Nearshoring is a buzzword for U.S. brands looking for the best talent in shared time zones. In fact, 80% of North American-based companies are thinking of building nearshore teams.
Essentially, technology nearshoring has become a popular choice to get specialized manpower when creating business-essential products. The benefits of nearshore development teams are numerous, such as:
- Access to skilled developers
- Affordable rates
- Convenient logistics
- Cultural alignment
- …and more!
Let’s discover the advantages, challenges and best practices of managing a nearshore development team. In particular, we’ll analyze the potential of nearshoring to boost efficiency, scalability, innovation and beyond.
What Is a Nearshore Team?
A nearshore team is composed of professionals in a “close by” geographic region. The greatest advantage here is having overlapping time zones to establish real-time communication.
This is significantly different from other types of teaming such as:
- Offshore. Hiring professionals anywhere in the world, with no regard to geographic proximity. This model may cause friction due to differences in time zones, work cultures, communication styles, quality standards and more.
- Onshore. Hiring team members in-country to ensure close collaboration. Though effective, this option is much more expensive and may have limited available talent.
In comparison, nearshore development teams bring the best of both worlds: access to skilled talent and a client-fit approach to the logistics. Specifically, businesses are opting for technology nearshoring due to its powerful outcomes when used with the agile method, which emphasizes ongoing collaboration, iteration and delivery.
Key Benefits of Building a Nearshore Tech Team
There’s not just one reason – but many – why North American companies have increased remote hiring in South America by 70%. Here are key benefits of nearshore teams to keep top of mind.
Access to Skilled Talent
The #1 reason behind nearshoring is connecting with industry-leading developers. 46% of companies cited talent as their main driver – even more important than cost savings. Regions such as Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia are churning out skill-ready professionals.
Cost Efficiency
Cost is always a major factor when choosing to nearshore. Overall, hiring LatAm nearshore developers can reduce your budget by 40-50% compared to U.S. developers. You’ll also get cost savings related to savvy resource allocation, as nearshore development teams are known for their well-established processes.
Cultural and Time Zone Alignment
Nearshore collaboration involves teams in overlapping time zones, enabling seamless communication. At the same time, developers in nearshore locations tend to share cultural similarities and understand U.S. workplace expectations in-depth.
Scalability and Flexibility
33% of businesses choose to nearshore to achieve scalability. This level of flexibility is especially useful when undertaking large-scale technology products, where you can scale up or down based on new project needs. In turn, this can speed up time-to-market as well.
Risk Management
Building a nearshore team can also give you peace of mind, as it reduces certain risks related to security and quality. For example, you can lock down data and IP by choosing a nearshore location with the best legal protections.
Product Innovation
Finally, trusting nearshore experts can elevate innovation at your business. 10% of companies are looking to nearshore to attain greater innovation in their products and get a competitive edge in the market.
Nearshore IT Team Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Of course, nearshore team management isn’t foolproof. To maximize results, you’ll want to plan ahead for these common teaming challenges.
Communication Barriers
The #1 reason behind outsourcing failure is communication issues. Pay special attention to how your team sets up communication practices. Focus on maintaining daily check-ins, clear milestones and ongoing transparency.
Cultural Differences
Fostering cultural understanding can save you headaches down the road. From day 1, try to get everybody on the same page in terms of expectations, work styles and more. Embracing different approaches can also be beneficial, as companies with diversity are 39% more likely to outperform their peers.
Integration with Onshore Teams
A lack of team integration can quickly make a project fall apart. To accomplish seamless integration, be deliberate about setting up transparent workflows that everybody understands. You can even define ground rules in a remote workplace policy, if need be.
In addition, bring together your nearshore and in-house teams within a virtual office space where team members can connect easily, organize outside events and celebrate wins together.
Data and IP Protection
Finally, you’ll want to guarantee that your business data and IP are well-protected. Do your due diligence to create airtight security protocols, access controls and ongoing monitoring. You should also make sure every developer signs the right legal paperwork, such as SLAs and NDAs.
Best Practices for Building and Managing a Nearshore Team
Building a nearshore development team isn’t done overnight. To set up integrated, efficient teams, leverage these best practices. Doing so will streamline your nearshore team management and lead to greater outcomes.
1. Streamline Onboarding
Once you’ve selected your ideal nearshore partner or developers, fully integrate them through robust onboarding, including online training, documentation and team meet-and-greets. After all, studies suggest that strong onboarding can elevate new hire productivity by 62%.
2. Host Regular Check-Ins
Checking in with your nearshore developers regularly is a core value of the agile method. Daily stand-ups enable your developers to align work efforts and expectations on an ongoing basis.
3. Leverage Collaborative Tools
Equip your teams for success. Give all your nearshore team members access to collaboration tools and organize communication channels. Some big-name ones include: Slack, Trello, Hubstaff, Miro, Loom, Wooboard, etc. Don’t be afraid to try new tools, as they can make your processes more efficient and your teams more synergized.
4. Set Daily and Weekly Milestones
As your nearshore development team undergoes rapid sprints, you’ll need to coordinate ongoing efforts. Use the daily and weekly milestone method to clarify what each developer should be working on.
5. Foster Team Culture
Cross-border team culture can be difficult to nurture. Start by trusting and unifying your team. For example, make meetings collaborative, encourage peer-to-peer feedback and recognize hard work. Finally, sharing experiences, such as virtual coffee breaks or after-hours events, can do wonders for team comradery.
6. Monitor Team Progress
Last but not least, building a nearshore team is a continuous process. Keep tabs on your developers’ performance and satisfaction through regular surveys. From here, you can update workflows and make adjustments that meet the needs of your specific team.
How to Choose the Right Nearshore Partner
Whether you’re keen to hire a nearshore partner or team members, tread carefully during the selection process. While 78% of companies enjoy positive outsourcing relationships, you’ll want to ensure you find the right talent for your requirements.
During your search process, be sure to evaluate the following in-demand areas:
- Technical skills
- Cultural and business fit
- Previous projects and industry experience
- Work and communication style
- Logistics (including time zone, language, culture, etc.)
- Security protocols
- Scope of proposed SLA
Checking all these boxes will get you closer to hiring the ideal nearshore development team and ramping up your project without friction.
Build a World-Class Nearshore Development Team With TECLA
Reap the benefits of nearshore teams, including cost savings and savvy cross-border collaboration. Our actionable tips and best practices can guide you towards a more integrated approach to building a nearshore development team, so that you can drive results with new talent.
Successfully managing nearshore developers starts and begins with your people. To hire industry-best developers, trust talent experts like us. At TECLA, we boost your hiring strategy by connecting you to top-ranked nearshore developers across 18+ LatAm countries. Discuss your needs with our nearshore hiring specialists today!
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