Hire Top Offshore Developers

Last Updated on 2024-08-20

Scaling your development team may be a challenge. But, offshore developers might be the answer you’re looking for. Discover everything you need to know about offshore development today.

As the tech industry approaches the digital age, cutting-edge technology continues to sprout here and there. Large enterprises compete to see who creates the best software products for their respective markets.

Small to medium businesses also strive for their goals in their own arena. Many companies aim to become the next tech unicorn in the market. However, it’s a challenge to do so, especially with limited resources.

Aside from funding, most budding companies face the hurdles of developer shortage. In the United States, software developers are a scarce resource. The best ones are either employed and well-compensated or would demand a higher salary. This makes it tougher for smaller businesses to vie for the best talent to work on their products.

With this challenge, offshore alternatives are an excellent choice for many startups and scaleups. But what is offshoring? How do you do it? In this article, you’ll learn how to hire top offshore developers as we cover the following topics:

Hire Software Developers: Onshore vs. Offshore
- Onshore Pros and Cons
- Offshore Pros and Cons
Are Offshore Developers as Skilled?
Offshore Developer Rates
Concerns, Risks, and Retaining Offshore Software Developers
Tips for Offshore Success
Why Hire Offshore Developers in the Philippines?
Hiring an Offshore Developer Checklist
Hire Top Offshore Developers from Full Scale

Hire Software Developers: Onshore vs. Offshore

One good thing about scaling up is it offers a chance to get creative with the way you do business. With today’s dynamic tech scene, many organizations are innovating the way they work. From digital transformation to work-from-home arrangements, businesses should keep up with the latest trends to stay relevant and competitive.

But what about hiring? Is there room for innovation in that department?

The clear answer is YES.

Gone are the days when you have to assemble an in-house recruitment team that you won’t always need. Even this business activity is attainable through outsourcing, which you can do onshore or offshore.

So here comes the dilemma for companies on where to hire software developers. While there are different options available, it’s important to weigh which one fits your business needs. Let’s dive deeper into defining onshore vs. offshore.

Onshore Pros and Cons

Onshore hiring is an umbrella term for different hiring activities or strategies done within the same geographical country. It includes direct hiring or outsourcing an IT recruiter to hire a developer for you. However, it also has its downsides. Let’s delve further.

Benefits of Onshore

Hiring onshore often comes with familiarity since this is a conventional way of hiring. These are the top benefits when doing onshore hiring:

Possibility of physical interaction amid a global pandemic
Working in the same time zone
Local talent usually possess the same culture
Language is not going to be an issue

Cons of Onshore Hiring

Evidently, most perks of onshore hiring rely on proximity with your candidates. But with a global pandemic still on hand, those perks don’t add much value. Here are the other disadvantages of onshore hiring:

Limited talent pool. When you hire onshore, you’re competing with the rest of the companies within your locale. The best developers are not always looking for jobs. They’re either employed or are compensated well. Some companies also often steal developers from one another. This scarcity drives up the salary demand.
Higher pay. Because of market competition, most developers demand a competent, if not higher, salary rate. Hiring onshore, in such scenarios, might be a cost-deficient option for startups and small businesses.
Overhead costs. Just because work-from-home is a trend doesn’t mean you’re safe from paying overhead costs. You still have to provide equipment for your employees. Moreover, you need to take care of their benefits and medical insurance.
High turn-over rate. Employees within their own locality usually don’t last long in one company. They often go job-hopping once they get bored and start looking for a new company.

Offshore Hiring: Pros and Cons

Offshoring is the process of relocating your business operations (or a part of it) to another country. Typically, this happens within a 5+ hours time zone difference. There are two types of offshoring business processes:

Offshoring as a subsidiary
Offshoring with a separate company that provides needed services

In offshoring as a subsidiary, a company extends its operations to another country. One example would be Cisco. Cisco, a networking hardware company, fosters its research and development arm in India.

The next type would have a company partnering with another company abroad to leverage its services. An example of this type would be Full Scale. At Full Scale, we provide fast and affordable software development services for our clients. We partner with dozens of companies in the United States.

This type, however, should not be confused with outsourcing. Outsourcing is turning the key over to the partner company and letting them do the work. With offshoring, you’re not turning over the key. You’re simply expanding and scaling your team but retaining complete control and leadership over the development process.

Here are the pros of offshoring:

1. Cost-effective

When you offshore to developing countries, you usually pay a fraction of what you pay for in the US. In the Philippines, for example, the wages are lower than their US counterparts.

This does not necessarily diminish the output quality since developers are paid appropriately based on the market rate. Therefore, our clients enjoy top quality and services without breaking the bank.

Moreover, you’re safe from paying overhead fees incurred by purchasing office equipment and devices. The offshore company ensures to equip its employees with the tools needed for work.

2. Convenience in recruitment

Offshore software development partners provide you with developers on-demand. These companies usually have a pool of talent ready for onboarding. When you partner with an offshore company, you don’t have to go through the tedious hiring process.

Even more, you avoid problems with pesky IT headhunters. At Full Scale, we’ll take care of the entire hiring process for you!

3. Wider access to the talent pool

When you hire offshore developers, you get access to a wider talent pool. In doing so, you must select destinations with a rich IT-BPO market, such as the Philippines. A rich IT industry is an excellent indicator that a country possesses a huge pool of software development talent.

4. No commitment

Oftentimes, you just need to hire what’s needed. The great thing about offshore development is that you’re not bound to long-term contracts. You can scale up or down your offshore development team when you need to.

5. Time flexibility

Evidently, there is a timezone margin when it comes to offshoring developers. However, when leveraged well, this becomes an advantage. For one, you can operate 24/7. This means that by the time your local team is done for the day, your offshore team will continue the work.

Another advantage would be an offset time for quality assurance. When your local team is finished with development, you can hand over the test builds to your offshore QA team.

In software development, you don’t always have to be on standby or micromanage your team. A reasonable overlap time, which is common in offshore development, would be enough.

Challenges in Offshore Development

In contrast, offshore development may pose some operational challenges for businesses. These are the top two challenges in offshore development.

Time zone difference. Getting used to a new working timezone would take some time. Sometimes, it’s even harder to find a schedule that meets both your and your offshore team’s preferences.
Culture and language. Expect to have some communication gaps when you hire offshore developers. This factor may lead to things getting lost in translation.

To avoid these challenges, you need to partner with a tried and trusted offshore software development company. At Full Scale, we eliminate these challenges to give the best service to our clients.

The Philippines IT-BPM workforce is trained to work on varying shifts. Some even work graveyard shifts so it would be the same 9 to 5 for you.

Furthermore, the archipelago holds 2nd place (behind Singapore) as the most English-proficient country in Asia. The primary instruction language from kindergarten to college is English. The country was an American colony for almost five decades leaving traces of American culture and traditions to this day. Chances are you’re watching the same TV shows and listening to the same artists.

With these in mind, you’ll never have to worry about hiring offshore developers from the Philippines, especially at Full Scale.

Are Offshore Developers as Skilled?

Hiring offshore developers may be intimidating or even scary. How would you know they’re the right fit for your company? Are you sure that they have the skills you’re looking for? Would they be worth it?

Of course, these concerns are valid. There’s often little room for risks for smaller businesses because there’s much at stake. So, trust an offshore software development company with experience in delivering quality and marketable software products.

But, how exactly are local developers different from offshore developers? The answer is not much.

Just like local developers, the offshore development talent vary widely. Similarly, there are good apples and bad apples. But leave it to offshore development companies, like Full Scale, to weed out the best talent from the rest.

When working with offshore companies, you can hire entry-level, junior, and senior-level developers. Most of our talent pool has worked for multinational companies like NCR, Lexmark, and IBM. The rest have also worked for US-based startups building cutting-edge technologies.

One of the big benefits of working with a dependable company like Full Scale is we recruit, assess, and train the developers. We only hire the top-tier job applicants that we receive.

So are offshore developers worth it? VERY MUCH INDEED!

Offshore Developer Rates

When you hire offshore developers, rates range from $25-$45 an hour. This is 50-75% less than American rates for developers. The software developer talent is scattered all over the world.

Popular offshore development destinations are the Philippines, South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The rates vary depending on the country and the developers’ seniority levels.

You might find lower rates down to $10 an hour. But always remember that you get what you pay for. Avoid falling into the “cheapshoring” trap. This happens when you hire the cheapest employees with unreliable skills. That explains why they’re too affordable. Always make sure that your software development partner provides quality services at reasonable rates.

But why is hiring offshore developers 50-75% less expensive? It isn’t because they aren’t skilled and talented. Their costs of living and local economies are just radically different from those in the US.

In the Philippines, the minimum wage is almost $1 an hour. The software development profession is an extremely well-paying job based on the country’s local costs of living.

Concerns, Risks, and Retaining Offshore Software Developers

Working with employees in a foreign country may still be uncomfortable for new entrepreneurs. There’s that unconventional setup and challenges that may arise. Fret not. At Full Scale, we take strategic steps to ensure we deliver peace of mind with our top-notch software services.

1. How do I know my offshore developers are actually working?

By working with a reputable offshore development partner like Full Scale, you can ensure that integrity is paramount. We manage employees to keep track of their progress. At the same time, we reach out to clients for any feedback or concerns. We also have a pool of project managers to liaise with your offshore team.

2. Can I do a background check on them?

All of our employees work directly with us. They all undergo background security checks. If anything arises, we take full accountability to investigate unique situations.

3. What happens in the long term?

One of the biggest concerns is considering the long-term retention of offshore developers. You’d want your developers to be a long-term asset to your team. Why?

During the development cycle, they have already gained valuable tribal knowledge. This is useful because they already know the ins and outs of your product. With Full Scale, you can build a long-term offshore team to augment your existing employees.

Tips for Offshore Success

Making offshore development work is a skill that every entrepreneur should learn. There exists a lot of misconceptions about offshoring that we can crack. Also, if you have never done offshoring before, we got some CliffsNotes for you.

Here are some of the common best practices when hiring offshore developers:

1. Avoid “Cheapshoring”

As mentioned early on, always make sure to check what type of developers you hire. Yes, a very cheap rate is attractive, especially with a limited budget. But it’s a trap. If you want quality, you need to pay a more reasonable price.

2. Practice product management

Without product management, a project will fail. Stay hands-on and in control of the direction of your product. Once you set a clear path, your developers will understand the assignment. This leads to cohesive software product development.v

3. Establish overlap hours

The timezone margin is only a challenge when you treat it as such. By strategically establishing overlap hours that your team agrees with, you maximize the capabilities of offshoring.

4. Look in the right places

As mentioned, the Philippines, South and Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe are some of the top offshore destinations globally. If you look for software development talent in a country without a prominent IT presence, you’re fishing on barren waters. Find the hotspots for IT talent and dive deeper.

5. Find reputable offshore development partners

To address your offshore problems, finding a solid offshore development partner is the ultimate solution. Full Scale ticks the boxes when it comes to setting our clients up for success. From providing skilled developers to facilitating efficient workflows, we have it covered.

When you implement these tips in offshore development, you won’t have to worry about common challenges. Poor communication, language barriers, and timezones—you can scrap them all. You can read more about Offshore Development: 8 Keys to Success to learn more about offshore development.

Why Hire Offshore Developers in the Philippines?

Hiring offshore developers from the Philippines is an excellent choice. The country’s main cities are rich with an IT-BPM workforce. The Philippines is one of the top destinations worldwide for offshoring services. This includes software development, call centers, data entry, and other types of business processes.

We’ve laid out comprehensive details on why you should hire offshore developers in the Philippines across the article. Here’s a summary of the advantages of doing so:

1. Excellent communication skills

The Philippines is one of the top English-proficient countries in Asia. In 2017, the Philippines had an EF English Proficiency Index score of 60.59. With this score, the country ranked 15th among 80 countries all over the world.

2. Western-style culture

The Philippines was a US colony for 48 years. Most modern-day Philippine culture is embedded with American influences. From entertainment to traditions, you’ll have mutual interests or lifestyle preferences.

3. Large, talented pool of developers

With a very high demand for software developers, many students pursue software-related courses. This amps up the volume of IT and engineering graduates in the country annually. As professionals, these graduates are well-versed in programming languages such as .NET and Java, legacy applications, and application development.

Hiring an Offshore Developer Checklist

To further assist you with hiring an offshore software developer, here’s a checklist you need to tick.

1. Technical skills

In-depth knowledge and skills in software development are the first things to look for. A software developer must possess proficiency and experience to get the job done. They should also be strong on their niche language, frameworks, and tech stacks. Above everything else, you need to choose one who has the technical skills your project requires.

Some responsibilities of a software developer include:

Research, design, write, and test software programs
Identify areas for improvement and evaluate persisting issues
Write and implement structured, clean code
Maintain or upgrade existing software systems
Work closely with designers, managers, and testers within the team

2. Communication skills

Communication skills aren’t only measured on one’s knowledge and proficiency in speaking English. An excellent software developer knows how to communicate effectively. They should communicate their inputs to their teammates and stakeholders clearly. At the same time, they must have great listening skills to process instructions and action items.

3. Willingness to learn

A top offshore developer is comfortable with learning. They like working on projects to learn more about it and themselves. They always want to expand their horizons and motivate themselves to be better every day.

4. Company-culture fit

Lastly, the perfect developer for you is not necessarily one who checks all the boxes. It’s the one who fits your company well. Company culture is important since it promotes synergy and dynamics of working together. To fit perfectly, a developer must answer what and who you’re looking for.