Employee Attrition: The Art Of Retaining Your Offshore Developers

by The Scalers Offshore Development Teams In India

A significant reason why more and more companies are considering hiring offshore developers and building a remote team is access to a massive talent pool and the lower cost of operations.

However, one factor that has always been a pain-point is attrition. Whether its in-house employees or offshore developers, skilled engineers are hopping from job to job, and taking their technical expertise with them. If your company is offshoring to cut costs, then the high employee turnover rate is not working in your favour. While salaries, perks, and benefits may cost you lesser, your business may still be struggling to retain the talent you need.

In this blog post, we'll outline 4 strategies that businesses across the globe can implement to retain valuable offshore employees. It may not always be easy, but it's certainly possible!

Build a meticulous recruitment process

The need for companies to scale quickly and meet capacity is at an all-time high. In such a scenario, it can be challenging to allot time and resources to building a bulletproof recruitment process. However, in order to retain good employees, a company must first hire the right people.

How can you do that?

This is where an offshore development company comes into the picture. Partnering with the right company that can take over the recruitment process for you is critical. They not only hire the right offshore developers for your business but also allow you to focus on the core competencies of your business.

The offshore partner will implement a recruitment process that includes skill tests, personality tests, and HR discussions to gain insights into the candidate's thought process. Even existing offshore developers can have a quick chat with a potential candidate to see if they can be a great fit for the team. Small measures like this can go a long way in retaining your employees.

Offer unique incentives

Given the massive demand for engineering talent, if there are no perks attached to a job offer, retaining employees can be extremely challenging. Almost every company offers standard perks such as free transportation, healthcare benefits, performance-based bonuses, and stock options. The key lies in providing unique perks that your competitor does not offer.

For instance, Wipro grants its employees access to exclusive employee discounts and rewards at over 30,000 retail brands. Other untraditional perks include interest-free loans, contingency loans, or even free movie tickets.

Incentives like this can significantly help in building a strong relationship with your offshore developers. After all, they don't share the same office space with you. Making your offshore team feel like a value-adding extension of your workforce can be the one reason they choose to work for you. Establishing well-thought-out incentives and rewards not only make them feel valued and appreciated, but will also ensure that they are content with working for your company.

Challenge your employees

A study conducted by LinkedIn showed that over 36% of the respondents stated that the primary reason why they left their previous employer was because they didn't feel challenged enough.

Offshore developers in countries like India love a good challenge. More often than not, they are looking for a clear career path dotted with increasing responsibility, challenges, and achievements. Keeping this in mind, companies like TCS and L&T Infotech have incorporated programs that rotate employees into different disciplines once every two years. This gives them exposure to different projects, tech stacks, and sometimes, even locations.

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2015/08/new-research-reveals-the-real-reason-people-switch-jobs-and-it-isnt-money-or-their-boss

What can you do?

Create opportunities where your offshore developers can enhance their existing skills or learn new ones, and they don't always have to be technical. Consistently provide feedback about their performance at work. Ask for suggestions and solutions to problems, and encourage all ideas. Assign challenging group activities and promote teamwork amongst your employees.

This will not only keep them on their toes but will also give you invaluable insight into the capabilities and expertise of your offshore team. On the other hand, your employees will never have a dull day at work. It's a win-win situation, really!

Ask and Listen

Employee retention and satisfaction are two sides of the same coin. Often, managers just presume that they understand how an employee feels about a task, an incentive, or a sudden change. However, the reality may be entirely different. This is why communication in the workplace is so important.

Establishing a transparent line of communication with an offshore team can be difficult, given the logistical challenges. You can't take them out for a drink or have an honest conversation over coffee. Other times, your remote team may even be feeling isolated from your in-house team. But that makes it all the more important to ask questions.

Conducting periodic surveys to know your offshore developers is a simple yet effective step. It not only helps you understand individualised needs but also enables you to personalise rewards and incentives. You can also meet your offshore team once or twice a year, and get to know them on a more personal level.

If you do not care to ask, or listen, the chances of your offshore developers heading for the door as soon as the year-end bonuses are handed out is quite high. So, always make an effort to practice an open-door policy, especially with your remote team.

High attrition can destroy the value of going offshore. Companies lose talent, incur significant expenses, and get caught up in the never-ending cycle of hiring and being unable to deliver. And that is why, though retention activities are time-consuming, more and more companies today are realising that these steps are worth the effort.

At The Scalers, we not only hire the best talent, but we help you every step of the way, to retain them. If you have any questions, you can fill out the contact form below, and we would be more than happy to help you out.

https://thescalers.com/contact-offshore-team-india/