How Location Influences the Success of Staff Augmentation
There are a number of important factors when considering staff augmentation. There are big ticket items - skillset, cost, deadlines, and how much collaboration is required - but what most people may not know is that so much of this can be influenced by location.
The truth is, where your team member is from will impact more than just what hours they’re working. And as staff augmentation becomes increasingly popular across the globe, it’s important to understand the nuances about each region. Here we explore the top areas for staff augmentation, what that might mean in terms of their work style, and how to make sure you are choosing from the right talent hub.
Types of Augmented Staff
It’s important to understand how augmented workers are classified, which is onshore, nearshore or offshore. Onshore workers are local and operate in the same time zones, have the ability to easily travel, and are most likely to share similar cultural traits and communication styles. Nearshore expands the pool to neighboring countries and overlapping time zones. Professionals in this group will be able to offer more real-time collaboration and greater cost savings, but could come with culture differences or communication challenges if they aren’t native speakers. Finally, there are offshore workers who expand on the challenges of their nearshore counterparts, creating more lag between timezones, but oftentimes can offer skills at the cheapest price.
Staff Augmentation Power Players
Technology has allowed us to bridge the geographical gap to find talent, so staff augmentation can source workers from any corner of the world. However, there are certain areas that have greater concentrations of talent. While the United States is still ripe with skilled professionals, it can come at a cost. Most engineers and developers are accustomed to making higher salaries as compared to those in other countries given their level of experience, location, and cost of living. This is why most companies look to near and offshore options.
Nestled close to the U.S., Latin America has emerged as a competitive market for staff augmentation, particularly in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. In addition to their technical expertise, they’re proficient in English, have similar work styles to the U.S., and most importantly overlap during key business hours. Latin America can also offer companies up to 40-60% in savings while maintaining proximity - allowing for agile workstreams and real-time collaboration versus waiting hours for a response.
Beyond Latin America, Eastern European countries, such as Poland and Romania, have seen a boom in this sector as well. We can trace it back to their roots and Soviet-era investments into mathematics and engineering education. When the Soviet Union collapsed, these highly educated professions had limited options, but with the emergence of the Internet they could lend their skills to Western markets. In fact, tech powerhouses like Google, Microsoft and Oracle have established R&D centers in this region to take advantage of talent on-the-ground, and there continues to be IT-related tax incentives and university support to bolster the economy. They have a comparable work ethic, can work ahead on projects given the time difference, and serve as a connection between US and European arms of business.
Finally, Asian markets, specifically India and the Philippines, remain attractive options thanks to their breadth of IT skills, service-oriented mentality, and lower costs. Also, given their long-standing outsourcing history, they’re likely to have better infrastructure and established best practices. However, the significant time zone difference can create communication breakdowns and disrupt progress.
What To Look For
When it comes to finding the fight fit, there are several things to consider:
Cost Versus Collaboration: If cost savings are a deciding factor, offshore options may be the best option. However, these workers are often located in Asian countries and have the greatest time disparity, so they can’t readily join calls or answer questions in real-time. However, offshore options are adept at isolated projects with well-defined requirements. Of course, if accessibility is important and you value collaboration and flexible team structures, nearshore options will offer a better balance given their proximity.
Communication & Culture: Communication is the lifeline of any project. This includes language proficiency, familiarity with your preferred platforms, and similar approaches to the work itself. If the project will require close partnership, you’ll most likely want to consider onshore or nearshore options that share the same values, work styles, and even behavioral traits to create a cohesive environment. However, each country has different strengths. For example, developers in Argentina and Uruguay are routinely collaborative, joining team calls, asking questions, offering opinions and flagging issues, which may be different from professionals who are used to more confined work structures and don’t readily speak up or take initiative.
Control Capacity: Depending how you structure the arrangement, it’s important to know the level of control you need. If you want these workers to have easy integration with the team and access to managers they can communicate with, onshore and nearshore options work best. However, if they can work autonomously with little oversight, offshore professionals can work independently and for less.
Sourcing Skills: It can be a simple question of what special skills your project requires, and someone who has the expertise to execute them. In this scenario, it becomes less about location and more about ability. Onshore options will come at a cost, but near and offshore staff increase your pool of experts that have the same experience without a hefty price tag.
Nonstop Productivity: Depending on your needs, you may require support across multiple timezones to keep work in flow. You can look at location as an advantage to maintain progress, with people working different but sequential hours to accelerate development cycles.
Compliance & Security: Lastly, the fine print matters. Different regions have varying data protection laws, labor regulations, and IP standards, and it’s important to make sure there is alignment when it comes to compliance and security. For instance, EU-based teams are governed by GDPR, ensuring strict data privacy, and while some Latin American countries have adopted similar frameworks, others are still developing compliance maturity.
Choosing a staff augmentation partner isn’t just about skill, it’s about strategic alignment. Location determines how easily your teams collaborate, how fast you can deliver, and how well you can maintain quality and security. To learn more about how Amplify Tech Labs manages software development staff augmentation, click here.
