language and facial expressions to get a well-rounded impression. As you will be working with the developers on your project using similar communication mediums, it also gives you an idea about their communication skills and grasp on the English language.

Set your expectations

Remote work is very different from working in the same office together. Chances are your company has certain rules that are to be followed by all offshore employees, including developers. So, any expectations you have from your offshore developers, inform them of it upfront. If you expect them to work for certain hours in a certain way or prefer some apps and software for your work, please let them know. Not every developer may be comfortable with your company’s work approach. Informing them beforehand avoids any miscommunication later down the road.

Establish prior experience

We understand that your project holds high value to you. A developer unable to meet your expectations can compromise its quality or set it back. Qualifications alone may not be sufficient. A degree or a course certificate is a testament to someone’s skills and knowledge only to some extent. The rest comes with experience. When hiring remote developers, establish whether they have prior experience of working on similar projects. Hiring offshore developers who have experience with your kind of project reduces your work. You can rely on them to follow through from their end without too many errors or queries.

Check references

Before hiring any offshore developers, be sure to check their references. Your offshore developers will be working for your company thousands of miles away. They will have access to your company’s confidential information and intellectual property. So, you want to be sure of hiring developers who can be trusted. References are a great way to establish somebody’s professionalism. By cross checking their references, you can get an insight into their work ethic. It allows you to evaluate a developer based not just on their skills and qualifications but also on their attitude towards the work and the company they work for. You don’t want to hire a developer who kept missing the deadlines, do you?

Offer work trial

Before hiring any developer, you can request a work trial from your offshore staffing vendor. Despite all the tick marks on the hiring criteria, sometimes an employee is just not the right fit for a company. You can avoid ‘mis-hiring’ by offering your developer a small work trial period. Assign them a job that you’ll be expecting them to do if you hire them to work on your project. The work trial will throw light on their skills as well as work ethic. It ensures that the offshore developer you hire is the right call, and you won’t regret it.

There is no doubt that offshore locations have plenty of developers to help software and application development companies, but each developer is unique, just like each company is unique. Being thorough when hiring offshore developers ensures you work with the developers that are right for your company and your project.