There are roughly 28.7 million developers worldwide, from all walks of life. It sounds like a big number, but it really means there’s an average of 148,000 developers per country (excluding Vatican City).
With the rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technology along with its applications such as machine learning, deep learning, robotics, computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), among others, the demand for the developers is growing. Fast!
But not all developers are created equal.
There are average or simply unambitious programmers, who just want to earn a paycheck.
Then there are those with stellar, unique skillsets, knowledge of various programming languages, leadership skills, among others. But those are rare and pricey.
To find and attract top tech talents and developers, you need to expand your horizons in terms of benefits and how you find those talents.
For example, limiting your search to local talents might be a drawback. Or it could be terribly costly if you’re trying to hire developers in the United States or the UK.
Hiring remote developers, on the other hand, offers opportunities for growing your tech team and your business.
Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of hiring remote developers. We’ll also discuss the standard hiring process for developers and how you can make it easier, faster, and more efficient.
Why hire a remote developer?
Over the past few years, remote work has become the ‘new normal for developers.’
Research by Digital Ocean found remote work is something developers “increasingly demand from employers.”
In addition, 86% of developers report working remotely in some capacity, with nearly a third working-from-home full-time. 43% of those surveyed said “the ability to work remotely is a must-have when considering an offer with a company.”
Choosing to hire remote developers comes with a wide range of opportunities for your company and tech team. As opposed to hiring them in-house or in a hybrid work environment.
Here are a few of the perks of hiring remote developers:
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Access to global talents
The top reason to consider hiring remote developers is the access to a broader range of talents.
Not only are you no longer limited by geographical location, but also gain access to potentially better skilled talents. You can hire from countries like Ukraine, Egypt, or India. No worries about barriers.
You can hire a designer from Brazil, an embedded engineer from Egypt, and an AI engineer from Poland.
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Ability to hire on a per project basis
Hiring remote developers means you can get their expertise for a single project or a series of projects. You can hire them as freelancers, contractors, or part-time workers, depending on your needs.
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Access to countries with lower labor costs
Hiring tech talents and developers comes with a price tag. Even if you’re hiring junior developers.
Besides access to a wider talent pool, you can also hire skilled developers from countries with lower cost per hire, such as Egypt, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
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Better flexibility for working hours
Offering a fully-remote, or even a hybrid work environment, can mean better working hours for your developers and accordingly higher productivity.
How to hire remote developers: Business needs
To hire a remote developer or a team of remote developers, there are a few things you need to identify.
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Define business needs and scope
Although this sounds basic, because who doesn’t define the scope of work? You’d be surprised to learn that many employers simply copy-and-paste roles from other companies or add a bunch of requirements.
The result? They’re looking for a three-headed dragon, not a single web or mobile developer.
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Determine seniority levels
Part of your hiring process should be to determine whether you’re planning to hire junior or senior developers, a tech lead,...etc.
You should have a plan on who you plan to hire at the beginning (now) and the roles you’ll need one year in or when you’re expanding.
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Determine your available budget
The budgeting step is crucial in determining who you can hire in your tech team.
Your budget should cover salaries and additional benefits, potential training, administrative fees...etc.
There are several criteria that affect the salary and budget for the role, or roles, you’re trying to fill:
- Employee location (country or state or city)
- Seniority level (junior, mid-level, senior…etc)
- Programming languages required
- The duties involved in the role
If you’re not sure about budgets and salaries for your tech team, you can get a free consultation from TechieMatter.
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Determine the number of developers needed
As you build your tech team, you may choose to start your tech team with two senior full-stack developers.
Then, you may decide to add two junior developers after one year when the product is in the go-to market stage. Or it could be when you’re expanding and need software testers.
How to hire remote developers: The recruitment process
If you’ve ever tried to hire a developer or techie, you know the tech recruitment process differs from general recruitment.
You also know it takes ‘a while’ to find the right hire. Often the tech hiring process can take anywhere from a month to 3 months!
The following is the standard recruitment process for hiring in-house or remote developers. It’s no surprise that the process is long and grueling for both employers and potential candidates.
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Create clear job descriptions
Start by creating a clear job description with all the requirements and duties of the role you’re trying to fill.
For example, if you’re planning to hire a tech lead, make sure you mention all the responsibilities your tech lead will perform.
Determine the programming languages needed, years of experience, and any soft or technical skills you’re looking for.
Make sure you don’t take another company’s job description and use it as your own. You can look at it for inspiration, however, almost no two roles are exactly the same.
For example, as a SaaS business, your tech lead will perform different duties from those of a tech lead for an e-commerce business.
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Share the vacancies across hiring portals
With your job description ready, it’s time to get your vacancy before as many people as possible. Right?
Let’s keep it at that for now. This means publishing the vacancy on job boards, platforms like LinkedIn, and even getting some recruiting companies to collect and share resumes on your behalf.
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Conduct your screening process
You’ve received 1000 resumes for the senior web developer vacancy (or vacancies) you’ve shared everywhere possible.
Now, it’s time to screen and sift through them to see the best candidates who can move on to the next round of the hiring process.
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Conduct technical tests
An essential part of the tech talent recruitment process is to conduct technical tests. These can be in the form of multiple-choice questions (MCQs), whiteboard problems, code-writing,…etc.
Of course, this means having a test you’ll give to screened candidates.
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Conduct psychometric tests
If you’re hiring a tech team lead, engineering manager, or any other high-level role, you may want to conduct a psychometric test to learn more about this person’s cognitive skills.
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Conduct online interviews
The next step, if you’re still there, is to conduct online interviews with the candidates who have completed and passed the technical test.
Depending on the vacancy and your process, you may have several rounds of online interviews.
You may also conduct online interviews after the screening process and again after the technical test.
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Filter candidates
Now, it’s time to filter candidates based on their performance in your technical test, their psychometric test results (if applicable), and any notes you’ve gathered from your technical interviews.
This is the stage where you look at candidates’ expected salaries against what you’re offering, determine if you need to make an exception for a highly skilled techie, or negotiate with potential candidates.
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Send job offers
Finally, you can send the job offer, or offers, to candidates who have passed all the stages of your tech hiring process.
There may be some negotiation at this stage as talents look at what you’re offering in terms of salary and benefits.
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Onboard team members
Lastly, it’s time to onboard new employees. Since we’re hiring remote developers, you’ll need to virtually onboard new team members.
Hire remote developers with TechieMatter
Most companies don’t have 3 months, or even 1 month, to find a developer, regardless of seniority level.
Not only do companies want to find talents fast, they want to find the ‘right’ tech talents. Team members who will stay awhile with their company and grow with them personally and professionally.
TechieMatter specializes in helping companies find those skilled, culture-fit developers and tech talents.
Whether you’re looking for juniors or seniors or even tech team leads, frontend, backend, or full stack developers, or any type of developer, TechieMatter has you covered.
TechieMatter doesn’t simply help you find people. You can manage the entire recruitment process from a single dashboard.
From posting your job description to getting candidates to take one or more technical tests, psychometric tests, a technical interview, all the way to onboarding.
Find remote developers with TechieMatter today!
