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Hiring Tools

How To Keep Your Application Process Mobile Friendly

Mobile phones are no longer just a ‘telephony device’ used for communicating with your friends and family. It has transformed into a robust channel that helps in accomplishing a wide array of tasks in a multitude of domains. This includes something as conservative and traditional as the hiring domain.

Businesses across the globe are switching to mobile-friendly application processes because it helps them reach the ‘unreachable.’ Not everyone who has applied to your company has a working laptop or a consistent broadband connection 24X7. But all of them will have a smartphone with them throughout the day. And that’s why it makes total sense to make your application process mobile-friendly.

But the bigger question is ‘how.’ In this article, we bring you 6 ways to keep your application process mobile-friendly.

Tips for a mobile-friendly application process

Tips for a mobile-friendly application process

#1 Keep the application process short

As an employer, this tip might come as a surprise. It might even make you a little nervous. After all, you might wonder - ‘How will I know everything about a candidate and make an informed hiring decision if the application process is short.’ The trick is to ask the right set of questions that will clear all your doubts for an initial assessment. You can always ask more during later calls. Cloud telephony platforms like FreJun log and record all your calls with candidates. You can use this information to make the right decision without making the application process too long.

Also, when you do not keep your application process short, it might impact your chances of attracting top talent. No one likes to spend hours on an application. According to a survey, more than 73% of job seekers tend to not complete their application process if it takes more than 12 minutes.

Also, read: Streamline Your Recruitment Process With These 7 Tips

#2 Allow applicants to upload their resumes from the cloud

‘Hiring and ‘resumes’ are often considered to be ‘inseparable twins.’ One cannot live without the other. As an employer, resumes are the first thing you see about a candidate. It is a key document to decide whether the candidate is a good fit or not. However, a document as important as a resume can also become a reason for incomplete applications.This is because most people complete their applications on their mobile, and they might not have a digital copy of their resume stored on it. That’s why you need to give them an option to upload their resumes via cloud platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive. There’s a good chance that they have a copy of their updated resumes on these drives, and can instantly upload it. This ensures that there are no unwanted interruptions in their application process.

#3 Communicate with candidates via text

A study has shown that the open rate of text messages(98%) is way more than emails(20%). There are two reasons for this -

Texts tend to be more personal than emails. Historically, text messages have been considered a way to communicate with your loved ones. This automatically makes people warm up to text messages more than official emails.
Text messages will be delivered no matter what. For instance, an SMS will be delivered to the candidates irrespective of whether their phone is ‘smart’ or not.

So make sure to open a two-way communication channel with your candidates through text messaging.

#4 Promote your application process as mobile-first

In a survey, it was found that the companies promoting their job opening as mobile-friendly saw an 11.6% increase in job applications. A company that has made an effort to make its application process mobile-friendly will be an employee-centric company. Job seekers will not only love to be a part of such a company but will also be loyal, making them great hires.It’s becoming incredibly challenging to find qualified applicants. Employers have to do everything to make sure they land the right candidate. Having a mobile-friendly application process and advertising them is one of the easier ways to draw talent. Who knows, it might even give you an edge over your competition who is yet to enter the race of mobile-friendly application processes.

#5 Leverage an ATS for quick screening

Many ATSs can parse a resume, capture key information from it, and populate it in the corresponding fields of an application form when the candidate uploads the resume. This shortens the time required to complete the application form as most of the fields are already filled.However, it is important to choose the right ATS tool as many of them tend to map the details to the wrong fields. Instead of making the application process simpler, it becomes an unwanted chore as the candidates have to remove the pre-filled information and then enter their details manually.

Also, read: Remote Work & Recruitment: An ATS Story

#6 Keep your talent pool warm

Segregate previously rejected candidates or candidates who were not a good fit for that role into talent pools. A talent pool contains all the important details about the candidate, such as potential roles they could fill, their skills, personal details, etc. When you put job seekers into these talent pools, you don’t have to start the recruiting process from scratch next time an opening comes up. Just search this talent pool for qualified candidates and contact them directly for an interview.It is easier to keep them engaged by sending them company updates and open roles to keep your company top of mind.

Conclusion

By making your application process mobile-friendly, job seekers are more likely to convert into your applicants. And when the pool of applicants widens for a job opening, you automatically ensure that you have access to top talent in an increasingly competitive job ecosystem.

Hiring Tools

Role of AI In Hiring Software Engineers

Artificial intelligence has generated a lot of buzz lately. Popular AI techniques like computer vision and object recognition have revolutionized the scope of working across healthcare, science, retail, and education to improve the accuracy of success.

More than just a supercomputer generation, AI recreated human capabilities in machines. Nowadays, AI-powered software is used to automate the daily set of business operations and ease product hassles of departmental stakeholders. One of the departments for which AI works wonders is human resources (HR).

Many recruiters and HR professionals have decided to transcend into an AI mechanism for better optimization of business assets and growth. In practice, some have already integrated artificial intelligence software with their existing tech stack and employed a better-qualified workforce without stretching their budget or time.

Hiring a qualified candidate for any important role demands cross-communication and the correct exchange of information. Invest in a viable talent intelligence software that can help strategize your candidate sourcing for maximum engagement and conversions.

How does AI-based recruitment solve hiring challenges?

The entire office suffers when talented employees leave. Never mind the cost of hiring, onboarding, and upskilling a new member. Having a talented coworker leave increases the risk of employee attrition and a questionable reputation.

As the great resignation continues, many companies are turning to AI-driven HR software to increase retention rates and reduce costs. Looking beyond the conventional HR practices and managing every part of the software engineer lifecycle is a key to increasing talent acquisition margin.

Many modern and secure AI recruitment solutions easily connect the dots between companies and suitable candidates for particular job roles. In some cases, Data-driven recruiting and HR analytics use tangible company analysis and skills insights to solve recurring recruitment challenges and create high-quality talent pipelines.

All in all, AI fights employee turnovers for the better and optimizes recruitments to increase employment opportunities.

Also read: Common virtual recruiting pitfalls and how to avoid them

Components of an AI recruitment strategy for software engineers

How can AI-based recruitment Streamline the Talent Acquisition Process?

Hiring activities of a company are mainly outsourced to third-party AI recruitment agencies that run machine learning-based algorithmic expressions on candidate profiles. ML algorithms are pre-trained on massive datasets that increase the candidate selection efficiency and reduce the endless sifting and browsing of resumes.

Let’s look at how AI skills up the candidate game of a particular company in detail :

Pre-screening chatbots: AI conversational chatbots can bridge the gap between the recruiter and the applicant. It replaces the “recruiter phone screen” stage in the hiring process and screens candidates with a human touch. Built with evolving NLP technology, it screens a candidate’s ability to fit into their contesting roles by recognizing their pattern of communication.
Resume parser: The resume parser scans candidate resumes and social media profiles to analyze their experience and education. It generates specific codes and parses information according to the organization’s competitive shortlisting guidelines. It also categorizes a few samples for further processing and internally sorts them to produce the required output.
Filtering: The resume samples are further filtered based on custom criteria of age, background, qualification, etc., and forwarded to the concerned team. This candidate data can be stored in the cloud using reliant blockchain technology. The samples are clustered together to obtain a small set of profiles submitted for final evaluation.
Automated panel assignment: As the profiles finalize, an automated evaluator panel is assigned to individual candidates for further screening. Softwares such as Greenhouse recruiting and Skillate help connect evaluators with candidates for additional rounds of interviews. Such cloud-based solutions aid in faster execution of interview rounds and declaration of results while saving up time and effort.
Automated candidate assessment: Candidates usually appear for a pre-assembled cognitive aptitude test to check their cross-skill ability. Now companies are preparing these tests using AI writing tools that curate extremely logical questions to test candidates’ reasoning ability.
Automated candidate scoring: After the test, the machine learning algorithm analyzes the correctness of every answer and populates an unbiased and trustworthy score. It recommends the score to the assigned panel, who then amends it to a normalized score.
Personalized campaigns: Given the success of candidate evaluation, the system rolls out offer letters to selected software engineers with a note of personalization to make them feel connected and satisfied with their achieved milestone.
Dashboard and analytics: Advanced reports track every stage of the recruitment funnel and provide data-driven metrics regarding hiring campaigns to optimize future outreaches.

Investment funding to build better AI recruitment solutions

The potential of AI recruitment has been witnessed by different stakeholders and investors around the globe. A considerable percentage of the workforce operating in large software industries has witnessed this transition successfully and opened doors for new funding opportunities.

B2B SaaS companies like XOPA, a Singapore-based AI recruitment platform, announced $4.2 million Series A funding led by ICCP SBI Venture Partners. Phenom, another global HR technology company, raised over 100 M in series D funding, giving it a valuation of over 1 billion! This drastic revolution has impacted the decision-making of top investors and funders for better ROIs.

Meeting the tight budgets of a particular organization and easing the hiring stress on the HR professionals has made artificial intelligence more portable for employment.

Challenges of using AI in recruitment

Ethical concerns and bias

One of the most significant challenges in adopting AI for recruitment is the potential for bias and ethical concerns. AI algorithms rely on historical data, which can contain biases related to race, gender, or socioeconomic factors. If not carefully managed, AI systems can perpetuate these biases, leading to unfair and discriminatory hiring practices. It’s crucial for organizations to implement strict ethical guidelines and continuously monitor AI systems to mitigate these risks.

Data privacy and security

AI in recruitment relies heavily on collecting and processing vast amounts of candidate data, including personal information. Ensuring the privacy and security of this data is paramount. Organizations must comply with data protection regulations and invest in robust cybersecurity measures to prevent data breaches and protect candidates’ sensitive information.

Skill gap and training

Implementing AI in recruitment requires the upskilling of HR professionals and recruiters. Many organizations face challenges in providing adequate training to their staff to effectively use AI tools and technologies. Bridging the skill gap and ensuring that the recruitment team is proficient in utilizing AI systems is essential for successful implementation.

Transparency and explainability

AI algorithms can sometimes be seen as “black boxes” where decisions are made without clear explanations. Lack of transparency and explainability in AI-driven recruitment processes can lead to distrust among candidates and employees. To address this challenge, organizations need to ensure that their AI systems are transparent, and decisions can be explained to candidates and stakeholders.

Finding the balance between automation and human insight

Finding the right balance between AI-driven automation and human judgment can be challenging. While AI can streamline and enhance many aspects of recruitment, it should complement, not replace, the expertise of human recruiters. Ensuring that AI augments human decision-making rather than substituting it is a key challenge for organizations embracing AI in recruitment.

By addressing these challenges effectively, organizations can harness the benefits of AI in recruitment while maintaining ethical standards, data security, and the human touch necessary for successful talent acquisition.

The promise of a better-engineered workforce

AI is a cue card to a tech-optimized future of recruitment. It is the ultimate go-to that can help build an employer’s brand faster and recruit a skilled workforce.

Not just recruitment, AI can seamlessly automate, manage and scale your workforce planning and payroll management to diversify business outcomes and set a new trajectory for sustainable growth. It can be your strength to navigate through the complexities of the new world order and ignite a light of empathy in an otherwise computerized recruitment process.

DEI Hiring

What We Learnt From Target's Diversity And Inclusion Strategy

Having a diversity and inclusion strategy for an organization helps foster a diverse workplace where everyone feels comfortable and accepted and to leverage diversity as a driving force for growth and competitive advantage.

Before a recruitment firm develops a diversity and inclusion strategy, it's critical to recognize the negative effects of non-inclusive policies, processes, and behavior by recognizing the barriers and opportunities that influence the diversity of hire and continuing talent management.

This comprises a thorough examination of policy and procedure documentation for all or portions of the employee life cycle, from recruitment to retirement.

Target

There are numerous reasons why it should be a long-term plan, one of which is that firms now have more access to talent.

What is Target's D&I Strategy?

Target values diversity and strives to provide equal opportunity for all employees.Their DE&I strategy is divided into four sections:

Creating a welcoming environment for visitors
Working in a welcoming environment
Ensuring that their workforce is diversified.
Using their power to establish a positive difference in society.

How to Implement D&I strategy in Your Workplace?

Employers utilize diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies to meet regulatory requirements as well as to improve the bottom line by having a more varied, equitable, and inclusive workforce. There are four basic stages to developing a diversity and inclusion strategy (DE&I) strategy:

Gathering and analyzing data to evaluate the need for change
Creating a strategy that aligns with the company's goals.
The initiative's implementation
The plan's evaluation and ongoing audit

These primary phases are broken down into action steps that employers can take to build a DE&I effort in the following ways:

1. Hire for diversity

Workplace diversity starts with hiring. Recruiters must use ATS to promote diversity in hiring.This is so important because companies can talk about diversity all they want if they don't commit to making a real change in their own business And it all starts with employing a broad pool of individuals.How do you recruit for diversity? Here are a few suggestions:

In your employment postings, emphasize diversity
Use a variety of employment boards (such as Diversity Working, Hire Autism, Recruit Disability, etc.)
Request a variety of recommendations
Implement blind resume parsing
Organize a variety of interview panels for prospective candidates
Recruiters must know how to avoid biases

Slack sought out candidates from outside programmer pipelines recruitment through all-women coding camps and initiatives that train black and Latino programmersTarget maintained its industry-leading representation within its board of directors; one-third of its members are women, and nearly half are Latino or Black.

Recommended ebook: 10-Step Diversity Hiring Handbook

2. Compile Data

An employer can better understand the diversity of its employees and the equality of its internal processes by collecting data on employee demographics, as well as identifying any areas of concern or trends.These data have previously included federal and state-protected categories.Other criteria, such as personality type and thinking/learning style, may also be useful, though national comparison data on these may be difficult to come by.If this is the case, a manager needs to track its own data on these categories over time to see if any changes are required.A recruiter can make use of some of the best Applicant Tracking Systems to track down the candidate's data.Demographic data may include the following:

Age
Ethnicity/national origin
Family status
Gender
Language
Personality type
Physical characteristics
Race
Religion, belief, and spirituality
Sexual orientation
Thinking/learning styles
Veteran status

This data would be useful for gathering information about the current company culture regarding DE&I.In 2020, Target released its first disaggregated Workforce Diversity Report (based on 2019 data) that breaks down racial and gender data across all levels of their organization, allowing them a deeper look at what's going well and what they can do better.Tracking and analyzing this data against Target's goals and commitments is one way they stay focused on the right areas as the whole team grows together.

3. Identify Needs and/or Problem Areas

Underrepresented or problematic locations can be discovered once data is collected.Employers should start with a high-level look at demographics like age, gender, race representation, and equity and then dive down by location, department, and role. Problem regions can be identified by asking questions like:

Is management dominated by elderly white men?
Is it common for the accounting department to hire women solely?
Have opportunities for persons who speak English as a second language been limited?
Is the West Coast branch's workforce more racially diverse than its East Coast counterparts?

Employee surveys can provide extra information that can help discover other areas of concern. Employee perceptions of culture may or may not correspond to survey findings.If they do, the employer will have a better idea of what needs to be changed; if they don't, the company may want to hold employee focus groups to better understand the disconnect.If the statistics show little to no diversity in sexual orientation or religion, for example, it's probable that people don't trust the organization with such sensitive data.The diversity of Target's workforce has stayed stable from the previous report; 50% of their team members and 25% of their leadership team are people of color, and 58 percent of their team members and 50% of their leadership team are women.

Also read: Embracing DE&I At The Workplace – #1 Back To The Basics

4. Implement Ideas

Policy and practice changes, employee training, targeted recruiting, and employer-sponsored DE&I awareness activities for employees are all examples of DE&I initiatives.To build momentum for the effort, develop an action plan to accomplish these initiatives by setting realistic goals and starting with the aspects that have the highest business value or are easily feasible.An example of the plan is given below–Initiative: Improve the R&D team's cultural competence and decision-making to guarantee that the team can better leverage existing team diversity and capitalize on varied ideas.Action items: Cultural awareness and competency training, team-building exercises, ongoing dialogue regarding diversity and inclusion with the R&D team one on one as well as during team meetings.Timeframes: Team-building exercises: yearly staff retreat and monthly meetings; continuing dialogue: as needed and ongoing during staff interactions and meetings; cultural awareness and competency training: within six months to make sure that the team can effectively harness existing team diversity and capitalize on varied ideas through patience and inclusive decision-making.According to Target," It's the people that count. We value the 400,000+ individuals who come together as a team to serve our guests."

Also read: A Note On Our New Leave Policies

5. Start Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are extremely valuable organizational resources that can assist a company in bringing together diverse viewpoints, experiences, and ideas from all levels of employees.Typically, these groups are organized around a shared social identity, such as gender, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, or a life stage, such as parenthood.Make sure that all of your company's ERGs are inclusive and that any full-time employee is welcome to join!The Estée Lauder Companies offers 30 employee resource groups with approximately 4,500 employees participating in total across all geographic regions. Employees founded each group, which includes groups for women, veterans, families, LGBTQ+ people and allies, and more.

Also watch: #Inclusion: An honest conversation | Upstox x HackerEarth

In Final Words

Before companies implement any of these workplace and diversity ideas, they must ask their employees what they want and which of these initiatives they want the company to implement first.The company must take the specific needs of each underrepresented group into consideration.There is no one-size-fits-all workplace diversity and inclusion strategy. Talk to all employees, listen to their needs, and start from there.

Hiring Tools

Remote Work & Recruitment: An ATS Story

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed the rules of the game in the workplace forever. There were countless shifts in different spheres of the labor force, and the transformation isn’t over yet.

Furthermore, the constantly changing environment forced employees to upskill to be part of the business. Because of the uncertain future, many faced anxiety and high-stress levels.

Realizing this, HR professionals today, more than ever, are focused on results and not the time spent at work, allowing employees to choose the place of work: in the office, remotely, or a hybrid mix of both.

Work from home became and still is a reality for many employees. Thus, the lack of physical proximity altered the traditional onsite recruitment processes.

What is an ATS?

An applicant tracking system or ATS is a software solution that organizes and manages the overall recruitment process – from the beginning to the end. Thus, accelerates many of the recruitment tasks in the HR department. Some ATS solutions enable onboarding possibilities, too.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that two-thirds of the senior executives started investing heavily in technology, automation, and AI.

But how does ATS streamline the job of HR professionals?

Well, the jobs in the HR department often entail juggling various work activities and constant multitasking. HR workers’ responsibilities include recruitment, training, firing, onboarding, hiring employees, conducting multiple administrative tasks, and managing employee benefits.

Alleviating some of these processes for them will make a huge difference. But ATS solutions take a lot off HR’s plate and make HR jobs more time-effective and efficient.

With online recruitment on the rise, an ATS is a must-have asset in the HR department. It streamlines and structures the recruitment process, filters candidates by skills and work experience, and preserves a valuable amount of data in both a fast and secure way.

How can ATS help improve the Remote Recruitment Process?

Statistics show that up to 87% of people in the U.S. will apply for a job opening via mobile if the process is straightforward. And an ATS solution provides just that. Some of the benefits of using an applicant tracking system include:

1. Simple Online Application

By making the application process easy and mobile-friendly, companies are ensuring to get a larger number of applications, thus a larger talent pool. This is especially important when HR professionals try to extend job postings to talents worldwide, reaching as many applicants as possible.

2. Applicant Screening & Filtering

Instead of going through each application manually and sorting out the ones that fit, ATS allows HR workers to select applicants by various filters. The ATS can eliminate the incompatible applications and surface those that meet the job requirements. HR professionals can filter them by work experience, skills, level of education, previous experience, and more.

3. Candidate Database

The ATS often acts as a centralized data system that saves all received applications. Even the applications of candidates that don’t pass the required filters or those that didn’t pass the job application processes can be preserved and used for future job openings.

Moreover, it allows HR professionals to find and suggest more suitable job offers to candidates previously rejected for other job openings. Thus, by utilizing ATS for recruitment, HR professionals, instead of having to source candidates for new job openings, can opt for candidates’ talent pool for future job roles.

4. Instant Messaging & Communication

ATS helps HR workers filter job applications. Still, it also helps during the interview process by scheduling interviews at the most appropriate times, offers possibilities of conducting online interviews, and more, all in one centralized workplace.

5. Onboarding Experience

Besides the recruitment process, ATS can streamline the onboarding experience, too. New employees can get the company’s guidelines and policies, videos, and documents about company culture, reading materials, and more. All these can provide the required information for the new hires and create a sense of belonging to the company.

6. A Better Understanding of Candidates

By leveraging ATS for recruitment, HR teams can easily get a clearer picture of the types of applicants for job positions. They may discover what criteria are crucial for a particular job opening and see similarities among applicants. Lastly, this can make HR professionals predict and better understand the right candidates for each role.

The data obtained by the ATS can be exported for further analysis, ensuring an easy data export and management.

What are the pros and cons of ATS?

Of course, as with any other software solution, ATS can have its advantages and disadvantages. Speaking of the former, ATS can:

Streamline and simplify the recruitment process
Shorten the selection of candidates
Reduce administrative tasks
Minimize or eliminate job advert expenses and agency fees
Select the right candidates for the job roles

On the other hand, there are some issues regarding the application process. For instance, 75% of the applicants are rejected via ATS because of a mismatch with the required keywords for the job opening. However, candidates can tip the odds in their favor by optimizing the resume with this in mind.

Moreover, the recruiters can get all the submitted applications, even those that did not pass the required filters or were not compatible with the job opening.

Also, applicant tracking systems can be costly. Still, the price depends on the size of the business and what features it offers.

How can Candidates Optimize for ATS?

Up to 62% of employers admit that when using ATS for recruitment, some qualified candidates are automatically filtered out by mistake. But still, there are things that applicants can and should do to minimize this:

Optimize the application for relevant keywords – To be sure they are on the right track, applicants can use the specific keywords used to describe the job description and the requirements.
Double-check the application – Sometimes only one typo can be the reason for an application to be filtered out of the vetting process. Therefore, a careful double check before applying is a must.
Keep things simple – Using many colors, designs, and fonts may seem like a good idea for a resume to stand out. However, the reality is that those may reflect negatively on the ATS. Simpler solutions are always better. Those include using only two colors and only one font, as well as sending the resume in a PDF format.
Useful and relevant information only – Instead of listing all work experiences, applicants should stick to those only relevant to the position they are applying for. The same goes for all other information in the resume. Moreover, applicants should stay away from unique job titles such as programming wizard, marketing mastermind, and others, which will be probably undetected by the ATS software.
Give resumes a human touch – Applicants must remember that even though they are optimizing the application for an ATS software, they are reaching out to the recruiters i.e., humans as well. The application should read naturally and follow the tone of the company, too.

Conclusion

An ATS is a smart solution that can be of great aid for recruiters and HR specialists. Its time-effective nature alleviates the recruitment process, especially when hiring remotely and internationally.

With an increase of 30% in recruiter’s productivity, the advantages of using an ATS in daily work outweigh the few disadvantages. Finally, with the automation of manual tasks and allowing HR teams to focus on attracting quality employees and top talents, companies gain an advantage over their competitors.

Hiring Strategies

Hiring Remote Developers Versus Relocation - What To Choose in 2024?

The pandemic has reshaped the global workforce area dramatically, causing tech companies to hire more remote developers. According to a recent Eurofound report, 34% of employees residing in the EU worked exclusively from home as of July 2021. Compared to pre-COVID statistics from 2018, that’s a whopping six-fold increase.

The numbers are similar in other regions around the world. In the IT sector, telework had been the norm before the coronavirus crisis broke out, let alone the current circumstances. At some point, many software engineering companies run into difficulties filling job positions in their area and turn to the workforce overseas. In August 2021, 77% of job offers posted on a popular social news website for computer science professionals mentioned remote work.

That being said, HR departments often face a nontrivial dilemma when trying to bridge the talent gap with local coders: to hire remote developers from offshore locations or relocate employees so that they work in your office. For a start, let’s dwell on the differences between these two options.

In the relocation scenario, a programmer moves to another place (city or country) to work onsite. The employer typically assists with work permits, visas, transportation, and accommodations. The whole process extends over several months.

Contrary to this approach, remote developers enhance your office team from another location. This tactic is much more cost-efficient than relocation as long as the software engineering or web design workflow is backed by proper administrative support, digital infrastructure, and the security of collaboration at a distance.

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing remote developer hubs

Companies based in Europe and North America are increasingly hiring remote developers from South Asia. India is dominating this ecosystem due to the high level of education and long-running track record of its IT professionals. Furthermore, the country is exhibiting a booming growth of developer population.

Some may argue that being in different time zones will put a spanner in the works, but well-thought-out management and coordination of efforts between onsite and remote teams can smooth the edges in this context. Another important thing to consider is that most Indian developers speak fluent English, which facilitates the interaction considerably.

Things on the plus side of programmer relocation

The ability to communicate in person and collaborate side-by-side is the fundamental advantage of relocating personnel to your locale. It underlies effective teamwork, quick decision-making, and instant feedback. The following aspects make a difference in this case:

Keeping corporate culture high. Having all employees under the same umbrella is the pillar of some companies’ culture. These enterprises spare no expense to turn their offices into oases for synergy between team members.
Face-to-face communication. Beyond all doubt, being able to discuss work issues in the same office is important. It is a prerequisite for problem-solving in real time without the need to give someone a phone call or type a message and wait for a reply.

81% of professional developers are employed full-time, a decrease from 83% in 2020. The percentage of professional developers saying they were independent contractors, freelancers, or self-employed increased from 9.5% in 2020 to 11.2% in 2021 - indicating potential job insecurity or a shift to more flexible work arrangements.

- StackOverflow

Challenges of relocation

The bitter truth is that developer relocation is a bumpy road. You will have to tackle a handful of bureaucratic obstacles, incur significant costs, and spend a lot of time addressing all the accommodation nuances. Ultimately, these hurdles may eclipse the advantages and discourage company executives from carrying through with their original intentions.

Let’s get the lowdown on these gotchas:

A cumbersome hiring process. It’s hard to find a competent developer and get them on board these days, and even more so if the candidate resides in another country. This is doable, though. If you are successful in your scouting endeavors and recruit the right professional, that’s half the battle. Keep in mind that you will additionally need to prep and file paperwork for visas and work permits. Sorting out all these technicalities gobbles up your time, which means you may have to postpone your next major project.
Costs. Moving has never been cheap. If you are planning to cover your new employee’s relocation expenses, be ready to pay a few eyebrow-raising bills for the travel, temporary or corporate housing, and other services. You may additionally need to pay for language lessons. If the employee is moving with their family, assistance with schooling and childcare may be necessary, too. All this expenditure is particularly frustrating if it eventually turns out that the person is not the right fit.
Low flexibility. With relocation, it is problematic to align the size of your dev team with your current programming needs down the line. After investing funds and a ton of effort, such a decision can be tough.
Also, there are several caveats on the employee’s end. Culture shock, social integration difficulties, and a strain on family relationships due to the dramatic change are common problems encountered in light of relocation.

The benefits of recruiting remote developers

IT firms can get a lot of mileage out of working with remote coders. This method of cooperation is more cost-efficient and more flexible than the relocation approach, with today’s top-notch technologies helping you ruin communication barriers that used to be a serious concern. Here is a summary of arguments in favor of this move:

Less time, less spending. If you choose to cooperate with a remote development team, relocation costs won’t be draining your budget. Also, neither your company nor the employee has to go through the fuss of moving and finding an apartment near your office. At the end of the day, you save a great deal of time by extracting this tedious part out of the equation.
A competent crew. According to a SkillValue report, developers from India have a decent score index (78.13 out of 100), which means they are competent enough to meet your company’s programming needs. Their qualification stems, in part, from an increasing level of education in the country. Many of these coders have a wide spectrum of skills in both mainstream and rare programming languages. Most of them can easily communicate with foreigners owing to their excellent English, both written and spoken. Plus, diligence is part of their mentality.
Flexibility. Sometimes, software engineering businesses need to upsize or downsize their teams based on current projects and the state of the market niche they are in. A recruitment model involving remote devs allows you to adjust the size of your team to different circumstances quickly. As a rule, this can be done with a month’s notice.
Corporate culture. There is no denying that an in-house team is the best environment for nurturing your company’s values. With remote workers, you can fill the void by having a dedicated HR manager who is responsible for continuous communication with an overseas team. This is also a great way to gather feedback from remote colleagues and address their concerns in real time.
Plenty of secure communication channels. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Specialized platforms such as Slack and Zoom will help you maintain permanent communication with your staff working from another place. These services provide end-to-end encryption of your video conferences and chats to keep sensitive information intact. Although Zoom dealt with a series of security and privacy scandals last year, it has since addressed those vulnerabilities and is now a reliable tool to stay in touch with your teleworkers.

Are you up to hiring remote developers? HackerEarth is here to help

HackerEarth is a company headquartered in San Francisco, US, that specializes in assessing and screening software developers to help organizations make informed, data-driven hiring decisions. Boasting a decade of experience in this area, it provides enterprise software that accurately evaluates candidates for more than 12 roles and 80 skills across all levels. The company has conducted over 1,000 virtual hackathons over the years.

With HackerEarth’s automated tools, you can easily set up a real-time remote programming or video interviewing session with your candidates. Frictionless integration with the world’s top applicant tracking systems (ATS), such as Zoho, Workable, and Greenhouse, further facilitates the hiring workflow. This platform is used by hundreds of high-profile customers around the world, including Amazon, Barclays, Intel, VMWare, and Zalora.

You can hire remote developers, grow, and build strong teams with the company’s flexible assessment as well as learning and development plans. If you want to enhance your business with remote development talent, outsourcing the hardest part to HackerEarth is a sure-shot way to give your recruitment effort a boost.

This article is contributed by David Balaban. David is a computer security researcher with over 17 years of experience in malware analysis. He is also a regular contributor to 500+ high-profile tech and security websites. David regularly covers topics related to the cyber threat landscape and has a strong track record as an investigative journalist.

You can find some of his guest articles here OR connect with him at David Balaban Security.

Tech Assessment

Hiring Remote Developers Versus Relocation - What To Choose?

In the relocation scenario, a programmer moves to another place (city or country) to work onsite. The employer typically assists with work permits, visas, transportation, and accommodations. The whole process extends over several months.

Contrary to this approach, remote developers enhance your office team from another location. This tactic is much more cost-efficient than relocation as long as the software engineering or web design workflow is backed by proper administrative support, digital infrastructure, and the security of collaboration at a distance.

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing remote developer hubs

Things on the plus side of programmer relocation

Keeping corporate culture high. Having all employees under the same umbrella is the pillar of some companies’ culture. These enterprises spare no expense to turn their offices into oases for synergy between team members.
Face-to-face communication. Beyond all doubt, being able to discuss work issues in the same office is important. It is a prerequisite for problem-solving in real time without the need to give someone a phone call or type a message and wait for a reply.

81% of professional developers are employed full-time, a decrease from 83% in 2020. The percentage of professional developers saying they were independent contractors, freelancers, or self-employed increased from 9.5% in 2020 to 11.2% in 2021 – indicating potential job insecurity or a shift to more flexible work arrangements.

– StackOverflow

Challenges of relocation

Let’s get the lowdown on these gotchas:

A cumbersome hiring process. It’s hard to find a competent developer and get them on board these days, and even more so if the candidate resides in another country. This is doable, though. If you are successful in your scouting endeavors and recruit the right professional, that’s half the battle. Keep in mind that you will additionally need to prep and file paperwork for visas and work permits. Sorting out all these technicalities gobbles up your time, which means you may have to postpone your next major project.
Costs. Moving has never been cheap. If you are planning to cover your new employee’s relocation expenses, be ready to pay a few eyebrow-raising bills for the travel, temporary or corporate housing, and other services. You may additionally need to pay for language lessons. If the employee is moving with their family, assistance with schooling and childcare may be necessary, too. All this expenditure is particularly frustrating if it eventually turns out that the person is not the right fit.
Low flexibility. With relocation, it is problematic to align the size of your dev team with your current programming needs down the line. After investing funds and a ton of effort, such a decision can be tough.
Also, there are several caveats on the employee’s end. Culture shock, social integration difficulties, and a strain on family relationships due to the dramatic change are common problems encountered in light of relocation.

The benefits of recruiting remote developers

Less time, less spending. If you choose to cooperate with a remote development team, relocation costs won’t be draining your budget. Also, neither your company nor the employee has to go through the fuss of moving and finding an apartment near your office. At the end of the day, you save a great deal of time by extracting this tedious part out of the equation.
A competent crew. According to a SkillValue report, developers from India have a decent score index (78.13 out of 100), which means they are competent enough to meet your company’s programming needs. Their qualification stems, in part, from an increasing level of education in the country. Many of these coders have a wide spectrum of skills in both mainstream and rare programming languages. Most of them can easily communicate with foreigners owing to their excellent English, both written and spoken. Plus, diligence is part of their mentality.
Flexibility. Sometimes, software engineering businesses need to upsize or downsize their teams based on current projects and the state of the market niche they are in. A recruitment model involving remote devs allows you to adjust the size of your team to different circumstances quickly. As a rule, this can be done with a month’s notice.
Corporate culture. There is no denying that an in-house team is the best environment for nurturing your company’s values. With remote workers, you can fill the void by having a dedicated HR manager who is responsible for continuous communication with an overseas team. This is also a great way to gather feedback from remote colleagues and address their concerns in real time.
Plenty of secure communication channels. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Specialized platforms such as Slack and Zoom will help you maintain permanent communication with your staff working from another place. These services provide end-to-end encryption of your video conferences and chats to keep sensitive information intact. Although Zoom dealt with a series of security and privacy scandals last year, it has since addressed those vulnerabilities and is now a reliable tool to stay in touch with your teleworkers.

Are you up to hiring remote developers? HackerEarth is here to help

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You can find some of his guest articles here OR connect with him at David Balaban Security.

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