In today’s technologically-advanced world, more and more companies are relying on online strategies and techniques to gain new customers. One of the most common tactics is coming up with software and apps that customers will find value in. These kinds of software can have features that allow you to browse your inventory, interact with your staff, check your account, and more.
Nearshoring is one of the most popular methods for hiring new talent in today’s software engineering world. Due to the many benefits that nearshoring offers, it has become a common choice for businesses both large and small. That’s because nearshore outsourcing partners can provide more affordable services without sacrificing the quality of work.
Topics: software development nearshoring
In a world overwhelmingly dependent on technology, there is a high demand for professionals and businesses in the IT industry—from the biggest SaaS company to the most accomplished software developer. It is an undeniably lucrative enterprise, dealing with software production, distribution, and management. However, it does come with some fairly insurmountable challenges.
Topics: software development outsourcing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing all kinds of business functions and the software development industry is no exception. Aside from making the traditional custom software development lifecycle faster, machine learning techniques offer a new paradigm when it comes to inventing different kinds of technology.
Topics: software development
With the increasing need for high-quality software, different companies also find that they need more developers. However, instead of hiring teams for in-house development, the new trend is to hire remote workers as a cheaper and more efficient alternative. Businesses are often presented with two options: onshore and nearshore software development.
Topics: software development nearshoring, Software Engineering
In recent years, agile software development has taken the IT industry by storm, thanks to it providing an alternative method of project management. This process is one that lets teams offer unpredictable but fast responses to any feedback they receive on a project that they’re working on.
Collaboration is an important factor in reaching success—especially in business. Your team members work best when they are in an environment that allows them to freely connect with each other. When a company values collaboration, all team members feel they belong to something bigger than themselves. This, in turn, establishes positive feelings that can boost productivity and cohesive creativity.
Over the years, a lot has changed in the ways we recruit employees for our businesses. Now that outsourcing has presented itself as a viable option for managing more than just back-office tasks, more and more businesses are subscribing to this seemingly efficient and effective solution to optimal productivity. It is not uncommon for an insurance company to have a customer service team overseas, or for an IT company to partner with a nearshore software development team.
And on that note, there is actually a difference between nearshore and offshore outsourcing. While everyone can no doubt benefit from general outsourcing, there are certain models of this process that suit some businesses better than others—depending on a number of factors, of course.
If you’re looking to dip into outsourcing yourself, it might be best that you know the three different types of outsourcing; onshore, offshore, and nearshore outsourcing. This way, you can pick the model that can truly optimize your business’s output.
In this article, we’re going to focus on the differences between offshore outsourcing and nearshore outsourcing.
Nearshore outsourcing is the middle ground; the solution that combines the benefits of both offshore and onshore outsourcing. With offshore outsourcing, you pay a significantly lower cost for high-quality labor. With onshore development, you benefit from having outsourced partners who are located in the same timezone as you, speak the same language just as comfortably, and share your cultural nuances.
Nearshore outsourcing offers the best of both worlds. As the name suggests, the company is located in a country near you, so they’re still within the same timezone (or there’s not much difference between your times i.e. two, three hours at most). They are also often more affordable than onshore outsourcing partners because their cost of living is not as exorbitant.
Nearshore software development may not be as low-cost as offshore outsourcing, but the time and language benefits more than make up the financial difference. For instance, Colombia is an ideal location for nearshore outsourcing—especially for nearshore software development. They speak English just as easily as they speak their own language, their IT industry is booming thanks to the surplus of software developers and IT professionals graduating every year, and the time difference between Colombia and the US is only three to five hours.
As mentioned earlier, offshoring typically refers to working with a team based in countries geographically far from your location—which is why offshore employees are also often referred to as “overseas workers.” Many companies prefer offshoring to Asian or European countries because their hourly rate is much cheaper than onshore and nearshore companies.
However, low rates aside, offshoring comes with a fair number of drawbacks that you should definitely consider. We’ve already mentioned the extreme time difference that could present problems in terms of setting meetings, conferences, and team-building exercises. Collaboration may also pose a problem, as not every member can work on the project at the same time. Communication may be reduced to offline messages on chat platforms and emails that don’t get read until 12 hours after they were sent.
This is great for production and customer service (round-the-clock support), but it’s extremely detrimental for companies that depend on clear communication and cohesive collaboration.
These kinds of challenges can seriously affect your team’s overall productivity. Communication is important if you want to produce high-quality work while still being cost- and time-efficient. In addition, cultural differences can also lead to minor issues that could compromise company morale.
However, if you value quantity over quality or need 24/7 operations, offshore outsourcing is absolutely perfect for you.
Outsourcing has indeed come a long way over the past few years. The average business owner now has a number of highly qualified options.
Saying something along the lines of; “nearshore software development is far superior than offshore software development” is not a fair assessment—nor is it accurate. Your business is unique and therefore has specific needs. All businesses have different objectives; some may benefit from the balance of nearshore outsourcing, but others may find that offshore outsourcing better meets their requirements.
Topics: software development nearshoring
Staying productive in today’s environment can be quite challenging given the number of ever-present distractions, right at our fingertips. Social media, mobile games, chat apps, the internet … all these can either help or harm our daily output. As such, team productivity faces similar challenges; if one or two people aren’t actively contributing, the entire team is affected.
A company is only as good as the employees behind it—or in it, as the case may be. An accurate and consistent employee performance evaluation is key not only to individual success but also to the overall growth of an organization.
Employee performance metrics are essential when tracking how well an employee is performing. But it can be tricky to properly implement such metrics. There are many different standards that can be used, and the most effective ones will be based on the roles of your team members and your business overall.
Below are 5 of the best ways to measure employee performance in the workplace.
Individual employee goals can tell you a lot about the people working in your company. Whether or not the employee is meeting their individual work objectives can give you a clear picture of how they are performing, even if you do not have daily interactions with them. It also gives you a better idea of each team member’s initiative and attitude towards personal responsibility.
If you want to gain the most insight on employee performance by looking at their individual goals, let your employees set their own goals—ones that are both timely and measurable. And then use the goals they set for themselves as the standards that you hold them to.
Observe the personal habits of your employees, as these can hugely affect their work performance. Common habits like chewing on pens, humming, or tapping out song tempos on the desk may be annoying, but they’re generally harmless quirks. It’s the truly destructive, unproductive habits that you need to be on the lookout for.
These negative habits include taking unauthorized breaks, being involved in office gossip, use of computers for personal reasons, and any disruptive behavior. To keep such practices from being adopted by the other employees, be clear about what habits are acceptable in your company. It also helps if you release an appropriate behavioral code they can refer to.
Avoid telling people the exact number of their score when it comes to performance. Numbers can be meaningless without a source to reference, and the specific ones are not even actionable. Try changing things up and using your words instead. Explain where they are, what you’ve observed about them, how they fit into the grand scheme of the business, and so on. This gives people a better idea of how they are doing.
You should not need an interpreter when measuring performance. Complexity just makes things needlessly difficult. Keep everything simple and stay consistent when doing the measurements. Be sure they’re clear, concise, and straight to the point.
When you have to deliver performance evaluations, it’s important that you watch your language, terminology, and explanations. You need to be sure that everything you say makes perfect sense and is 100% actionable in order for your employees to improve.
You need to stress teamwork and cooperation when conducting an evaluation. People need to feel that they’re being rewarded for all the work they do. Once they don’t feel valued in the team they belong to, they may feel the need to prove they’re better than the other employees. This kind of thinking can only lead to conflict, which is emotionally destructive at worst and counter-productive at best. You should therefore do everything you can to discourage this line of thought.
