In recent years, remote development teams have grown in popularity and relevance. These groups assist businesses in expanding their talents and staff without having to hire new employees or incur the expenditures of maintaining a physical office. As a result, this shift opens several doors to top talent worldwide that would otherwise be inaccessible due to geographic distance.

Hire Remote Developers: Overview

Today, we want to present a new article about recruiting remote developers. Today, we’ll try to solve the following problems:

• Types of remote developer collaborations available for hiring.
• Why do startups and mid-size companies need to hire remote software developers? 
• What are typical problems you can face during the hiring process? And what are the ways to solve them? 
• The best countries for hiring remote developers.
• The greatest countries to work in if you want to hire remote devs.
• Interview questions examples.
• How can you assess the quality of remote developers?
• What are the measures you should take to hire remote developers?
• What are the prices and interest rates?

Types of Cooperation with Remote Developers For Hire

If you decide to hire remote developers for your project, let’s first look at what types of cooperation with remote developers exist.

Full-fledged employment 

When you recruit staff on a full-time basis, this is referred to as full-fledged employment. Employees will work remotely in this situation, although not on a separate project, but as full-fledged employees of your organization. They will have the same rights and responsibilities as the rest of your company’s workers.

Outstaffing

Outstaffing is the hiring of a specialist working in a contractor company (outstaffer) to work on a project in a customer company. The specialist is part of the client’s team along with other team members. The management team regulates the employee’s work. At the same time, the client pays the contractor for outstaffing services under the contract, and he, in turn, pays the salary to the specialist.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the process of transferring a part of production or business processes by a company to specialists who are experts in this field. By delegating processes unrelated to the production but strategically important for the outsourcer, the company makes a mutually beneficial exchange. An agreement is concluded with an outsourcing company to provide outsourcing services for a certain period of time.

Dedicated team

When you start to hire remote software developers, you need to know about dedicated teams. The dedicated team cooperation model is that you do not hire individual specialists to work on your project, but a whole team that most often consists of all the necessary specialists to complete the project.

To know more about dedicated teams, read our article How to Hire a Dedicated Software Development Team?

Why Do Startups Need to Hire Remote Software Developers?

Why should startups hire remote software developers? Let’s look at the main persuasive facts: 

Save money

First, by hiring remote developers, startup owners can save quite an impressive amount of money. Startups won’t have to spend money on monthly employee salaries. Spending on offices and workspaces will also fall. Moreover, startups will be able to save on work supplies, such as computers.

Ability to choose experts in your field

Secondly, by hiring remote employees, startups can select whatever expertise they require from a big talent pool. Startups can pick up specialists with the experience they need, the suitable price, as well as the skills and even personal qualities.

Flexibility in cooperation

Thirdly, by hiring remote developers, startups open up various opportunities for cooperation. Startups can choose any of the available cooperation models (we described the types of cooperation above) depending on what kind of project they want to implement. Each of them has advantages. So, the most important thing is to figure out which model is best suited for which project.

Why Do Mid-sized Companies Need to Hire Remote Developers?

Now let’s find out why mid-sized companies should hire remote developers.

Reduce recruitment time

If a company decides to hire remote employees, it will be able to reduce the recruitment time for its HR team. After all, most of the processes which an ordinary employee goes through will not be needed. For example, you will not need to conduct a lengthy onboarding or deal with official registrations signing a bunch of papers for employment. Hiring remote developers is a quick process in most cases.

Cost optimization

Also, companies will be able to optimize their spending. As with startups, mid-sized companies won’t have to pay monthly salaries, vacation pay, or other benefits.

Gaining new technological experience in the team

When you hire remote software developers, you should know that remote personnel can have an enormous influence on the company’s current staff. They will be able to share their expertise working on various projects, as well as teach new skills and give useful knowledge to other staff.

Work with modern practices

Companies may also profit immensely from remote staff by allowing them to work using best practices. When hiring remote software developers, you should remember that the remote team is located in a region where developers have extensive experience working on global projects.

Such a team will undoubtedly be able to contribute significantly to the organization by sharing their knowledge of current trends and best development methods.

Solving tax issues

By hiring remote developers, mid-sized businesses will lower the amount of taxes they pay to the state on which a paltry amount is based. After all, working with remote personnel is governed by a contract.

Hire Remote Developers: Typical Problems & Ways to Solve

When hiring remote developers, you may encounter a number of problems. Let’s look at the most common and find ways to solve them.

Communication

The most common problem that companies face when hiring remote developers is communication. If a team or an individual specialist is located in another country or on another continent, it will be difficult to discuss work issues. However, in the 21st century, this problem is easily solved. 

To begin, when you start working and hire remote software developers, you should immediately agree on, for example, weekly meetings to address all work difficulties.

Secondly, you should set clear deadlines and divide the work into several stages. After completing each of the steps, hold meetings to discuss progress. It’s also a good idea to agree on the tools you’ll use for internet communication. Fortunately, there are many such tools available now to suit a variety of interests.

Time Zone difference

This problem is closely related to the previous one. Time zone differences can affect the regularity of communication between your company and the remote developers for hire. As a result, it is critical to build a communication method from the beginning of a collaboration with remote personnel.

This is how most firms approach this problem. Together with remote developers for hire, They agree on a time that is convenient for everyone to communicate and stick to it.

It is difficult to test personal skills

It is challenging to assess his personal qualities without seeing a person live. After all, it may turn out that the employee you hire is unreliable and does not take his work seriously.

To address this issue, you must develop a list of questions for the initial interview with prospects that will assist you in determining a person’s personal attributes. We recommend that you ask situational inquiries to find out how a person will conduct in a certain circumstance. 

Hire Remote Developers With RewiSoft Team

RewiSoft team has a wealth of experience in building a software team for a specific project and also creating awesome solutions and products for companies worldwide.

We assist businesses in developing products from the ground up, provide assistance at all stages of development, and advise on a wide range of topics. Having got acquainted with your company and your project, we will assist you in locating the ideal specialist or in forming a development team based on your needs and aspirations.

We have executed over 160 projects for clients from 46 different countries. Our development teams have substantial experience in the following areas:

• Web Development
• Custom Software Development
• MVP development
• SaaS, eCommerce, E-learning platforms
• Enterprise Portals
• Custom Web App Development for businesses of any size

Our team showed significant results and made Clutch’s Top 20 Product Designers & Developers. We have specialists in top tech stacks, where 80% are middle-level developers. We offer a complete team of developers for any tasks and with a strong head of department.

In case you have any product ideas in mind, contact us! Our development staff will assist you in completing your project on schedule and in the best possible manner. You focus on the core business goals, and we take care of the rest. 

More about our team you can read here: RewiSoft team. 

The Best Countries for Hiring Remote Developers

What countries are the most suitable for hiring remote employees? Today, Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America are considered to be the best places to hire remote developers. Let’s inspect each location.

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the sweet spot where you may employ high-quality developers for less money while maintaining product quality. The region is known for its density of software developers: 1.3 per 100 people. The region’s IT industry currently has about 1 million developers, making it a lucrative destination for hiring remote employees.

The company considers Ukraine the best country in the world because of the optimal ratio of price and quality of work, as well as the speed of development of the IT sector. Every year Ukrainian technological universities graduate about 35,000 technical specialists. 

The majority of remote Ukrainian developers for hire have a bachelor’s degree and speak English at the Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate levels. Therefore, when hiring remote developers from Ukraine, you will definitely not encounter a language barrier.

Furthermore, Ukraine has the greatest number of C ++ and Unity 3D specialists. It also ranks second in the world in terms of the number of JavaScript, Magento, and Scala developers.

Furthermore, it is stated that the cost of living in Ukraine is cheaper than that of the rest of Europe, which is also a factor contributing to lower prices for remote developers for hire.

Asia

Asia is home to many fast-growing IT companies. For example, about 4.7 million technology specialists graduate annually in China. Among all the countries hypothetically ready to take part in the “Programming Olympiad,” China would take first place, according to HackerRank.

However, Asia has several potential downsides. For example, only 10 million of China’s 1.3 billion people speak English, which creates a major communication barrier for many international employers.

Also, China is notoriously lax in its enforcement of intellectual property laws. However, this can be overcome by hiring a reputable outsourcing agency and setting clear rules before work even begins.

South America

South America is likewise regarded as one of the top locations for hiring remote workers. For example, Brazil has approximately 6.18 million fluent English speakers and the government is working hard to create a better infrastructure for technology education. It is also worth adding a fairly young population here – 38.18% of people are under 24 years old.

However, the IT community in South America is still quite young. Brazilian developers have an average score of 71.3% on HackerRank tests. This makes Brazil an ideal place to find beginner developers, but it is still better to use the services of experts from other countries for more complex projects.

Example of an Interview Question

To assist you in finding a qualified remote developer for your project, we have produced a list of questions to ask potential applicants during an interview. These questions are also suitable for interviews with entire teams.

The list of questions includes the following ones: 

• What’s your experience? How many years have you been working in the industry?
• What projects have you worked on? What areas were these projects from?
• What problems did you face in product development, and how did you solve them?
• What were the results of the projects you worked on?
• Have you had failed projects? What were the reasons for the failure?
• What is your most successful project, in your opinion?
• Is communication in the team well established?
• How quickly do you solve problems that arise during product development?
• What tech stacks do you use the most at work?
• Do you follow the trends and best practices during product development?
• How are you different from other developers?
• What is the key to your team’s success?

The more questions you ask a potential remote developer (or team of developers), the better you will understand if you can work together. However, remember that for different development areas, some questions may differ. For example, for front-end development – one, and for back-end development – another.

Hire Remote Software Developers: Management tips

To better manage your remote developers, take a look at the following tips:

Use one software to communicate

Use just one communication tool at a time. It is doubtful that you will organize frequent communication with developers if you use it numerously. After all, different people like to use various tools. Don’t make the communication process more difficult. Choose and use the best tool for you and your developers.

Create a reporting and meeting system

Create a system whereby your remote developers will regularly send you reports. This way, you can control the execution of the project and be sure that you do not miss anything. Also, agree on regular meetings with the developers to review progress, results, and work plans.

Create a bonus system

To motivate your remote workers, create a system of bonuses. Bonuses are a great motivator. Therefore, using such a system will help you achieve even better results.

Setup KPI

The KPI system implies the integration of the global goals of the company and the personal goals of specific employees. Its implementation helps to achieve several goals:

• Increase employee motivation and growth of key performance indicators of the company.
• Build a clear system of near and far goals of the company to achieve them consistently.

It is better to start with clearly building the company’s goals in a hierarchical order and then divide them into near and far. The greatest attention should be paid to this point. Otherwise, everything further does not make sense. Spending a lot of money and directing employees’ efforts towards achieving non-priority goals is a disastrous strategy that will only bring negative results.

Next, set up KPIs for your remote employees. Employee KPIs should be closely related to your company’s goals. And the clearer and without unnecessary details, you set up KPI, the better.

The Best Places for Hiring Remote Developers

Now it’s time to find out where to look for those very best remote developers. Let’s look at a few options:

RewiSoft Team

Our team is the fastest and surest way to find great remote developers for your project. We are located in Ukraine, and as we described earlier, Ukraine is considered one of the best countries for hiring remote employees. Our developers use modern tech stacks and are guided by the latest industry trends and best practices during product development.

Therefore, don’t hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to discuss all the details of your project and help you turn your idea into a high-quality product.

Freelance Websites

On sites like Upwork, you can find a large number of freelance developers, as well as entire teams that are happy to take on your project. However, do not forget that there are a lot of freelancers on such sites who are just starting their IT path and their experience may not be enough to complete your project. Therefore, you will have to spend a lot of time finding a worthwhile specialist in this case.

Job Platforms

To date, there are a large number of job platforms on which specialists from different fields publish their portfolios and resumes for job search. You can try to find remote developers on such platforms too. However, as in the case of freelance websites, there may be a large number of developers who have little experience and knowledge to complete complex projects. 

Social networks

In social networks such as Linkedin, you can find agencies and companies that provide outsourcing or outstaffing services. You can also find here individual specialists who work as freelance developers. It is essential to analyze the profiles of the developers, evaluate their work experience and possibly chat about the projects they have worked on and view their portfolios.

How to Check Remote Developers Quality?

Now let’s discuss how to check the quality of remote developers. There are several methods:

Portfolio and Level of Projects

To get started, you should take a look at the developer’s portfolio. Evaluate what projects the developer worked on, what industries these projects were for and what their level is. If this is just a novice developer, his portfolio will immediately tell you about it. If you want your future remote employee to cope with your project, assessing the level of previous projects is extremely important.

Reviews on platforms

Also, a very clear indicator of the quality of a remote developer is the reviews on the platforms where you are looking for employees. A bad indicator is, of course, negative reviews, as well as their absence at all.

Recommendations

If you have chosen the right developer, but you are not sure that he is reliable and will be able to cope with your tasks, then ask for recommendations from his previous colleagues, clients or employers. Try to do it yourself and not ask for recommendations from the developer himself.

Invite a consultant (or CTO)

A consultant (or CTO) can also help you evaluate the quality of a remote employee. This specialist will be able to assess the knowledge and skills of the employee and analyze his approaches to work. You can learn more about this in our CTO as a Service: Ultimate Overview [Pros and Cons] article.

How to Hire Remote Developers: a Step-by-Step Guide

Now let’s get down to the most important thing. What are the steps you need to go through to hire remote developers? Let’s look at each of them in detail:

Step #1 Define your project needs, goals and budget

The first thing you need to do is define your goals and be ready to communicate them to the future developers. Break down your main goal into smaller ones so that it’s easier to plan workflows and set deadlines later. Define the main problem that you want to solve with the help of your future project. 

You should also think about the budget for your project. Allocate the money approximately for each of the processes so that you do not stop the development of the product halfway due to a lack of money in the future.

Step #2 Decide on a tech stack

Next, you should choose a technical stack for developing your product. If your remote developer or team is experienced and skilled, they will advise which one is best to use.

We recommend researching and finding out which stacks are currently the most popular for different types of products. For example, for mobile development, we use modern tech stacks Swift and Kotlin, and for software development, Node.js and React.

Step #3 Make a list of interview questions and define developer requirements

Your next step should be to compile a list of interview questions. We wrote a sample list of questions earlier in the article. Try to ask as many questions as possible during the interview: the more detailed and situational questions, the better.

Also, make a list of the basic requirements for your future remote employee. Determine what is most important to you and what you think will help you achieve great results. This step will greatly help you during the recruitment process.

Step #4 Choose the most suitable candidates

Next, you should choose the most suitable candidates from all of which you considered. This stage is yet another one usually tackled by the recruitment team of your vendor. The recruiters create a pool of experts with relevant skills and experience and assess how likely they will contribute to your project successfully.

Step #5 Review portfolio and previous projects

At this stage, you need to see the projects that your candidate participated in, what were their responsibilities on this project, and how well did they perform. Don’t forget to look at the level of projects the developer has worked on, as well as the industries for which these projects were developed.

Step #6 Assess Technical and Personal Skills

At this stage, you should evaluate how well the developers have mastered modern technical stacks and development practices. Let’s get back to the interview. At the interview, you should definitely ask questions related to both the technical side of the candidate and the personal one. It is important that the employee is not only experienced and skillful but also reliable and communicative.

Step #7 Get started

Voila, you can start delivering your project with the best remote developers. But how much does it cost to hire remote developers? Let’s take a look at the costs and rates of developers working in different areas of development.

Hire Remote Developers: Costs and Rates

Let’s take a look at how much it costs to hire remote developers according to their areas of development.

Web Development

A reasonably proficient remote web developer usually rates around $75 per hour.

According to various studies, the average cost of developing a website ranges from $30,000 (for a small company website) and $95,000 or more (for a complex custom website).

If you want to calculate exactly how much each of the stages of creating a website will cost, read our article Progressive Web App Cost: Count Your Project In 15 Min.

Mobile Development

A mobile developer usually rates around $61-80 per hour.

The cost of developing a mobile app ranges from $30,000 to $150,000, depending on the complexity of the app.

• Simple App Development Cost – $40,000 to $60,000
• Average App Development Cost – $60,000 to $150,000
• Complex App Development Cost – from $300,000

Software Development

A reasonably skilled remote software developer usually rates around $50-$100 per hour.

According to survey results, the cost of software spans from $25,000 to $500,000, with a time period ranging from 1 to 9+ months. Such considerable price differences are caused by a variety of factors such as software kind, feature set, UX and UI originality, tech stacks, marketing, QA, location of the IT vendor you pick, and so on.

Hire Remote Developers: Summary

Hiring remote developers is growing in popularity. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has almost completely switched to remote mode. Therefore, it is necessary to get used to new realities and learn to live differently. 

If you learn how to hire them correctly, you will not have a single problem during the creation of your product. We hope our tips described in this article will help you find the perfect remote developer or even a whole team and turn your product ideas into reality. If you have any questions about hiring remote developers, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to help you sort out any issues!