Building a dedicated offshore team can be a good idea when businesses face a workforce challenge related to long-term business goals that the local talent markets cannot meet.
If you are interested in the offshore staffing model but are not sure if it is the right hiring strategy for your business needs, the article below will help you recognize the situations where dedicated offshore teams can provide the greatest value.
Start With a Dedicated Offshore Team Assessment
When considering the possibility of outsourcing certain business operations to an offshore team, decision-makers need to first perform an internal workforce assessment that will help them better understand their staffing needs and whether hiring a dedicated offshore team is the right fit for their company.
Here’s a quick overview of what this process can look like:
- Identify the business needs and why additional staff is needed in the first place
- Evaluate the current capacity of the internal team and determine whether offshore staffing can help relieve pressure
- Pinpoint the specific set of skills the internal team is currently missing
- Determine whether the new workload demands are likely to continue in the long term, or whether they are temporary, seasonal, cyclical, or hard to predict
- Decide which responsibilities you want your in-house team to retain and which you want to delegate to the offshore team
- Clearly define the roles the offshore team will be expected to take on
- Determine the size and structure of the offshore team your business needs, based on the previous findings
- Establish clear performance expectations and success metrics that the offshore team will be measured against
- Set a realistic budget and timeline for building and integrating the team
By identifying exactly which operational gaps they want to address and clearly defining the expectations the external team will be expected to meet, decision-makers can make the process of finding the right offshore staffing partner much easier and more streamlined.
When Should You Hire Dedicated Offshore Teams?
In addition to the internal workforce assessment, there are also several practical situations that can point to the need for a different hiring approach and suggest that building a dedicated offshore team is the right way to go. These include:
When You Want to Hire Quickly
One of the biggest advantages of the dedicated staffing model is that the partners that offer these services continuously source and screen available talent and maintain extensive networks of professionals ready to join new teams.
Therefore, companies that have an immediate need for bolstering the capacity of their existing workforce can leverage them to access talent pools and find the specialists they need without going through lengthy and costly recruitment processes.
When You Need a Whole Team Rather Than Individual Hires
While there are various staffing models primarily designed around helping companies fill individual skill gaps in their workforce, the defining strength that separates dedicated staffing from other staff augmentation models is its ability to support broader requirements.
This model allows companies to build an entire dedicated offshore team, which includes professionals with clearly defined roles, seniority levels, reporting lines, and an already established team structure.
The best part is, the model allows companies to take complete control over the direction of the team and align its work with its culture and long-term strategy, while the offshore staffing partner will handle all of the operational details, including compliance, IT, and benefits,
When You Want to Circumvent Local Talent Shortages
Another situation in which offshore staffing can prove to be an effective solution is when companies struggle to find the professionals they need in their local talent markets.
Due to the growing demand for specialized skills, rising salary expectations, and intense hiring competition, talent shortages are becoming a more and more persistent pain point for companies in multiple sectors.
Dedicated staffing allows companies to tap into global talent pools and find highly qualified specialists in more competitive labor markets where qualified talent can still be accessed at a more sustainable cost.
When the Work Requires Long-Term Support
In addition to the hiring need, the very nature of the work itself can sometimes be a strong indicator of whether a long-term or a short-term staffing model is better suited to perform it.
For example, project-based tasks such as:
- Redesigning a website
- Migrating to a new cloud system
- Conducting a cybersecurity audit
Only need to be done once, and in many cases, they can be handled effectively with a traditional outsourcing arrangement.
On the other hand, ongoing operational responsibilities like:
- Software bug tracking
- L1 helpdesk support
- Performing daily database backups
Require continuous attention as well as familiarity with the company’s technology, workflows, and business priorities. For this reason, they’re better left with a dedicated offshore team.
When Team Integration Is Important
Finally, opting to build a dedicated offshore team is also the better option when close collaboration and coordination between the internal and external teams is important for achieving the desired business outcomes.
Some projects, like product development, require that the expertise provided by the external team align with the hiring company’s business context and internal priorities.
Dedicated teams are better suited for this type of project because they don’t work in isolation like traditional outsourcing providers, but rather, completely integrate with the hiring company’s processes, workflows, and core business values.
Simple Step-by-Step Guide to Finding the Right Team
If you believe that offshore staffing may be the ideal solution for your workforce challenges, all you have to do now is find the right partner that will help you build your outsourced dedicated team. Here’s a simple yet informative guide that can walk you through this process:
- Start by conducting an internal workplace assessment, similar to the one we walked you through in the earlier sections of this article
- Once you identify the specific skill gaps and roles that need filling, you can start researching dedicated staffing providers
- During your research, focus on finding providers with a strong talent network and experience in the relevant industry
- Reach out to the providers that seem like a good fit, share your hiring requirements with them, and explain what kind of team you want to build
- Compare the staffing proposals you will receive from the providers based on the hiring strategy, estimated timeline, and service model they recommend
- Conduct interviews with the offshore workers to learn more about their technical skills, experience, and suitability to work with your internal team
- Choose the provider you think is the best fit to meet your business, technical, and operational requirements
After you build the dedicated offshore team you need, be sure to set clear expectations and establish clear communication processes with your dedicated specialists. If you’re able to foster a good relationship with them, this partnership can evolve into a natural offshore expansion for your business that will support your operations in the long-term.
Summary
Offshore staffing can be a great solution in a number of situations, including when new positions need to be filled quickly, when the local labor market offers limited access to qualified talent, and when the business requires a whole external team that will integrate with internal employees and provide long-term support.
However, to choose the right staffing partner, businesses need to understand exactly what their internal teams need, recognize the areas where they may be lacking, and clearly define what they expect from a dedicated offshore team.
