Pros and Cons of Hiring Remote Software Developers from Various Countries

Software developers are literally “controlling” the world, and it is a fact that today’s everyday life would hardly be possible without if they were not around. They are the people that, in many ways, make our lives a lot easier, and developers always strive to make the best out of every situation. In their world, things can only become better and must be updated all the time since without constant progress you can not be part of today’s modern technological world.

Even a more significant advantage in the developing world is that today remote working is more and more popular, in a great deal thanks to them, and the same goes for every remote software developer. But before we ever agree on whether it is better to hire a remote developer or one that likes the office, first, it is more important to hire a quality developer. You can easily find one on global talent networks such as Adeva, where you can search for the best software developers for your project.

Therefore, there are pros and cons in every solution, and here we will see the pros and cons of hiring remote software developers from various countries. So let’s get into it.

Pros

Here are some of the biggest benefits of hiring remote software developers from other countries:

Different Worlds, Different Ideas

When hiring remote software developers from various countries, you are hiring different people with different ideas with all sorts of exciting imaginations. Don’t forget that this can be extremely valuable in the software development world, and without it, your team can easily get stuck at some point, not having many directions to go. For example, if your team is made out of employees from different parts of the world, they will constantly improve just by seeing how others approach work from a different perspective.

Different ideas can be crucial since you can always decide which is the best, which is a lot better than not having good ideas. The idea of, so to speak, creating a team of different worlds by itself creates an exciting vibe within the group. And even if they need more time to adapt, you can always provide them with various team-building ideas and games that today are used extremely often for remote software development teams and give excellent results.

Higher Productivity Rate from Competitiveness

This part may come as a surprise to you, but hiring software developers from various countries can indeed create a higher productivity rate. The reason being is because it makes a level of competitive drive that can be very healthy if it stays only a drive that makes the end result better. Of course, competitiveness must not go beyond this, but it can provide interesting moments if you manage to make it a healthy habit. A higher productivity rate means having great ideas and completing the project faster, which in the software world can be extremely important.

Many employees won’t confess this, but when a group of workers from a similar sector works in the same company from various countries, there is a certain amount of companionship. It does not matter if it’s remote; they are still interacting with each other all the time. And when this friendship is created, it builds great team chemistry that always makes a higher productivity rate, which, as you know, can be vital for many projects, especially when you are short on time.

Exchanged Cultures Make Rich Working Spaces

This advantage is not so much part of the technical and software part of the working process but is still valuable for you and your company. When you hire remote software developers from various countries, you exchange cultures right away, which develops a prosperous working relationship. The best part of it is that you don’t need to do anything special to start this; you are beginning the process only by hiring people from different places all across the globe.

When you have a rich working space, you have the privilege to set higher goals constantly. The mood is better, the team chemistry is higher, and people are always excited to find out something new about their colleagues. You already are aware that exchanging cultures makes people happy even when traveling is mentioned, and it can be even more interesting if you hire employees from various countries. The atmosphere can be better even for a video meeting call since there will be many funny stories and jokes from multiple cultures that will increase the excitement since this advantage does not exist if everyone is from the same place.

Adapt Now. It Is the Future

Last but not least, the sooner you do it, the faster you will adapt, and your company will be ready for the future. No matter what anyone says, remote working is the future of many jobs, and also for software development. Most of the reasons why everyone is pushing toward it are because of the critical ecological reasons these days, and it is best to start now to be prepared earlier. The same goes for everything that is new; the sooner you “catch the train,” the faster you will adapt.

And since you are doing it, why not hire software developers from various countries and make an international vibe and structure within your company, which will allow you to be present in different parts of the world. By having an employee in a different country than yours, you are automatically having good marketing since they will talk about it to family, friends, and people in general. You are already advanced, and when you combine all these benefits, you will be ready for the future, and it doesn’t matter if people say they love office work, the ecological reasons obviously push more and more toward remote working.

Cons

Since we covered the pros of hiring remote software developers from various countries, let’s focus on some of the negative aspects since every idea and every solution has at least two sides. So let’s start:

Language and Culture Barriers

Even though there are many advantages to exchanging cultures, of course, there are also some disadvantages. The means of communication are always necessary, and cultural and language differences can also be a challenge. Communication can be crucial at some moments of development, and the last thing you would want to happen is to have problems only because of miscommunication. Therefore, a good level of speaking English must be required.

Since the language barrier can be solved with more accessible methods, the cultural barriers can sometimes be a bigger problem. It depends on how you mix the employees from various countries. It can be an issue if you make a team of people that come from entirely different cultural backgrounds and have different approaches to most of the things they are doing. Of course, the goal that you set may force them to come together, but in essence, if they have totally different cultures, it is challenging to make them work together, especially in the creative world.

But looking back to advantages again for a moment, having representatives of various cultures in the company can help avoid serious faux pas. When localizing an app for example, it’s critical to have members of the target market first perform LQA, that is inspect the app in their own language, before releasing it into the wild.

Management Challenge

The management process is maybe the most significant challenge when it comes to remote software development work. Remote employees have to organize their own workstation and internet connection entirely by themselves. Also, the same goes for the employer since you will have to manage all your remote developers from all across the globe simultaneously. Of course, many project management methodologies will make this challenge a lot easier, but management is still a challenge since you do not have every employee in one room.

Another part of this challenge is that, as mentioned above, developers from different cultures may have a more challenging time communicating with each other, which will increase the difficulty of managing the whole project. It may be the remote software developers that make things happen, but the management of the process is the reason everything works well in the first place. As you already know, deadlines are an enormous part of development in the software world, and they can not be fulfilled if you do not have the necessary options to bring everyone on the same pace working as a team.

Lack of Motivation

Sometimes having remote workers from different countries can cause a lack of motivation in the everyday working process. Since there is no active supervision and no colleagues around, keeping all developers motivated and meeting all the necessary deadlines and goals can be difficult. In essence, this is always the biggest challenge for remote working in general, not only in the software development world.

If the leader or employer is not careful, the team can easily create a laid-back attitude, which will eventually make a bad habit of procrastination. If this happens, there is a high chance that the project will go in an undesired direction that can only end up not achieving the wanted results. That is why everyone must be careful, and it is a smart idea to use team-building methodologies in order to keep a nice workflow.

The motivation always has to be at the highest level since you are constantly competing literally with companies from all over the world. Once you lose it, it can be difficult to retain it back. This can be challenging when hiring remote software developers from various countries, especially if they come from totally different backgrounds.

Various Informal Interactions Don’t Exist

It is fair to say that informal interactions and any in-person interactions are excluded when having remote workers from all around the world. Of course, you will often have video call meetings or chat on various platforms, but real-life one-on-one or team communication almost never happens. This part does not have to be a problem all the time, but when working for an extended period of time like this, you will have to try and make a gathering in real life. And it should be at least once in a while, if possible, since you do not want to leave all the communication entirely online.

It is hard because if people live in different countries or even continents, there is an extremely low chance to gather together in one city. However, it is not impossible, but most various informal interactions don’t exist most of the time, and they can be beneficial for the working process, especially for the leaders or managers of the projects who can build trust and motivation based on these types of interactions. It can be impressive how informal interactions can sometimes provide remarkable improvement in the formal project.

Final Words

Here you have some of the essential pros and cons of both sides of hiring remote software developers from various countries. As with everything in life, here you also have both sides of the truth since there isn’t a single thing that does not have advantages and disadvantages. It is your decision in the end, but what shows that hiring remote workers from different countries all across the world is a good option is the fact that it is the future.

And by mixing it even more with not only having remote employees but also from various places, it will put you ahead in time before this option becomes immensely popular in every country. Every path has its challenges, and every opportunity desires a certain amount of qualities, so whatever you choose is in your hands, but it is better to be part of the future in every case. You can not progress in the software development world if you do not follow all the necessary upgrades and trends.

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About the Author: Ivana M. Janakieva is a Content Editor at Adeva, producing well-researched content in the web development field with a mission to provide reliable information to web developers and CTOs in their research activities.