Hiring offshore staff goes beyond creating a job posting on LinkedIn for people in different countries. When you decide that your company is ready to add skilled professionals from abroad, you need to consider several factors that will have a direct impact on:
- The quality of the candidates.
- Their ability to successfully perform the various roles and responsibilities.
The purpose of this article is to give you a quick guide on how to make this process easier and more efficient. All recommendations are based on years of experience working with talent from all over the world and with companies in various industries throughout the United States.
The Do’s of Offshore Staffing
Startups and businesses of all sizes have realized that hiring offshore staff can add significant benefits to their operations and sustainability. However, there are several things you need to carefully consider before adding someone to your team.
- Talk to other companies that have hired offshore workers: Before you make this decision, try reaching out to other organizations that have hired offshore workers. Ask them about their experiences, tips, and recommendations. Learning from others is always a great way to avoid making the same mistakes.
- Work with an offshore recruitment agency or a staffing company: Yes, your hiring manager can contact, interview, and hire people all over the world. But will they assess all the basic needs to see if they have the Internet and systems quality to handle the job? Do they understand the process of hiring someone from abroad? This process is very different from hiring in-house, and relying on someone with experience will help you quickly find the perfect fit and handle the administrative part of their contract.
- Consider hiring people from different locations: Offshore staff refers to any professional outside of the United States who has the skills, training, and experience to fill a specific role within your organization. You can look in South and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Your options are endless, but it’s always important to analyze the time zones between your office and their location.
- Consider cultural and language differences: As you start to narrow down the list of potential locations for your new hire, there are 2 key factors you need to consider: language and culture. As obvious as it may sound, English does not have to be their first language, but you need to hire someone who can communicate with you and your team members. You also need to look for people who will feel comfortable and represent your company’s culture, mission, vision, and values. Just because they are not in the office does not mean they are not as important as any other employee.
- Ask for referrals: Once you have your top candidates, it’s important to talk to former employees and verify their track record and work experience. You want someone who can hit the ground running, not someone you have to train and develop.
The Don’ts of Offshore Staffing
There are certain things you need to avoid when using offshore staffing. Understanding what they are will help you avoid the mistakes others have made that reduce productivity, hurt your operations, and have a terrible ROI.
- Never consider hiring offshore workers for tasks that your team is good at. For example, if your company has great designers, why take that responsibility away from them? Consider hiring offshore workers only for tasks that your team is not very good at.
- Don’t hire people who show they need a lot of guidance and attention. They will only give you more work instead of taking responsibility off your to-do list. Your goal here is to reassign tasks you can take on a full management role.
- It’s almost always better to hire people full-time than to have them work part-time. If this is their main source of income, they will care enough, pay attention, and put in the effort to be successful.
- Cost should not be the main reason for choosing one candidate over another. Quality of work, education, and experience should always be the three indicators for you to decide on who to hire. Just by hiring someone from abroad, your company will be able to reduce costs.
- Hiring offshore talent for short projects with a high learning curve is not a good idea. For these types of projects, it’s better to have someone right next to you who can learn quickly and perform different tasks.
- Never underestimate the power and importance of a good onboarding process. Investing time and effort in your new offshore team member will help them better integrate into your business processes, understand the company culture, and avoid future misunderstandings.
Offshore Staffing Is Here to Stay
The pandemic years are over, yet we still see a tremendous amount of companies relying on and trusting key operational pieces to offshore talent. What’s stopping you from doing the same?
At Superior CS Group, we are ready to help you post your job, interview candidates, filter the best fits, and hire the one you like best. It’s just a matter of scheduling a meeting so we can better understand your business needs.