Startups are forgoing exorbitant engineering salaries for the more reasonably priced but equal-quality work of an outsourced IT staff.
Silicon Valley is largely considered the global leader in technology, with firms in the area competing for the highly-skilled developers and engineers located there. According to a new report though, U.S.-born engineers are leaving quicker than they’re coming. Oh sure, there’s an ample supply of foreign born engineers in the Valley, but that’s too expensive for many companies. Quite a few employers are increasingly hiring engineers who work remotely overseas.
“The demand for IT workforces across the globe is acute and growing every year,” says Yevgen Sysoyev, managing partner of AVentures Capital. “Corporations are concerned about how their needs will be met in five or ten years.”
Those concerns have lead recruiters to move beyond local communities and go global instead. Some of the best tech work today comes out of either developing or developed nations, with fully-trained, educated teams generating the quality results (and lower salaries) today’s businesses demand. Here are a few countries business should consider as they put together their teams.
Poland
Poland’s residents once had to travel to Western Europe to find work. Thanks to the growth of outsourcing, the area’s many skilled workers can now stay close to home while still making a good wage. In fact, the rapid growth of outsourcing in the country is often listed as the top reason Poland made it through recent economic tough times without seeing its gross domestic product decline.
Outsourcing centers have multiplied in recent years as service providers see the large Polish talent pool as beneficial to the global work they’re trying to provide. The government has also made the country a great place to live by investing in local infrastructure, ensuring college graduates remain in the area rather than migrating to Germany or France after graduation.
India
In the early days of outsourcing, India was a top choice, thanks to its large pool of skilled workers and affordable wages. However, cloud computing and competition from other overseas competitors have led to a slump in India’s outsourcing industry. Instead of struggling to source more work, many of India’s leaders have shifted to cloud computing.
However, India still remains a top location for talented technology workers at affordable prices. Instead of firing entire teams and replacing them with outsource workers, many high tech businesses now outsource processes, hiring workers by the project. Through a combination of crowdsourcing platforms and intermediaries that connect American businesses with Indian service providers, India’s outsourcing industry will continue to stay strong.
Ukraine
Ukraine has emerged as a serious contender in modern-day outsourcing with the country having one of the largest armies of IT engineers in the world at 100,000. Big names like Cisco, Oracle, and Samsung actively conduct research and development in the country alongside a large number of companies that specialize in outsourcing services to businesses in almost every developed nation.
Ukraine’s population generally supports the move toward a highly-skilled workforce because it stands to improve the country’s economic standing and strengthen the middle class economy. Ukraine is a popular destination for U.S. businesses looking for outsource work. An estimated 80 percent of the outsourcing work conducted in the country goes to U.S.-based businesses.
Lithuania
As home to nearly 75 percent of all of the Baltic IT companies, Lithuania has become an impressive force in the global tech industry. Although the country’s IT outsourcing is a work in progress, the number of workers with highly specialized knowledge in fields like biotechnology has made it a top target for many businesses. In recent years, the large number of innovative startups that have emerged in Lithuania have brought renewed attention to the European country, helping further strengthen its focus on nurturing skilled workers.
Working with the many outsourcing service providers in these areas, businesses can enjoy the expertise of some of the best workers in the world. These same workers in more developed nations would command much higher rates for the same set of skills. For any fast-growing smaller business looking to increase monthly recurring revenue, that type of cost savings is just too sweet to pass up.
This article originally appeared in Inc.com.
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