How nearshore staff augmentation can meet tech talent needs
With staff shortages and a rise in the cost of materials and shipping in addition to the war in Ukraine, sourcing IT talent that allows you to continue trading profitably is critical. Every industry across the globe has been affected and it seems tech staffing is the first to suffer in terms of redundancies. Businesses are reacting to these rising costs and supply chain issues; surviving in this climate needs an agile mindset and innovative thinking.
How can companies continue to deliver projects with IT talent shortages?
For tech recruiters and businesses, the solution we’re going to look at is nearshore staff augmentation.
What is nearshore staff augmentation?
Nearshore staff augmentation means outsourcing IT roles such as Product Managers, Software Developers or DevOps engineers to a country or countries from the same geographic region as the parent company. It is distinct from outsourcing in that team augmentation still allows you to maintain control over your people. It’s a model that uses temporary contracts to fill short-term job requirements within your business. When companies outsource completely there is a specific requirement that is purchased and the risk comes through handing over the reins of your project to someone in another part of the world. Challenges such as different time zones can also hinder progress. Using nearshore staff augmentation means you have individuals based onsite and managed by you.
US and Latin America staff augmentation
In the past, the US has turned to countries such as China, India, and Romania to answer its tech talent needs. Whilst these countries are low in labor cost, the geographic distance from the new US means they are an offshore solution. Nearshore countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Mexico potentially do not offer rates as low as offshore countries yet deliver reduced hiring costs plus proximity to the US that allows this IT talent to be on site quickly. There are stacks of benefits to utilizing talent from Latin America, for one, students in these countries learn English at a young age which facilitates communication and easy integration with your team. Equally Spanish after English is the next most dominant spoken language in the US and historically there is much cultural crossover through immigration and geographical proximity especially for states like Texas. At graduate-level Latin American tech universities are strongly influenced by US academics.
Nearshore augmentation: a robust solution to market challenges
The bottom line is to survive 2023 and all the potential economic challenges and global market shifts, organizations and businesses will need to be agile. We all know that a lengthy hiring process slows projects down. Nearshore team augmentation gives flexibility to businesses to evolve the size of their teams as needed. Companies will need to adapt quickly to build resilience in the face of challenges. In addition to that will be the need to manage rising costs. What nearshore team augmentation does is provide the skill set needed without the same expenditure on staffing. Tech recruiters need to understand the nearshore market to facilitate this and Austin-based IT talent finders are in a prime position due to their strategic proximity to Mexico, the gateway to Latin America.