Diversity in technology has evolved tremendously in recent years, especially since COVID-19 has changed the way even traditional businesses operate. Previously, hiring global talent was more complicated and resource-intensive, requiring the need to balance visas, costs and additional expenses not only for the ex-pat, but also for their immediate family. However, the rise of remote work from anywhere around the world has removed those barriers and made Western companies more open to hiring international top IT talent.
Latin America, in particular, has recently done so new frontier for nearshore IT talent, as its industry has experienced rapid development in the past five years. The silver lining of the global pandemic is the rapid acceleration of diversity in tech talent, as companies of all sizes realize that it takes a global talent village to meet market demands.
As part of an initiative to make Latin America’s tech industry more inclusive, many countries are working hard to ensure that US companies have a diverse talent pool to choose from. For example, the US Embassy in Quito, Ecuador sponsors a program called POWER (Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment), where young Ecuadorian women in STEM are mentored by women entrepreneurs and female talent in STEM-related fields. This program works diligently to help these young women access employment internationally, while also giving them an invaluable network of women in technology and STEM fields to tap into for advice and individualized professional development .
Even with these types of initiatives, there is still significant work to be done to combat stereotypes about having diverse teams. It is well documented that different gender teams tend to perform better than single-gender teams, however it can still be difficult for even a female tech developer to be added to an all-male team. In recent years, technology companies around the world have mandated that their HR teams find solutions to overcome this issue.
To achieve this, hiring managers must start from the beginning to maintain a sharp focus on creating diverse teams. Inclusion and diversity should be key tenants when screening and selecting candidates for interview throughout the hiring process. This remote pool of candidates allows hiring managers to focus on what’s really important – enabling Western companies to assess global talent on a more level playing field. HR no longer needs to adhere to traditional hiring metrics when interviewing external developers, but instead they can focus hard on their hard and soft skill sets and ability to perform in a 100% remote role. Some people are just bad interviewers in social settings, but this virtual style of hiring process takes a lot of the pressure off and allows each candidate’s tech skills to shine.
Improving a candidate’s skill sets allows HR to be more objective when it comes to assessing whether these developers fit the hiring company’s culture and can easily adapt to the different workplace cultures of Western companies. This is where upcoming developers from Latin America have a distinct advantage over other global talent. Many people think that Latin America is a completely different world compared to the US, but this is far from the truth. Apart from close geographical proximity, Latin America has similar cultural labor values to that of the US when compared to countries in Asia and India, for example. Latin American developers are able to adapt more easily to being part of a US-based team and take full advantage of the opportunities available when working with American teams. This chameleon-like adaptability gives Western companies the assurance that this type of distributed team will bring a stronger sense of teamwork and prove to be a valuable backup option when hiring local talent is not feasible.
However, there is obviously still some pushback when signing international talent. Unfortunately, the long-disputed myth that hiring personnel outside their borders is taking jobs away from their own nationals still affects HR hiring practices. This is especially evident in the developer sector. My company is expanding rapidly because it’s still very hard to find skilled developer talent, despite some big tech hiring freezes. US employers have posted a record 1.6 million job openings for technology professionals so far this year, a 40% increase over the same period last year, according to the CompTIA report. However, they haven’t been able to hire as many tech professionals as they need. Positions for software developers and engineers accounted for nearly 30% of all employer technology job postings in 2022. Without them, businesses cannot function because they are under mission control. There are many unfilled developer positions and the problem is global. Nearshore talent doesn’t take jobs away from developers; they are a welcome addition to overburdened and stressed teams who need more resources to meet digital transformation objectives.
It is important to note that the global competition for talent is nothing new, but with remote work as the norm, everyone now has the same opportunities and advantages. The global talent pool has expanded and is now more equitable because access is given to anyone with the right skills and connections. Ultimately, Western companies must consider the best hiring decision based on the current resources available. Like the last one Property survey points out, the talent crisis is the main threat to businesses according to CEOs. The problem is urgent, companies are unable to achieve digital transformation and business goals without adequate resources, and developers are overwhelmed with work and challenges epic burn rates.
The decision to transfer talent is nuanced. As much as we don’t like to admit it, costs play a big factor in these decisions. This makes hiring offshore developers from Latin America a more attractive option for these companies when looking for top-level IT talent. In outsourcing talent from Latin America, these Western companies get a Latin American developer who is an expert in their field, in a similar time zone, and a good culture fit for the company – eliminating many, if not all, of the from problems stemming from hiring offshore talent in countries such as Asia and India. For example, our highly vetted, qualified and diverse candidate pool represents the top 3% of Latin American developers and they are 25 to 40% less expensive and hold positions 60% longer than American workers. Additionally, hiring Latin American developers brings diversity to teams for broader perspectives that lead to better products and services, and creates new approaches and directly addresses the internal burnout experienced by overworked US tech professionals.
But it’s important to remember that choosing a company to hire Latin American offshore developers is about more than just meeting a diversity quota. Growing teams with diverse talent creates a dynamic that brings diverse, unique, cultural perspectives and ideas that ultimately enrich the team and elevate results. With this value at the forefront of every hiring decision, it can create a kind of synergy not seen anywhere else – and create the best results for your fully integrated, distributed and more global team.
