A Deep Dive into the Benefits and Challenges of Hiring Remote Developers
Flexible hiring models like outstaffing are making significant headway in the business world, especially in the IT sector. Companies are looking to hire remote developers through outstaffing to work alongside their in-house teams and meet their software development needs.
However, amidst the growing popularity of remote work cultures, some business leaders are still in a dilemma about hiring dedicated developers. This is why, here, we will discuss the current challenges along with the top benefits of hiring remote developers.
If you are considering hiring remote software developers, this blog will help you make the right decision. Go through it now.
What is a Remote Software Developer?
A remote software developer is an IT professional located in a different physical location than your in-house team. These experts perform the same functions as any software engineer does but are often hired on a project basis.
Once you hire remote software developers, you can count on them to build your custom software solutions effectively. Besides, unlike in-house developers, these professionals will work dedicatedly on your project and bring results on time as expected.
Some of the key qualities that every software developer must possess are in-depth knowledge of software development, communication skills, time management capabilities, and problem-solving skills. All these qualities are a must-have for any software developer.
Benefits of Hiring Remote Developers
Finding the best IT talent for your software development needs locally can be quite challenging. Your search radius is limited, and you might find it difficult to match a candidate’s skillset with your precise requirements.
Hiring remote web developers, on the other hand, not only eliminates these challenges but also offers several other benefits to your business. Let us shed light on some of these benefits.
1. Minimal Cost and Time for Hiring
Time and money are arguably the two most important business assets that every company wants to save as much as possible. Hiring remote software developers gives organizations the best of both worlds by saving them time and money spent on the hiring process.
Companies can hire remote developers from countries with lower costs of living instead of paying competitive salaries to in-house employees. Similarly, hiring remote developers also saves you time, as they can quickly hire pre-vetted developers from an outstaffing company.
2. Hire the Best Developers From Anywhere
As mentioned earlier, finding local talent who fits your software development needs can be difficult. But once you decide to hire remotely, you can search anywhere you want to find that one software engineer whose profile is perfect for your development project.
Moreover, as the global shortage of IT talent increases, it’s ideal for recruiters to have a wider search radius. Based on your project, you can look for the right expert with top skills. For example, if you want to hire Angular developers, you can look for experienced Angular experts.
3. Enhanced Scalability and Flexibility
Given the dynamic nature of the tech world, companies look for more scalable and flexible solutions for their development needs. Hiring remote developers provides exactly that by allowing businesses to scale up or down their workforce as desired.
In remote hiring, companies can hire remote software developers when they need them and let them go once the job is done. This ensures that they don’t have to manage additional employees and also reduces unwanted capital investment on employees in the long term.
4. Round-the-Clock Development
When you hire remote developers, they will most likely work in a different time zone. This time zone difference lets businesses benefit from round-the-clock development, leading to faster time to market. As opposed to in-house hiring, where the project is carried out from one place only.
Along with faster development, round-the-clock service also gives companies a chance to offer 24/7 support to their software users. No matter when a user needs support for anything regarding your software, the remote developers can be available even when you are not.
5. Significant Boost in Productivity
As someone who’s wondering whether to hire remote developers or not, you should know that outstaffed developers are more productive. It is so because they work dedicatedly on the assigned project without unnecessary distractions, which often arise in an in-house setting.
Once the tasks are assigned, remote developers work with minimal distractions to get the job done as quickly as possible. Besides, since developers are highly focused on one task, they are also likely to build software with fewer mistakes, hence requiring little to no changes later on.
Challenges of Hiring Remote Web Developers
Hiring remote software developers has several significant advantages over the traditional hiring model. Some of these advantages are mentioned above that you must know about. However, despite these benefits, there are certain challenges that remote hiring possesses.
Here, we have listed a few of these challenges that you must know about before you hire dedicated remote developers.
1. Communication Gap
Effective communication among a software development team is the key to a successful project. Business leaders need to communicate their project goals, work details, etc., with the developers precisely to ensure the project is headed in the right direction.
However, in a remote setting, maintaining communication can be difficult since developers are working from different places and time zones. Team leaders need to schedule regular meetings as per everybody’s availability to track progress and maintain complete transparency.
Solution: If you hire remote developers for your business, you can rely on modern collaboration strategies to avoid communication gaps. You could leverage the latest remote collaboration tools, like Slack and Basecamp where all important data and communication can happen easily.
2. Time Zone Differences
Another common challenge of hiring remote web developers is streamlining the development process while developers work in different time zones. You need to find ways to bring everyone on the same page and keep remote developers in sync all the time.
Apart from this, the time zone difference also makes it harder to monitor remote developers’ work and determine how productive they are. This is one of the main challenges that make employers think twice before hiring remote software developers.
Solution: It’s common to worry about the remote developer’s productivity since you cannot monitor their work physically. This is where time management tools prove to be a great asset for checking remote developers’ work. Team TimeZone and Clockwise are two popular tools.
3. SkillSet Evaluation
Regardless of the type of software developer recruiters are looking for, they select candidates with adequate experience and skill sets. Every company has its evaluation process to find the best developers. However, accurate skill set evaluation might be quite difficult in remote hiring.
Therefore, employers have to be extra careful while hiring remote developers to assess their credibility and suitability for their business. Even if they find developers from a reliable outstaffing company, they need to assess each candidate to see if they fit your project needs.
Solution: Skillset evaluation in a remote setting is a minor challenge that can be easily dealt with. All recruiters have to do is design a test task and assign it to candidates while monitoring them on video calls. This will give them an idea of whether a developer is ideal for them or not.
Bottom Line
It is not a surprise that hiring a remote web developer to work on your project has both benefits and challenges. While it has more benefits than challenges, you cannot overlook the challenges as they might prove costly later. This is why you should familiarize yourself with both.
Learn about the benefits, like faster and more budget-friendly development, and the challenges, like the risk of miscommunication, so that you can prepare accordingly. Many companies are now finding solutions to overcome remote hiring challenges and make the most of off-site hiring.
Teqnovos is a well-known outstaffing company where you can build your team of remote developers. Our pre-vetted developers will help you meet your development goals quickly and efficiently. Get in touch with our experts today and hire dedicated developers from us.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why should I hire remote developers?
There are many reasons to hire remote developers for your software development projects. For example, hiring remote specialists saves money on operations costs like infrastructure. Additionally, remote developers are easier to scale and are a great way to provide round-the-clock service. Lastly, the main reason to hire remote developers is that you get to work with the best IT talent for your business.
2. What are the challenges of hiring remote developers?
Even though remote hiring is highly successful and a practical choice for businesses today, it comes with its share of challenges. Some of these challenges include communication gaps since the developers are situated in a faraway country and time zone management. When your team of developers works in different time zones, you have to manage them accordingly to align their work with your project objectives.
3. How do I hire remote developers?
The best way to hire remote developers for your business is through outstaffing. It is a remote hiring model that lets you find reliable software developers from across the globe and work alongside your in-house development team. In this model, you don’t hand over your project to outside developers but augment your onsite team with remote resources. Outstaffing is time-saving, cost-effective, and highly efficient. Teqnovos is a reliable outstaffing company where you can hire remote developers with expertise in different technologies.
4. How do I manage remote developers effectively?
To reap the maximum benefits of working with remote developers, you first need to know how to manage them effectively. If you are collaborating with remote professionals for the first time, here are a few tips that you must consider:
- Strengthen communication through remote collaboration tools.
- Avoid micromanagement, and trust your hired remote developers.
- Set clear expectations and project goals right from the beginning.
- Create proper schedules for meetings, feedback, etc.
- Use the time zone difference to your advantage through round-the-clock development.
