Thinking About Hiring Offshore Talent? Here's 5 Questions to Ask First

So you're thinking about hiring offshore talent. That’s great, because we think about that very same topic every day.

You've probably heard the numbers. The access to talent. The cost savings. Maybe you've even talked to a few companies and started getting a sense of what an offshore team could look like for your business.

That’s a great time to slow down for a minute.

Not because there is something inherently risky about hiring offshore. Quite the opposite. Done well, an offshore team can become a very valuable part of your business. But the phrase “done well” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

The people you hire matter, of course. So does the partner you hire them through. And there are some questions that are worth asking before you get too far into the conversation.

Here are five we would put near the top of the list…

1. What Exactly Am I Paying For?

This sounds like a pretty basic question. It isn't always.

An offshore rate can look very attractive on paper, but you want to understand what that number actually represents. What is included? What isn't? Who is responsible for recruiting? What about equipment, technology, management, facilities or other support?

And what happens when you need something that wasn't part of the original conversation? This is one of those area that is much easier to figure out before the engagement starts rather than after you receive your first unexpected invoice or “we don’t offer that” reply.

A good partner should be happy to go through the details with you. In fact, if they aren’t, you should probably be asking why.

At ECLARO, we believe in investing time on the front end of an engagement, working through exactly what each client needs and what the relationship will include. By the time we get to a formal agreement, both sides should have a clear picture of what they're getting, what they’re responsible for, what they should expect and what the pricing includes.

2. What Happens to My Data Once I Give It to My Offshore Team?

This is one we would ask early, and then ask some follow-up questions. And then a few more. 

If your offshore employees are going to be working in your systems, handling customer information, accessing financial records, working with intellectual property and the like, you need to know how that information is being protected.

“Don't worry, we take security seriously” is not really an answer.

Ask about certifications. Ask about access controls. Ask about the processes around protecting information. Ask what happens when an employee leaves. Ask who is responsible for making sure those standards are actually being followed.

The answers matter.

ECLARO is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified, and data security is built into our operating environment. The confidentiality, integrity and availability of client information throughout the relationship is an absolute priority every day, at every stage of every engagement.

This is one area where we would encourage any company considering offshoring to ask plenty questions. You're trusting another organization with a piece of your business. You should know how that trust is being protected.

3. Who Am I Going to Talk to When Something Comes Up?

Because something will come up.

It doesn't have to be a disaster. Maybe a project changes direction. Someone has a question. A deadline moves. A team member needs additional support. Something that seemed perfectly clear six weeks ago suddenly isn't.

That's business. The question is, what happens next.

Before you sign an agreement, find out how communication actually works. Who do you call? How often will you meet? Who is keeping an eye on the relationship? How do issues get raised and resolved?

This is where much of the difference between an offshore arrangement and a genuine partnership can show up. At ECLARO, regular governance meetings are part of the relationship. They're an opportunity for both sides to talk about what's working, what isn't and what needs attention.

It sounds simple because it is. But having conversations around those communication needs and making sure a formal process is established before the first day can save everyone any number of unnecessary (and unpleasant) conversations later on.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ECAPTIVE AND HOW TO BUILD DEDICATED OFFSHORE TEAMS IN THE PHILIPPINES

4. Who Is Actually Managing the People?

Here's a question that can get overlooked because everyone is so focused on finding the right talent. You can hire a terrific group of people and still have a frustrating experience if nobody is properly managing the environment around them.

So ask.

Who manages the offshore team? Who handles employee issues? Who is checking in on performance? Who helps when someone needs support? How involved will that person actually be? How involved will I be as the client? How involved can I be?

There's an important distinction here. Your business may need a good deal of hands-on management, or you may already have managers who are perfectly capable of working with an offshore team. It may be somewhere in between.

Ask enough questions, and share real-world scenarios, to ensure that the model you’re considering is designed around that reality. When the level of offshore management is genuinely based on what each particular client and team needs, then it’s a model that can deliver success.

Be wary of anyone who tells you there is one perfect management model for every offshore engagement. There isn't.

5. How Will I Know If This Is Actually Working?

This question should come before the first person is hired, not six months afterward.

What does success look like?

Is it a certain volume of work completed? A response time? A productivity target? A quality measure? A specific business outcome?

Whatever it is, figure it out together and put formal measurement standards in place that everyone understands. Otherwise, you can end up having the world's most frustrating conversation six months into an engagement:

“How do you think things are going?”

“Pretty well.”

“Really? We don't think so.”

Neither side is necessarily wrong. You just never agreed on what “good” meant.

At ECLARO, we establish mutually agreed-upon Success Factors as part of the engagement and use our governance process to review performance. Our TRINIT-E methodology allows us to regularly assess progess and identify areas where we can help with continuous improvement.

Because if you're going to invest in an offshore team, you should have a way to tell whether that investment is doing what you expected it to do.

The Questions You Ask Reveal a Great Deal

One of the best things you can do when evaluating an offshore partner is to pay attention to how they respond to questions.

Do they give you a straight answer?

Do they seem comfortable getting into the details?

Are they willing to talk about the things that could go wrong, as well as all the things that could go right?

That tells you something.

Offshoring doesn't have to be complicated. But there are enough moving parts that you don't want to discover six months in that nobody ever talked about who was responsible for what, how performance would be measured or what was actually included in the price.

Ask the questions now. You'll be glad you did later.

Of course, these questions are only a starting point. There are plenty more, especially when it comes to compliance, time zones, technical skills and what happens when things don't go according to plan.

We'll tackle those next time, or click here to set up an appointment with an ECLARO offshoring expert and we can start tackling them even sooner!