Lately, remote work became everyday life for most of us. As we mentioned in our previous blog post, many companies were forced to switch from an onsite working mode to a fully remote one overnight. It all happened due to the pandemic COVID-19. Reorganizing the whole office, along with its structures and habits for some of them, was a challenge. Others were perfectly prepared. Our processes and long experience of outsourcing Applover’s developers to other companies made us perfectly prepared for those #stayathome times.
We know that some of you are not convinced that it’s possible to work with remote developers and lean on the idea of outsourcing IT. For those who still are not sure and are considering the pros and cons of outsourcing, trying to find reasons to work with remote developers, here are some strong arguments in favor of doing so.
What is outsourcing?
First of all, for those of you who are not familiar with the idea – here is the outsourcing definition. In a nutshell, it’s a business practice of hiring employees outside of the company to perform services that traditionally were performed in-house. What motivates companies to go for outsourcing IT? It’s a practice usually undertaken as a cost-cutting measure. It’s not the only reason to do so! Let’s take a look at what are the reasons why outsourcing is a choice you should consider.
The 10 reasons why should you consider outsourcing IT
1. Higher productivity
A report published by IEEE on “What Predicts Software Developer’s Productivity?” claims that developers’ productivity is strongly related to task variety and ability to work remotely. Another research showed a 13% increase in productivity while working away from the office. Employees working remotely had many more options to choose from. It applied to work hours and a possibility to find the most suitable workflow.
Remote work gives developers more freedom and the opportunity to work when they’re most productive during the day. Let’s imagine that a developer is most productive between 10 PM and 1 AM. You may never be able to make the most of their talents once you require them to do a 9-5 workday. Outsourced developers are mainly working from homes. They know what and when to do to make it exactly how you want it. Moreover, they are outside people. They can bring a lot of value to your already existing team, bringing them new ideas to develop your product easier or better. There is often the case when we sit on something too long to see the simplest solution that is in front of us.
2. Lower infrastructure costs
A few years ago, people were talking about NVIDIA headquarters. It took 370 million dollars to design and build construction that reflects the unique personalities of company employees. One can say that the high costs of designing and building modern buildings are not surprising, but let’s take every employer’s point of view.
Hiring a developer on your own means, you need to spend money on a physical workspace designed to attract talent and keep them fully engaged. We’re not even talking about necessities such as fast internet connection, stationery supplies, or coffee. Let’s consider the last one. According to the research site Cost Owl, the average American company spends for coffee anywhere from $50 to even $125 per employee annually. As Radosław, our CEO, mentioned in his article on Medium – remote work gives more and more opportunities for businesses that can optimize their costs. So instead of hiring developers to work right at your office, think of hiring remote programmers. They will choose a place that makes them happy and productive. Whatever it is – their home, co-working place, coffee shop, or the office of the outsourcing company that hires them. You can focus on the project without thinking about anything else.
3. Best talents for your niche
Developer Skills Report prepared by Hacker Rank last year shows that many companies – which, to be exact, makes 41% of employers – struggle with a talent shortage while hiring developers. It’s harder to succeed in the hiring process while recruiting a programmer than in any other business. Right now, great developers are in high demand. So it’s very difficult to find a person who will meet your needs. Especially when you look for particular full-stack skills or niche technology. Once you open yourself to outsourcing and remote developers applicants, you expand the range of available talent significantly. It broadens your recruitment scope and allows you to look for developers anywhere. Including those who wouldn’t be eager to relocate for the position you’re offering or who value the possibility of working remotely. It also brings greater diversity into your company. They can show you the solutions and ideas that your existing team couldn’t see.
4. Lower employment costs
When you decide to hire a full-time developer, who will be working just for you at the office, you need to take into account not only their salary but also some legally required benefits. There’s quite a lot of them. For example health insurance, unemployment insurance, and special bonuses such as gym membership or Christmas gift vouchers. When you decide to outsource, all of the costs mentioned above are in the domain of an outsourcing company. It’s also easier for you, when you have a little restaurant and want to have a simple system for your clients to order food online. You don’t need a developer full-time, you need someone who will understand your business, develop a website or an app that will be so easy for you to work with that you won’t need an IT guy all the time.
5. Saving money
Companies go for IT outsourcing to reduce the need to invest in non-essential functions. In return, saved means are available for more important services. So another advantage. Thanks to it, you could get the maximum possible benefit. It can be crucial especially if you are at the beginning of running your business. Let’s say you just founded your startup that connects great trainers with your clients online. You need a simple solution that will allow your trainees to schedule online training. Your main development besides the app should be expansion, seeking new clients, and great trainers to hire.
6. Higher motivation
Findings from the American Psychological Association show that employees who can control their work and working habits can easier reduce stress, enhance motivation and growth. Workers who have control over their schedules, which is commonly attributed to remote work, report finding time for further education, exercising more, and eating better. What is more important in terms of project development success, people who work remotely have a better outlook and attitude toward their work in general. They stay passionate, involved, and motivated much longer. You can ask: “How will I know if remote developers I hire are motivated enough to do their job exactly how I want it?”.
Finding reliable, experienced, and highly motivated IT developers might be hard. In such a situation, it is a good idea to get in touch with an experienced technological partner. The one that knows its developers and has recruitment tools at its command, which help to choose developers who – according to their experience, habits, and even personal traits – will be most suitable for your project. At Applover we have our own expended and detailed database. It gathers information about all of our developers, including their technical skills, level of experience and personal traits. Hence, we know exactly what kind of projects will keep them the most motivated according to their skill set, experience, and attitude.
We would never choose a programmer who doesn’t have a clue about a business you’re into. When we select a team for a food delivery service, we make sure that our candidates are “heavy-users” of such kinds of services. So they know what users need because they don’t only get your unique business perspective but also the one from your potential clients. Read about our candidate database and the benefits of our approach to outsourcing IT – here.
7. Availability around-the-clock
According to the remote team trends, users expect an immediate reaction to anything that’s not working correctly. To make it work, tech companies need to track consumers’ feedback all the time to fix bugs very fast and to keep the best quality of products.
Let’s take the simplest example. If Facebook is down, people expect to be notified as soon as possible on any other services such as Facebook’s Twitter feed. They want to hear that it’ll be back just in a minute, not an hour or more. When something isn’t working, if there’s a bug in the software we’re using, we need it fixed right now!
Traditional workday makes it impossible to happen unless you have teams working the night shift. In a situation like that, it’s worth considering cooperation with remote developers. In such teams, it is much easier to have an around-the-clock team with overlapping schedules and changeover meetings. It also works great once you consider hiring developers from the other side of the globe. Let’s imagine that you’re from New York and hire developers from Poland. Once you report that something is not working at the end of your workday, it will be done when you come into office the next day. It’s because Poland (Central European Time Zone) is 6 hours ahead of New York.
