When projects evolve—and technical needs change—you may find that your current team is short on the expertise needed to address these new demands. In some cases, companies make significant pivots and find that they will, unfortunately, need to let staff go and start the process of hiring up for the technical skills required to meet their new goals. The time and cost of hiring, training, and even separation are substantial—not to mention the delays in starting the initiative and the lessened capacity of the managers who have been refocused on hiring rather than project delivery.
Your needs may expand and contract like an accordion, but the size and composition of your internal team don’t have to be the same. This is where a strong nearshore development partner should be leveraged. Keeping software development vendors nearshore provides time zone convenience, strongly educated and independent engineers, and contributors who are proactive and highly proficient in English. In the best cases, they become a natural extension of your team, folding in seamlessly to daily stand-ups and other ceremonies—just as if they were your own employee. If you need a resource for a short stint of a few months, you do not have to incur the cost of hiring or paying the existing team overtime. Nearshore resources can be ramped up or down, given a courtesy notice, as your roadmap and budget allow. If you plan on a longer-term engagement, you can still easily make skillset changes to the team as you wish, swapping out one resource for another more proficient in the technology needed for the next feature build.
Managing this flexibility in staffing is challenging and costly if you keep all of the talent sourcing in-house, and you can damage your brand reputation if you have high, involuntary turnover. The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) calculates the average spend associated with hiring one full-time employee at $4,000. The more niche the role, the longer the potential time to fill it, thus increasing internal and external recruiting costs. Should you need to hire multiple roles for your development team, these costs can add up. Should the funding of these roles not be budgeted for the next fiscal year, you risk the cost associated with terminations. If you suspect that the skill set needed will change, the costs are compounded because you are ultimately hiring twice. SHRM estimates it costs a company six to nine months of an employee’s salary to replace that position. This is exactly where the strategy of nearshoring makes the most sense.
Let a partner handle the candidate search, conduct the in-depth vetting based on your requirements, and identify the resources that are best suited to your discrete needs and company culture. When you pivot with an existing software project or are ready to start a new one, your software development partner will plan the ramp down of the individuals on the team and ensure that the new team members are successfully onboarded. You may be unable to predict the changes that will befall your organization. By choosing a trusted partner, you can remove the unbudgeted expenses associated with unplanned changes and be better positioned to respond swiftly and capitalize on the newest opportunity.
