Having talented and responsive developers on-hand to help with all your software needs is a must for any growing business. But what do you do when the local talent pool looks rather shallow or your budget doesn’t stretch far enough?

Hiring dedicated developers to form an offshore development team is a fantastic low-cost, low-risk solution. So, what is offshoring, and how can you find dedicated developers to help with your project??

The past decade has seen a huge shift in the way we work, with technology becoming the foundation on which many businesses, workflows and processes are built. Technological advancements are showing no signs of slowing down, so having high-calibre development talent at your disposal is a must to compete in the modern business landscape.

However, 41% of employers say talent shortages are a significant issue they face when hiring developers. This is likely because many businesses rely on traditional hiring practices, recruiting talent from their local area. While exceptional talent does exist locally, the cream of the crop is typically snapped up by tech giants who can offer unmatchable benefits and salary packets.

In a world where technology renders geographical boundaries redundant, why not look a little further afield? That’s where offshoring comes in.

Offshoring is when a company bases a process, or multiple processes, overseas. In this article, we’re discussing hiring developers to form offshore teams located in a country other than your own — namely India.

Be careful not to confuse offshoring with outsourcing; the latter describes when you work with a software house or freelancer to access development resources on a short-term, temporary basis. These workers are not dedicated to your company and will be working on multiple projects at once.

A dedicated developer is a talented developer, either a generalist or specialising in a particular technology or output, who your company hires to work on a specific project. They can work full-time or part-time, depending on your project’s requirements.

You can hire dedicated developers as part of a dedicated team via an offshore management company. While these developers and teams operate remotely overseas, they form a part of your wider team and integrate with your business’s culture.

Building an offshore development team is a great option for many businesses. Here are some indications that a dedicated development team might be right for your project:

• When you need support for a one-off project: If your business needs support for a one-off or ad-hoc project but doesn’t have any existing in-house development support, hiring for a permanent role incurs high costs. There’s also no guarantee of work for that person once the project is complete. Hiring a dedicated team for the duration of the project offers a flexible and low-cost solution.
• When your in-house team doesn’t have capacity: Why you already have in-house development support, you may need additional resources to complete a project that your permanent employees don’t have the capacity for. For example, your in-house team may focus on your core product while your offshore team works on new initiatives.
• Projects with clearly defined scopes: While offshore development teams can work within agile methodologies, you may find they’re better suited for projects with set deliverables that are unlikely to change.
• When you need added flexibility: Offshore development teams aren’t only great for one-off projects, but can become a long-term investment you make in your business’s development. Unlike teams of permanent employees, your offshore team can flex up and down in terms of hours used and size, depending on your requirements.
• When speed, efficiency, and cost take priority: If you need your project delivered faster than the speed of light, a flexible, dedicated development team can help you meet your deadline without incurring huge fees.

There are dozens of benefits to building an offshore dedicated development team. Here are four of the most compelling reasons to hire dedicated programmers:

Hiring costs and paying employees are two of the most costly aspects of running a business. Building an in-house team from scratch is incredibly costly. To get access to the best local talent, you must offer a competitive salary and additional benefits, like sick pay and health insurance. There are also the additional costs of rent, utility bills, maintenance fees and insurance to consider.

Offshoring is much cheaper, comparatively. While paying a fair wage is important, hiring internationally opens you up to a global talent pool where salary expectations may differ. For example, the average annual income of a software developer in India is around five lakhs ($6,000), compared to the salary of $90,000 or more commonly expected in the USA.

While hiring full-time, permanent employees guarantees you access to resources for a set number of hours a week, many businesses need a greater degree of flexibility.

When you hire an offshore team, you can flex the hours and number of developers needed up and down each month, depending on the work available. That means when you can save money when there is less work available.

There’s also no limit to how large your team can grow — or how fast you can scale it. Whereas traditional recruitment processes can take months, offshore teams can be built in a matter of days.

As mentioned above, offshore teams can be built quickly. Offshore management companies typically have a pool of vetted talent they can introduce you to, expediting the hiring process. They often manage the process on your behalf, saving you the hassle of finding windows in your diary for endless interviews. That means no delays in getting started.

Looking beyond borders means gaining access to a larger, global, more diverse talent network. While there are many talented developers at home, they’re often already working for huge corporations or for themselves. Luckily, several emerging markets are rivalling the US and UK in terms of development talent. For starters, India is the largest provider of IT outsourcing worldwide, with over a million students with engineering degrees entering the job market each year. India also has a young population, so this talent pool is only set to grow.

India is fast becoming one of the leading offshore destinations. Why?

• Reduced costs associated with hiring
• A huge talent pool that is set to grow
• The Indian government supports the growth of the IT industry
• The country is a leader in the software development industry
• There’s a high level of proficiency in programming languages
• India is a leader in global innovation
• Indian developers operate with a global mindset, working across timezones and languages.

Read more about the benefits of offshore development in India.

There are several ways to find talented developers to join your offshore team. Let’s look at a couple.

You can hire dedicated developers directly from talent platforms such as Upwork or contact them directly on networks like LinkedIn. The pros to this approach are that you are in control and can negotiate your terms and rates; however, there are additional risks in vetting the talent, and the interview, negotiation and hiring process can take months.

A great alternative is to work with an offshore management company. These companies are experts in offshore hiring, with experience working with businesses to build dedicated development teams. They have a deep understanding of the industry and can manage the hiring, interviewing, negotiation and set-up processes on your behalf, delivering fantastic results while allowing you to concentrate on other matters.

WeAssemble specialises in building talented and flexible offshore development teams for innovative businesses like yours.

Want to know how to hire dedicated developers in 2022? Let’s delve into our process.

The first step is for us to understand your business and project goals. During this stage, we will create job descriptions for each role and define the challenge.

The developers we recommend will be selected based on the roles you need to fill, the technologies you work with, the specialist support you require, and your business’s culture.

Using our Filtered Talent process, which targets the top 3% of developers in India, we compile a list of CVs. Once these have gone through prescreening and we have made first contact, we share them for you to review.

We only recommend the most talented developers but also aim to partner you with a team that aligns with your ways of working and blends in seamlessly with your existing team.

We’re rigorous in our approach to recruitment; this stage includes logical skills testing, technical expertise assessments and additional mock assessments that review each candidate’s abilities and how they approach developing solutions.

Successful candidates are then interviewed: we recommend an in-depth HR review to get to know the candidate better, a manager review that reviews the cultural fit, and a final stage interview where you get to meet the best of the bunch.

Once you’ve chosen your developers, your dedicated Europe-based Account Manager liaises with our expert HR team to extend offers on your behalf. This entire process can take as few as ten days.

Finally, we get your new team set up. WeAssemble sets your team up with first-rate equipment, gets them connected to your technologies and trains them on your management processes.

It’s important to define how you’ll manage the team; directly or via a project manager. Most clients use a project management tool like Jira and a communications tool like Slack to keep communication running smoothly.

Most developers work across time zones and speak fluent English, reducing the challenges of working with a team based in another country — or another continent. Plus, our multilingual Europe-based account management team is well-placed to offer translation services where needed.

We always offer a 2-week trial, so you can make sure you’re happy with the team we’ve assembled for you. During this time, we work with you to assess your team’s abilities on the job, their cultural fit and their alignment with your goals. If you’re not happy, there’s no obligation to pay. But we’re confident you’ll be delighted.

From this point on, you can scale your team up and down each month as needed.

Get a cost for your dedicated development team. Our pricing is designed to be flexible, just like your team, and we think you’ll be pleasantly pleased with our competitive costs.