Onboarding skilled and qualified tech talent is the ultimate need of the hour and also one of the greatest challenges in current times. Newly emerging technologies and rapid automation calls for a skilled workforce. 

However, reports from 2022 show that 63% of IT leaders in the United States have been unable to fill three or more positions. Additionally, by 2030, the overall IT skills gap may reach over 4.3 million unfilled jobs.  

But you will have nothing to worry about if you know how to use offshore hiring for your benefit. In this blog, we will discuss everything you should know about offshore staff augmentation to use it for optimizing the pace and quality of your IT projects.  

 What is Offshore Staff Augmentation?   

It is a strategic approach towards hiring dedicated, remote teams or employees from other countries to optimize the operations of in-house teams. Thus specific tasks or roles are outsourced to teams or individuals situated in an offshore location. Such professionals work like an integral part of your team handling specific roles and collaborating on projects within the organization. 

Specifically for IT projects, this approach allows you to leverage the talent and skills from other countries by hiring dedicated offshore developers. For example, you are a US-based tech company, you can augment your in-house team with an offshore software development company in India.  

7 Ways Offshore Staff Augmentation Affects Your Business Growth  

When you hire offshore developers, you open doors to various possibilities and growth opportunities for your business. We’ve listed down some positive effects of offshore hiring for you. 

Seamless Operations Regardless Of Local Challenges 

There are various unavoidable situations like weather conditions, social crises, etc that directly impact a business. While power outages, hurricanes, or other conflicting conditions take a toll on your operations, your offshore team will ensure that all work is done. Despite any challenges in your home country, your work and progress will be taken care of. Especially, when you’re handling IT projects with tight deadlines, offshore software development services come to your rescue. 

Operate In Multiple Time-Zones  

Working in multiple time-zones allows your teams to operate longer than ever. For example, if yours is a US-based company, working with augmented teams in eastern parts of the world will eventually keep your teams operating 24/7. Moreover, the good thing is, many offshore staff augmentation providers like us offer time-zone overlapping services. This ensures both comfort and productivity for the teams.  

Expand Business By Freeing In-House Resources 

By allocating tardy and repetitive development tasks to the offshore IT team, you free-up your in-house team from a lot of unnecessary workload. Additionally, if your core operations involve software development, remote/augmented staff can save you salaries, infrastructural, and headhunting costs. 

When trying to meet your staffing requirements, the average cost per hire in the IT sector falls between $3,000 and $5,000. But the good news is, you can save up to 70% on staffing costs with offshore hiring. You can reinvest the savings and revenue for expansion.  

Offshore Staffing Ensures Greater Profits 

As said earlier, outsourcing tasks/projects that consume a lot of time/resources, you can free-up your in-house resources and put them to better use. They can focus more on the core operations of your business and perform significantly better. 

The table below may help you understand better. 

You need to spend significantly less on employee benefits, retention and other fixed costs. Thus your overall in-house expenditure cripples', leading to greater profits.  

Better Turnaround Time  

With an offshore staff, your team will be able to work in multiple time-zones and operate 24/7. This gives you a chance to significantly improve your turnaround time. While you and your in-house team can sleep peacefully, the dedicated offshore developers will ensure the progress of your ongoing projects. This will impact the average delivery or turnaround time for your company. 

Work More, Train Less 

Offshore staff augmentation lets you skip the hassle of training and get straight to work. The remote staff you onboard is pre-vetted and well-skilled. Therefore, they can start working on the tasks without additional training. 

On the safer side, offshore staff augmentation companies have large teams of qualified professionals. If you’re not satisfied with a developer’s performance, you can ask for their replacement.  

Avoid Burn-Outs And Improve Productivity 

Better distribution and work collaboration decreases the chances of burn-outs among employees. A study by Stanford University suggests that remote working makes employees 13% more productive. 

Thus you can leverage the benefits offshore staff augmentation services for business expansion and employee retention. You can relax and come with better ways to expand your business while your in-house and offshore software development teams seamlessly manage operations. 

Additionally, hiring offshore developers for your software projects: 

• Ensures easy adaptation to new technologies and helps your in-house team stay ahead of the curve. 
• Attain maximum client control by effectively handling aspects like project goals, deadlines, and budget.  
• Scale up or down as and when needed. 

Moreover, research and decision-making plays an important role in finding reliable offshore teams. Continue reading as the next section holds cues for the same. 

How to Choose Your Offshore Software Development Partner? 

Every other search result for this query will list down the following points: 

• Research well  
• Ask for experience 
• Check portfolios and client testimonials 
• Consider pricing models and policies  

While these are all valid things to do, there are a few more necessary aspects when looking for reliable offshore staff augmentation services. 

Check Time-Zone Compatibility 

Real-time collaboration is crucial for successful projects and tasks completion. While it may not be possible to seek an offshore development partner with the same time-zone, look for the ones that are fine with time-zone overlapping. 

This not only improves communication and collaboration but also improves the scope for early delivery of projects and more control. 

Domain And Technical Expertise  

When considering expertise for offshore developers/development teams, make sure you consider both technical and domain expertise. 

• Domain Expertise: This refers to the development experience for specific industrial niches like healthcare, fintech, travel and hospitality, etc. 
• Technical Expertise: It focuses on programming languages, frameworks and coding skills for example PHP, Java, React, Node.JS, etc. It also includes experience with technologies like machine learning, AI, and cloud computing. 

A perfect offshore staff augmentation partner should be able to provide you with a workforce that has the best domain and technical expertise. 

Project Management Approach 

Before you sign up for services, discuss the project management approach that the augmented team will follow. This includes giving and receiving updates, deadline policies, communication channels used, etc. As professionals, they shouldn’t need excessive guidance. Communicating these requirements earlier saves up a lot of time and confusion for everyone. 

Language Compatibility 

While an offshore team comes with interesting perks and benefits, make sure that there’s no factor that hinders communication. Going across countries for development services often brings up linguistic barriers. The best development partner is someone who can communicate clearly with you and knows how to flawlessly speak and write your language. 

Trial Period And Resource Swapping 

It’s better to start with a trial to see if you’re truly satisfied with the performance of offshore developers. If you think that the developers you onboarded to your offshore team do not meet your project requirements or expectations, you can ask the service provider company to swap them with other potential developers. All companies may not give such an option. But it will be great to look for the one that does. 

Along with portfolios, experience, and client testimonials, considering these points will help you make a better decision regarding your offshore software development partner. 

Offshore Software Development Company Over Freelancer 

When looking to setup an offshore team, you generally have two options: 

• Hire freelancers from platforms like Upwork, Fiver, etc 
• Consult an offshore software development company 

While both choices have their own set of pros and cons, seeking services from a fully-fledged software development company gives you an edge over freelancers. 

How? 

• Backups For Uncertain Situations: 

Freelancers may not necessarily have a dedicated workspace and all crucial resources. However, as a growing company, we have an established workplace with all the necessary resources. Therefore, even as an offshore augmented team, we can ensure that all tasks assigned to us are completed on time.  

• Better Alternatives: 

If you are not satisfied with the performance of a freelancer or they are unavailable due to some reason, you may need to look for another candidate. But with a software development company like us, you can simply choose another developer from the wide talent pool. Also, despite any other barriers, your work will not be hindered. 

• Undivided Attention: 

Unlike freelancers who may handle multiple projects at a time. Software development companies provide you with dedicated developers or teams that work exclusively for your project. 

Thus, you can ensure project success and meet deadlines better with a reliable offshore software development company. 

Need more help for setting up your remote team? Read Our Definitive Guide For Hiring Remote Developers

Scale Your Team With Narola Infotech 

We’re a team of 350+ vetted professionals, catering to the requirements of growing business across various industries for 17+ years with our competent digital solutions. With our expertise, proficiency, and enthusiasm we can help you unlock the best potential of offshore staff augmentation for you. 
Whether you’re looking for a dedicated team or individual developers, we can make all necessary arrangements for you within 3 days. Our flexible engagement models let you scale your workforce the way you want. 
We would be pleased to include you to our community of 1500+ happy clients from across 50+ countries. Reach out to us with your requirements and let us find you the best solution.