CTO Cookbook: How to hire Northshore developers
Northshoring is the new trend in the art of hiring developers abroad. Its name is an evolution of a vast tradition of renaming outsourcing to differentiate a region. For example, In India and Asia, they call it Offshoring; in Latin America, they call it Nearshoring, but in México we call it Northshoring, and it is because you manufacture your software in North America which brings to the table several advantages in matters of security and Intellectual property protections, additionally to the Nearshoring benefits like time-zone, cost, and access to the talent pool.
Step 1.
Identify a Northshoring company.
1- Its workforce is located in México.
2- Has a legal entity in the United States. So, all contracts with their customers are signed in the U.S.
3- Has a legal entity in México to hire all the workers and collaborators properly.
4- They are not HR companies but tech companies building development teams. (important to identify before engaging in a call)
Step 2.
First call.
The first call is where you will determine whether the company is a good fit for you. So, don't limit yourself to the typical questions; here are some tips that you may find useful.
1- Asking about pricing.
Instead of the hourly rate, ask for an all-inclusive monthly rate. In México, due to the culture, everything is managed monthly, and when they speak hourly, they refer exclusively to the person-hour. It is difficult to apportion all services and hardware, but you will have an accurate estimation with an all-inclusive monthly view.
2- Asking about technologies
Do not ask, "Do you have [insert any tech stack here] developers?" The right question would be, "Do you have experience providing [insert any tech stack here] developers?
You don't want them to provide the people they "already have." if they say they have, it is a bad sign. It can mean two things:
a) They are stealing good developers from existing customers to close a new deal; at some point, it will happen to you, too.
b) They are giving you the developers who are not performing for existing customers, and you want to avoid problematic people.
In the end, no company has good engineers sitting on a bench waiting to be hired; the good ones are out there like in any other country.
3- Asking how fast you can start.
This question can be ambiguous; instead, make it into parts to avoid misunderstandings:
a) How fast can you start sourcing candidates?
b) How fast can you sign the selected candidate?
c) How fast can my developers start working?
4- Asking about equipment.
This question is straightforward, but, as a customer, you must remember it impacts pricing.
Each company is different, but on average, the basic equipment (Laptop, mouse, keyboard, screen, chair, and desk) is included. However, it is better to ask and get the specifications to be sure it will support your requirements. In all cases, other infrastructure like servers or network customization may have an extra cost.
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5- Asking about legal compliance.
Another straightforward question that will give you clarity if they know their business; if they perform well, this question will give you a lot of tranquility
6- Asking about conflict resolution and guarantees.
You must clarify how to proceed if a developer is underperforming, if replacements have costs, and if you want to terminate the contract.
Most companies are very friendly in those terms, but it is better to know.
[Read more about the first meeting]
Step 3.
Request documents: Agreement without signature, rate card, and Signed NDA.
During the sales meetings, everything is pretty and shiny, but after that, request their agreement without any signature and read it carefully. Here, you will have the complete picture to make decisions, and if you decide to proceed, you are ready to share your project information.
Get everything together to save time and go back and forth.
If you need to present a plan for hiring approval to your CEO, ask them if they have one deck for you; that will save you time and effort. [Download ours if need it]
Step 4.
Share your pain points, not only job descriptions or technical tasks.
Matching job descriptions with people who need more context can lead to paying an excessive price and having skill redundancy instead of a team of people who complement and empower each other.
So, instead of just giving a list of skills per person, share your problems and your tech stack. When they start identifying your developers for you, they will have a better understanding of the soft and hard skills they need. This is the reason I mentioned the importance of identifying whether there are HR companies or tech companies.
Is it valuable to have and share a Job description?
Yes, it is, but always with the context of the challenges or problems that person will be facing/solving. However, they should help you with that if you don't have it.
Step 5.
If you need more information, ask for referrals.
After a sales meeting, an agreement review, and some hours on their website, the best approach is to ask for a referral and proceed until you have doubts.
Most companies have trusted customers that they will introduce to you, and that is fine. However, don't forget that you can get more information from employees. So, ask them to meet two or three developers (together) to speak with them.
What will you get from employees?
1- How extroverts they are. This is a sign of a healthy culture where people can speak freely.
2- How they communicate complex ideas. That is part of the culture; diversity is never that much; what you see is what you will get (I guarantee)
3- How they interact with each other. The brotherhood is built with time, so it is a sign of low turnover if they seem integrated.
I hope you found these insights helpful; let me know if you want me to develop more related topics or contact me for any questions. Guillermo Espinola Orci
You can visit our group website: www.xipegroup.com or learn more about our services in the direct link: www.xipetechnology.com/extended-teams