A Comprehensive Guide To Recruit Remote Developers During The Pandemic
Technology
25Jun 2021
The spread of Coronavirus has highly impacted the world physically, mentally, and financially, leaving N number of businesses paralyzed. Moreover, conventional businesses are hit the worse as they have confined scope & reach. Despite that, it must be noted that the pandemic has taught us a lot of important lessons for survival and growth. Remote work from home is now the new normal, and most companies are adapting this in their operations to ensure better reach.
Also, several IT companies have no option other than work from home as they have to comply with the social distancing rules. Since most IT companies adhere to the rules, they have to recruit remote UI/UX designers, developers, testers, and other employees to work. The work-from-home situation has become somewhat challenging for IT companies, especially when it requires tasks to be performed collectively.
The Covid-19 impact is so widespread that no business has been untouched by it. Henceforth, endless IT companies have begun recruiting their projects to experts via the remote recruiting process. The availability of a talented pool for recruits makes it easy for businesses to deliver their commitments within deadlines, even at times of the pandemic.
Moreover, you should know that there have been significant losses due to the cancellation of big tech conferences that caused an estimated loss of USD 1 billion. In such depressing times, remote developers have become a savior for tech companies worldwide, helping them fight the unfortunate impact caused by the pandemic.
This blog is a great place to start with for your IT company if you are struggling to cope with all the repercussions of the pandemic. Since digitalization is taking off rapidly, companies seek innovative ways to hire developers, designers, and other employees to work from home using the best techniques in place.
Topics To Cover
- Why Hiring Remote Developers Is the Best Thing to do During Covid-19
- Major Hurdles in Incorporating Remote Work
- How can you Overcome the Barriers of Remote Work
- Advantages of Offshoring Developers at times Covid-19
- Essential Steps to Follow While Recruiting a Remote Development Team
- Top Places to Recruit Offshore Developers in 2021
- The Cost Estimate to Outsource Remote Developers
- Are you ready to recruit a skilled remote developer?
Why Hiring Remote Developers Is The Best Thing To Do During Covid-19
1. Leverage The Right Approach
Businesses have begun to seek an alternate approach to expand their team as they don't want to reduce their worker's efficiency. Simultaneously, they want their staff to remain healthy and safe.
IT firms face challenges in assuring that their staff can execute all the needed functions without affecting their health. Moreover, such businesses find it difficult to track their efficiency as their staff members are working remotely.
By recruiting remote staff, these companies can weather all the difficulties faced due to Covid-19 and raise their revenues and productivity. For instance, if you seek to develop a mobile app or a website, you can recruit remote web or mobile app developers uk from a reliable outsourcing company.
You have two alternatives, i.e., you can totally assign the project to the remote staff, or your offshore staff can work collectively on the project. No matter your choice, you should be able to have complete control over your team.
2. Embracing The Dynamic Client Behavior
Several businesses have to keep up with the latest trends and technologies to serve their clients with top-quality experiences. Moreover, they are also thinking of leveraging digital platforms to sustain their business in the pandemic situation.
We are all well aware of the fact that the pandemic has changed everything from business models to consumer habits. It has transformed the way customers make purchases causing massive changes in the industry.
Therefore, it has become increasingly important to adapt to changing customer habits and incorporate them in communicating, developing, designing, and delivering.
These are some services that your company can implement by recruiting dedicated developers.
- Building new service lines
- Elevate the focus towards digitization
- Foster their current offerings
3. Reinforce The Technologies For The Future
The transformations that took place due to the pandemic are compelling every IT firm to emerge with advancements in their workflows. During this, several IT firms cannot recognize or adjust their priorities, due to which they cannot make real-time decisions to reduce risks.
This is the best time for IT firms to reinforce themselves by building long-term techniques with a world-class remote development company. This collaboration will help them expand in terms of talent and advancements.
In the future, IT firms can implement these skills to build roadmaps and solutions to prepare them for similar situations in the future.
4. Employees Are Stocked With The Latest Tools & Technologies
Covid-19 has significantly affected efficiency due to worldwide lockdowns, which is why IT firms are posing challenges in surviving the industry competition. However, that does not mean it's impossible to keep up. IT firms can elevate their productivity by opting for the right offshore development company.
These offshore companies are the top choice for IT firms in the current pandemic situation as they have good working experience on a massive scale. And they have the right tools and technologies to cope with the projects from home.
The tools and techs they utilize facilitate them to affiliate virtually and work from home with great productivity as they have been following the same approach for a long time.
5. Build Resources To Find New Opportunities
In today's pandemic scenario, mobile app development companies must be on the lookout to identify new opportunities. Therefore, offshore development is a need for every IT firm as it facilitates them to take instant action to fight challenges faced by short-term cash flow. Also, it helps them be lucrative during such critical times as decisions taken today will significantly impact the future of the software development company.
Major Hurdles In Incorporating Remote Work
The pandemic scenario is overwhelming IT companies with voluminous challenges, making it difficult for them to maintain efficiency. Therefore, it has become indispensable to adopt remote working. However, 3 major barriers might come across in applying remote working, which are as follows:
Incorporating Offshore Working In An Organized Way
Businesses that simply depend on quick adoption of the latest and ultra-modern technologies without any organized approach can face reduced productivity and annoyance among staff members and stakeholders.
It isn't adequate to render the essential infrastructure and technologies alone. Some IT firms already have cutting-edge tools and techs established from the start but are still not recognizing their full potential.
Tools are necessary, but successful offshore work also demands exemplary leadership, steadfast commitment, and clear guidance.
Acquiring The Infra For Offshore Working
Gone are the days where companies used to manage everything from one place, now they have to assemble everything at a distance. This calls for intense security transformations and structural adjustments. And in the era where cybercriminals and fraudsters are not leaving a single opportunity to hack through the robust systems, you should not take the security aspect lightly at all. This requires a genuine commitment to every employee to locate their work tools firmly.
Balancing Employee's Professional And Personal Lives
Due to sudden remote working patterns, team members have experienced the boundary between personal and professional getting thinner. Trendsetters show that this doesn't necessarily affect productivity unless a proper communication channel is not in place. Sincerely investing in your employee's health and well-being is an additional effort to pay heed to.
How Can You Overcome The Barriers Of Remote Work?
As mentioned above, recruiting remote developers can be challenging; hence, we have brought some fantastic tips to recruit remote developers without any troubles.
1. Leveraging The Right Tools & Techs
Before selecting the right tools, you should look at what is already available. If your company needs to act immediately, the tools and techs already in place can get you where you want. And if those tools are not applicable or ineffective, then look for some quick and user-friendly solutions that your business can leverage and include all essential features.
Look for what your business requires, not what is trendy, as every business is different and might need various tools to keep efficiency high. Another thing is to start the adoption process. Arrange training employees and hear their feedback, and adapt training facilities wherever needed. Offshore working is a long-term investment; hence, it isn't wise to rush through things.
2. Understanding Challenges
It is essential to know why and for what you require a remote team and how they can benefit you. Make a list of questions that define your objective. For instance, if you only require a website developer, then it's good to recruit offshore developers for your web development services.
Moreover, remote hiring can be super easy if you have set objectives of what you exactly want. Remote hiring comes with time & cultural variance, but it might also work to your benefit. Remote recruiting can be a blessing for your software company if you formulate it well by having clear goals.
3. Don't Be Too Profit-Oriented
Remote hiring can be pretty affordable. But you must remember the fact that you have to pick such a software development offshore company that is skilled and experienced to do the task. Choosing some cheap offshore company can cause repeated delays in performance.
Hence, you mustn't think much about paying a bit more if you receive quality offshore development services. Several times, keeping a lower budget can later cost a fortune as you might lose that client forever.
4. Leadership Must Be Defined
Business leaders should have a defined goal. They need to implement remote working, keeping in mind the current crisis. For example, whether the aim is to reduce the office space, or introduce flexibility into the company culture, or something else.
Company leaders must set goals to convey clearly with the stakeholders and team members, for instance, by reaching out to the employees frequently, planning consistent feedback, enhancing the calendars, etc. Interaction between all the levels should be faster and transparent. This enhances collaboration and establishes trust to bring new ways of working effectively.
Clear guidelines are required to help team members manage new ways of working. Offshore working is here to remain for a long time, so it's not enough to focus only on short-term goals. Successful businesses think long-term as that is a wise thing to do. The whole business needs to be operated virtually for employees, clients, employers, and others existing in the ecosystem.
5. Discuss The Agreements Meticulously
You should understand that remote hiring is not the ultimate solution to everything. Even remote hiring has its set of challenges that must be addressed. One of the facts is that you might lose control over the employees at some point.
You might also need to provide your intellectual property and client's confidential contracts. Hence, it becomes necessary to conduct extensive research on knowing the legal concerns and consequences.
Moreover, it would help if you mentioned your project's scope in the agreement that includes all the debates that are agreed upon.
6. Find A Reliable Offshoring Partner
It is not a piece of cloth. So don't hurry! While choosing a software offshoring development partner, you must closely look at the minute details such as their past work, including all their successful projects. Try to know the applicant thoroughly.
After choosing them, give them a list of your needs as letting them remain unclear can lead to wrong expectations. Build a smooth communication channel with your remote team to attain optimum outcomes.
Lack of communication is the root cause of all the problems, and don't let it get in your way. You should invest in the training of your remote team to guarantee that they are aware of your company's code of conduct.
7. Establish A Solid Relationship
Sometimes considering small things can make a huge difference. Businesses need to track employee sentiment during remote working. Business leaders should pay heed to how lack of physical contact is affecting them.
Businesses need to encourage cooperation between employees and supervise unity. Planning small events such as virtual coffees or game sessions brings your team closer and allows them to connect with each other.
Advantages Of Offshoring Developers At Times Covid-19
Easily Manageable
Managing teams and their well-being is every company's top priority worldwide. At Covid times, recruiting remote developers is to ease the development process. As they work from home, they are safe, and the development process goes smoothly.
Safety First
While hiring offshore employees, you ensure the safety of you and your employees as working remotely prevents virus spread. And we all know prevention is better than cure, so avoiding exposure can be the best thing to do.
Recruit Global Workforce
Location limitations often become a hindrance in hiring the right candidate. This can ultimately reduce some promising future opportunities, making your company dependable on the locally available services. But, with offshore hiring developers, this restriction is lifted. Management can reach out to a qualified workforce even outside their home country. This provides them a chance to go above their confined setting and make a difference.
Affordable
Recruiting a virtual developer can reduce a lot of resources as they do not use office amenities such as electricity, utility, stationary, building, internet, etc. Hence, even start-ups with a lower budget can recruit remote developers without losing revenues. Therefore, offshoring in the current scenario is cost-effective and competitive to increase output while reducing costs.
Better ROI
Several companies invest in modern tools and technologies for teamwork, such as Office365, Google, etc., for remote work due to Covid-19. Offshore working means all communication will take place over the internet, such as online document sharing, online messaging, and meetings. When businesses invest in advanced tech, the ROI will be better, mainly during pandemic times.
Better Work Quality
Determined offshore teams show better efficiency, i.e., by 43%. Offshore working guarantees a better work-life balance which motivates the employees and keeps them focused. Offshore workers give improved quality of work and satisfy their duties consistently with 78% less tension.
Better Flexibility
Remote developers bring more flexibility to the work process. They elevate the workflow and are more efficient & flexible in their work. Top-level employees don't have to worry about the absence of communication and lower efficiency.
Enhanced Productivity
There is more work efficiency when you choose to go with offshoring as the responsibility to deliver the project goes to the offering company, and they ensure it matches all the needs. The tracking process becomes relatively easy with the latest technologies.
Elastic Working Hours
Elasticity in working hours is significantly essential as it directly impacts workers' efficiency. Offshore PHP developers work under a severe timeframe to guarantee top-notch output and standards. The team member should have the liberty to perform at their best suited time. In comparison, it isn't necessary for managers to closely monitor them as long as they deliver everyday tasks.
Improves Scalability
Recruiting a team of dedicated developers is a scaling technique that has less risk. It is cost-effective and saves you from terminating employees when there is a recession. A dedicated development team can handle everything from web development to mobile app development.
In today's fast-paced world, the average life of any tech is not over 5 years. Meaning, you would need a nimble workforce that can rapidly upgrade their skills and begin working on new technologies in little time.
Moreover, remote working also solves these issues as it revamps the company training by allowing fast creation, upgrading, and new training programs.
Focus On Business
Companies can spend more hours on their main areas when remote teams handle all significant technical portions. Dedicated offshore teams have their own developers, UI/UX designers, and project managers. Meaning, they can cope with many responsibilities and reduce the burden on your shoulders. This helps businesses focus on other areas such as sales, marketing, and expansion.
These are a lot of benefits indeed. From getting specialized talents, reducing costs, and increasing efficiency, you can get all you want by outsourcing remote developers.
Essential Steps To Follow While Recruiting A Remote Development Team
Recruiting a remote team is not easy work, which is why we will go through a stepwise hiring process of remote developers. Keep in mind that you must align your company goals with the developers' skills.
State Your Requirements Clearly
Recruiting a remote development team is not the same as recruiting a project manager, designer, or skilled software developer. For instance, while hiring an HR or marketing employee, their primary communication skills indicate their experience.
But for programmers, you cannot know their skills without undergoing a test. The first important step is to state accurate information about vacancies on several sites and portals.
Later create a job description for the positions you want to hire for. Include duties and responsibilities that the person will manage and skills they must have. This is the basis of the entire hiring process.
Select The Best Resumes
This is a challenging step as it takes a lot of time to find the right experts from the available list. Social media can make your task easy. Suggestions like friends of friends are a reliable way to find suitable candidates. Moreover, you can display vacancies in sectoral groups. This method has been quite effective.
Verify The Applicant's Portfolio
For portfolios, you must be more cautious about the completed projects. Several times, applicants list many platforms and languages on their CV but have fewer examples of finished projects. Likewise, there is a possibility of a vast number of developers focused only on tools and programming languages that they have used and not resulting from their work.
Go Through The Interview Process
After selecting a few best resumes from the list, next comes the interview process. The interview can be conducted in various stages like over a voice or video call, email, and group interview where a few tech experts ask the applicant about multiple aspects such as development process, technical know-how, experience, etc.
You can even ask questions about what is expected from them in their specific position. For starters, it's better to ask fundamental questions to assess the overall candidate level. Later, you can test the applicant to know their coding skills and quality.
Remember that your questions help you know the applicant's skills in detail. Hence, take a few technical tests at least, as they are non-negotiable. Later you can organize a personal interview to evaluate their personality and attitude towards your company.
While conducting a face-to-face interview, a few important questions that you must ask an offshore developer are as follows:
- How many years have they worked remotely as a developer?
- What team working approach do they implement working remotely?
- How can they weather communication challenges?
- What strategy do they implement to resolve issues when working remotely?
Perform Technical Tests
Since you are recruiting remote developers, efficient code writing is the most crucial technical skill. Several coding platforms are available to do so, such as Talview, Codility, HackerEarth, HackerRank, etc. You can decide which one suits you the most as per your development process and needs.
Technical tests require coders to code in real-time, displaying their knowledge and skills in the tech field. The way they approach a problem, manage bottlenecks, document & comment code, you can tell about their talent.
Moreover, you can involve real business cases to challenge your applicants. Your tests should be challenging indeed but should be completed on time.
Seek A Cultural Fit Candidate
It's pretty standard for applicants to perform well in the technical tests and later underperform. This might happen due to poor cultural compatibility. While recruiting remote developers, cultural compatibility and relationships are super important.
You should be aware of the core values, practices, goals that define your business. The most suitable remote developers will have values and ethics that meet with your company.
Avoiding cultural fit for your company can cost you a fortune in the future, which brings us back to a carefully planned recruiting process. Recruit applicants who will invest time and energy into your company's vision. They must be encouraged, dedicated, and passionate about what is asked of them.
Applicant Sorting
Interviews help you to screen plenty of applicants, selecting a few qualified applicants.
Several times, it happens that an expert developer with reasonable pay knows a specific platform and programming language but is not aware of the basic stuff. This can be problematic as it can impact the performance, code quality, and app security from the start of the project.
Hence, it becomes essential to ask basic questions about the language structure, security, and object-oriented programming patterns to get an idea about where the applicant stands.
Build A Time-effective Recruiting Process
The software development sector is booming in a few nations like Ukraine & India, which means that remote developers don't get free for a pretty long time. An effective recruiting process is thus crucial. You don't want to lose the most suited applicant due to unexpected delays. If you think you've found a gem, don't be reluctant to summon them for an interview.
Moreover, you can also give applicants reviews on their interviews and tests. We suggest doing this as fast as you can, perhaps within 2-3 days. It might seem redundant to you, but giving them in-depth feedback on their performance is essential even if they aren't hired because it will help establish a positive company image, and you will help applicants to perform better in the future, giving them more confidence.
Attract Applicants To Work For You
In a perfect world, applicants would complete the interview process all ready to start the job. However, the reality is not the same. Competition is fierce even in the job market, whether you are an applicant or a development company. Especially in countries like India and Ukraine, the demand for skilled remote developers is high; hence, finding the best tech expert is not easy.
The interview process should not only be to test and assess the candidate; it should be two-ways. This is the first point of interaction where they can get to know you better, so acquaint them with your company culture. Keep in mind that while you are evaluating the candidate, even they are assessing your company.
Moreover, applicants are not just assessing your company's work environment; they are also seeking a chance to work with advanced technologies and be more innovative. So, let them know how advanced your company is and about what possible work opportunities you will provide them in the future for their growth.
Therefore, before recruiting remote developers, ask yourself a few questions;
- Is your company unique? If yes, how?
- How is your company different from your competitors?
- How to pitch your company to get the most talented developers to work with you?
Engage Your Potential Employee
You must ensure that the interaction is not one-sided. Don't just throw a list of questions at your applicant. Incite them to ask questions about your company as well and where your business stands. Always be open and honest in your response. Use this chance to establish a connection with the applicant, which will easily help them make a decision.
At Hyperlink InfoSystem, we take the recruitment process very seriously. You can't run your development firm if you don't establish an efficient and skillful team in the first place.
Top Places To Recruit Offshore Developers In 2021
Several factors play a significant role in deciding to recruit offshore developers, such as project needs, time-period, skills, financial aspects, experience, and so much more. Many software developers work as freelancers or offshoring agencies, all differing in competency, rates, and skills.
Therefore, let's consider all the relevant factors of some well-known offshore development companies without any hassle. This data reveals that around 41.4% of the software developers are located in the US, and others are dispersed in different parts of the globe.
Besides the US, let's look at other popular destinations where you can find skilled offshore developers for your leading IT firm.
1. India
Hailing from ancient times, India follows a western approach when it comes to education. Despite the illiteracy ratio being higher in the country, there is an increasing focus on math-related studies, which is one of the reasons for technological development.
India ranks number one when it comes to recruiting remote developers. India is the perfect choice for companies established in the UK and the US, for these two countries mostly speak English.
The country is considered the top nation for mobile app development, both hybrid and native. They are also involved in Microsoft and other techs and open-source projects. The companies are gradually implementing artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, blockchain tech, IoT, and so much more.
2. Ukraine
This is another country that IT firms prefer for offshoring. This country offers broad educational opportunities, and a widespread part of IT education focuses on additional activities and training courses. A few companies provide free education with employment opportunities in the future.
Ukraine IT companies comply with the global trend to focus on science-based tech advancements showing ample interest in AI, big data, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and mobile app development projects.
Besides, the nation has the highest number of C++ developers in the entire world. Nearly 80% of the IT community speak English which removes the language barrier. It should also be noted that the country is considered the top nation for offshoring web development.
3. Poland
IT education is highly demanded in this European nation, attracting students from all over the continent. Poland tops QA and usability standards. PHP is the most used language here, while .NET and Java are also commonly used. As per the client testimonial, software developers in Poland show a good work ethic and prove to be a good fit.
4. Brazil
This South American country has nearly 6.18 million English speakers. Moreover, this famous eastern country has approx. 38.18% of the crowd under 24, making it an upcoming nation for IT development offshoring. Brazil is a great start if you are seeking junior developers. But if you want to hire developers for advanced work, then you should consider other countries.
5. Canada
This North American country has a solid educational infrastructure focused on technology. Around 18.6% of yearly grads in the country have a STEM degree. Toronto, Calgary, and Halifax are the top Canadian cities that rank in the top 50 under some popular indexes.
Another advantage this 150-year-old country offers is easy communication with the US clients due to the same time zones and easy partnership due to fewer cultural dissimilarities.
The Cost Estimate To Outsource Remote Developers
While North America is relatively costly, charging around $70 to $180 for remote work, the rates are significantly lower in developing nations like India. In fact, India is the cheapest offshore development country globally, while rates in Argentina are also higher than in India.
The factors influencing the cost in a specific country depending on location, company's policy, developer's professional experience, and others. So, while considering costs, you will have to search and find every chance to meet your requirements best.
Are You Ready To Recruit A Skilled Remote Developer?
Working from home is an opportunity for businesses to transform how they work and gain benefits over the long term. You can consider several things around this: fewer commutes, shorter breaks, fewer business travels, less workspace, and more focus on employees.
Moreover, after surveying the market, it is clear that remote workers are less likely to take sick leaves or leaves at all because they can work at their suitable time, which is not possible while following traditional approaches.
Remote working offers businesses the flexibility to handle unforeseen events in the future like Covid-19. Ultimately, offshore working can boost cooperation and cohesion.
Covid-19 is quickly transforming the way IT firms operate. Therefore, to survive this crisis, they must make fast and correct decisions. And hiring a team of dedicated developers is one of those decisions.
And recruiting remote employees is no doubt complex, but over the long period, it is worth it. Before initiating the recruiting process, assess your business needs meticulously, as stated earlier, not to regret later.
Lastly, we will conclude by saying that remote working is here to stay for a very long time. Therefore, instead of waiting for the right time, start immediately as the right time will never come if you don't start taking your first step towards it.
Harnil Oza is the CEO & Founder of Hyperlink InfoSystem. With a passion for technology and an immaculate drive for entrepreneurship, Harnil has propelled Hyperlink InfoSystem to become a global pioneer in the world of innovative IT solutions. His exceptional leadership has inspired a multiverse of tech enthusiasts and also enabled thriving business expansion. His vision has helped the company achieve widespread respect for its remarkable track record of delivering beautifully constructed mobile apps, websites, and other products using every emerging technology. Outside his duties at Hyperlink InfoSystem, Harnil has earned a reputation for his conceptual leadership and initiatives in the tech industry. He is driven to impart expertise and insights to the forthcoming cohort of tech innovators. Harnil continues to champion growth, quality, and client satisfaction by fostering innovation and collaboration.
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