Why IT Staff Nearshoring is right for you
June 17, 2024
Why IT Staff Nearshoring is right for you
Now more than ever, businesses need to leverage technology to remain competitive and meet the ever-changing needs of their customers. Many companies are turning to IT staff nearshoring to get the full benefit of that leverage. Why?
Businesses are finding it challenging to recruit and retain the right IT talent. Recent changes in working practices, such as the work-at-home culture that grew during the pandemic, have changed the IT recruitment landscape.
With an increasing number of businesses recognizing the need for a technical strategy to underpin their growth, high-quality IT staff have become a much sought-after commodity. This need for staff comes when industry forecasts show that demand has dramatically outstripped supply. Despite massive layoffs in the IT industry over the past few years, demand still can't be met.
A report recently suggested that nearly a quarter of businesses in the UK are losing more than US$125k a year due to IT staff shortages. Reports from the US paint a similar grim story.
What's the best solution for businesses that have identified a great marketing and growth strategy but are thwarted by a lack of IT staff?
The answer is IT staff nearshoring, a type of Staff Augmentation. And it is more cost-effective! Nearshore software development is an especially budget-friendly approach.
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
Simply put, IT staff augmentation is a flexible and cost-effective way of covering staffing gaps. It involves hiring skilled IT professionals on a temporary basis without adding them to the payroll.
Staff augmentation allows companies to access a large talent pool and scale their teams up or down as needed. The staff augmentation team works together with the existing IT staff or focuses on a different project as required. This flexibility enables a business to quickly fill a specific skills gap in their existing IT staff without affecting their permanent headcount.
It is a great way to manage a fluctuating workload and tackle short-term projects.
What are IT Staff Nearshoring Services?
As previously mentioned, nearshore services are a form of staff augmentation. The difference is that the nearshore team is located in a neighboring country within the same or similar time zone.
Nearshore staff augmentation offers advantages over US-based staff augmentation by accessing a larger pool of skilled overseas professionals. Currently, the US is experiencing a shortage of experienced IT staff in many industry segments. Those staff that are available often command high salaries and have equally high expectations regarding their packages.
Nearshoring taps into the large pools of skilled resources available in nearby countries. Due to the lower cost of living in these countries, hiring staff is typically less expensive without compromising quality.
Nearshoring thus brings two immediate benefits:
1. Access to a larger pool of skills.
2. The ability to hire cost-effectively creates the opportunity to have a larger team, if necessary, to complete a project more quickly.
How does Nearshoring compare to Offshoring?
Nearshoring and offshoring are types of staff augmentation. Both take advantage of large pools of highly skilled individuals located outside the US, who are available quickly and more cost-effectively than US-located staff.
Both take responsibility for recruiting and managing their staff's costs, which relieves pressure from their clients.
However, key differences between the two can significantly affect a project's quality and success. Let's consider the key issues in the nearshoring vs offshoring debate:
Offshoring
Offshoring typically involves staff located in countries or regions far from the US. These include Eastern Europe, India, and Africa. Some of these countries are well-known for their offshoring prowess, and justifiably so.
Offshoring in these countries has become popular in Europe, such as the United Kingdom.
Problems often faced in the US with offshore staff augmentation are mainly threefold:
1. Time differences can seriously affect the smooth running of a project. The time difference between the US and offshore staff augmentation teams can be 8 to 12 hours. Meetings, support, error correction, etc., can become challenging with such significant time differences.
2. Language is frequently an issue. While an offshore staff augmentation company may use English-speaking staff to some extent, it is often only the higher-level staff who are truly fluent. Your IT staff must constantly ensure the development team has correctly understood their requirements. Accents and idioms can cause unexpected communication issues.
3. Culture can also lead to confusion. One reason the UK has embraced offshoring is the commonality of culture it shares with India and Eastern Europe. Neither share the same depth of commonality with the US.
Nearshoring
The name nearshoring clearly indicates the proximity of the staff being hired.
That nearness brings with it significant advantages:
1. Being close to the US means that the time differences, if any, are one or two hours only. In many cases, there are none. Questions can be resolved immediately, and support will be provided in real-time. The nearshore team can easily collaborate with your staff because they work in the same time zone, on the same day, and on the same project.
2. IT staff widely speak American English throughout the Latin American region. A nearshore software development company will provide staff, from project leaders to developers, who will be fluent in both the language and the American idioms related to IT.
This fluency removes many of the risks of miscommunication that often slow down a project.
3. While all LATAM countries have distinctive cultures, there is a commonality with the US. Family values, cuisine and entertainment are very similar or shared. Travel between the two is common. This especially true in Mexico.
This cultural commonality will not directly impact a project, but it will make collaboration between teams easier and remove the sense of remoteness so common with offshoring.
Is IT Nearshore Staff Augmentation right for you?
Today, like never before, US-based companies face challenges in convincing their staff to return to the office or attracting new candidates for on-site positions. For reasons such as these, IT nearshoring is growing at a surprising rate, with more companies recognizing the benefits of hiring a nearshore team from abroad.
To summarise why nearshoring is the winner in the nearshoring vs offshoring debate, consider these points:
The benefits include:
- Immediate access to skilled English-speaking IT staff with the right qualifications.
- No change in headcount.
- Avoid paying the taxes, benefits, and other costs associated with permanent staff.
- Broaden the skills of your own team by exposure to outside experts.
- The staff are only contracted for as long or as little as you need them.
- It's cost-effective hiring at often significantly lower rates.
How to Choose the Right IT Nearshore Staff Augmentation Provider?
Businesses must partner with a reliable nearshore software development company to maximize the benefits of IT nearshore staff augmentation.
As a minimum, the nearshore staff augmentation provider should offer:
- A rigorous vetting process: The provider should have a high quality standard and a proven track record of delivering successful projects. They should also have a thorough screening process to ensure the professionals they hire have the required skills, experience, and attitude.
- A transparent and flexible approach: The nearshore software development company should have a clear, honest communication style and willingness to adapt to the client's needs and preferences. They should also provide regular feedback and reports on the project's progress and performance.
- A robust support system: The nearshore staff augmentation company should have a dedicated account manager and a team of experts who can guide, assist, and troubleshoot throughout the project lifecycle. They should also have a robust infrastructure and security system to ensure the smooth and safe operation of the project.
Global Triangles
Since 2015, Global Triangles has been a US-based company offering IT nearshore staff augmentation to clients across North America. They offer affordable solutions, including nearshore software development, that enable their clients to achieve their goals. Their personalized services and reliable team allow them to be productive and reactive to any new challenges in each project. They pride themselves on generating agreements that work for their clients and teams.
Global Triangles utilizes a strong team of English-speaking Mexican IT developers, each carefully chosen for their work ethic and professionalism.
The company has a portfolio of successful projects in various domains, such as e-commerce, education, healthcare, and entertainment. Their nearshore teams are English-fluent engineers who can work on multiple technologies and platforms, such as web, mobile, cloud, AI, and blockchain.
Garry Lea, the CEO of Global Triangles, says:
"At Global Triangles, we believe that IT nearshore services are the future of IT outsourcing, as they offer the best of both worlds: quality and affordability. We are committed to providing our clients with the best talent, the best solutions, and the best results. We are not just a service provider; we are a partner in your success."
