Hiring the Right Candidates For an Offshore Team

Hiring the right employee for every job is of critical importance for every organization. A wrong decision can result in the loss of valuable time and money—and the right choice can contribute to organizational growth while impacting the work environment positively.

It is therefore important for every organization to conduct the hiring process seriously without compromising on the qualities desired from the right candidates.

Here are some hiring tips:

Job Description

List the job responsibilities, mandatory and desired qualifications, skills, knowledge, work experience and personality traits that you desire. Such job analysis helps the elimination process and narrows down your search to a few good candidates.

Candidate Search

Create a large pool of potential candidates since a selected candidate may reject your job offer or more such job positions may crop up in future. You have a wide choice of talent pools such as online job portals, social media websites, HR consultancy firms, independent consultants and more.

Candidate Shortlisting

Scrutinize the resumes for academics, work experience and any additional information provided. Matching the candidates' profile with the job description—roles, responsibilities and desired qualities—can save you valuable time while shortlisting candidates. Select the profiles with the maximum matches.

Pre-screening Interview

A crucial step in narrowing down on the right candidates is conducting a pre-screening interview. This can save valuable time by helping you understand the candidates' general interests, attitude, salary expectations, etc., and identify the right fit for the position.

Main Interview

Like the candidates, the interviewer must also be well prepared to derive maximum benefit from the interview. Prepare a list of questions and look for the ideal answers from the candidates. Encourage the candidates to ask questions to assess their knowledge and experience in the specific field. Evaluate their communications skills and their verbal and body language.

Some key points to assess while interviewing are:

• Necessary skills: Preparing in advance and ask the candidates questions about specific skills that are required for the job, or set up the interviews with department professionals
• Learning ability: The candidates may not have all the skills desired; however most companies conduct training sessions for new employees. Hence the candidates must have both the ability and the desire to learn and acquire new skills for enhanced performance and career growth
• Team players: While the right candidates should be self-starters and should be able to handle tasks independently, they must also work comfortably in teams. Besides job-specific skills, interpersonal skills are essential for working in and managing a team

Background Check

Extensive background checks are essential while hiring, especially for positions at senior levels. Verify all credentials and documents submitted, and speak to the candidates' former supervisors and colleagues to cross check claims about skills and work experience.

Recruiting candidates for an offshore team is different and involves a shorter cycle. Hiring offshore staff from developing countries has several benefits, some of which include:

• Talent Pool: A rich, well-trained and extensive talent base is available in many developing countries due to good educational systems, especially in the technical streams
• Cost Advantage:Pay scales are 30–40% lower than that of the US and other advanced countries, reducing operational expenses considerably
• Time Saving: Time spent on recruitment is eliminated. Further, issues like vacations, sick leave and replacements are non-existent. Such issues are sorted out by the offshore team
• Flexible and Scalable: Hiring employees from an overseas vendor eliminates the recruitment process, besides allowing expansion and contraction of the team based on project requirements
• Managerial Ease: Legal issues are non-existent with offshore staff. Better-than-local pay scales ensure satisfaction, higher retention and loyalty

At Flatworld Solutions, our hiring solutions are designed to hire the right employees for your staffing requirements.

Contact us today for an initial discussion.

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