After the recent global recession, cost-cutting has become necessary for survival of corporate houses. Unfortunately, the brunt of reduction of excess expenditure has been employees, with large companies firing surplus resources. However, this is far from the ideal solution, instead is a horrible blow to team spirit and employee psyche in general.

Then, what is the solution?

What these companies are now opting for – keeping the home team small and outsourcing the excess baggage.

If you are running a small/large IT firm and want to reduce operational costs, consider offshore staffing. Look for part-time employee hiring. Choose to outsource your projects for the same quality output at less prices. Offshore staffing is a hassle-free process; all you need to do is contact the service provider, discuss your projects with him, select your team, sign a contract and get the work on board.

Outsourcing is far more beneficial for your business because:

It Reduces Home Cost- A permanent employee will command a hefty pay-package and solicit appraisals, including additional benefits. An overseas employee charges you only for the work he does, not to mention, a ridiculously subsidized rate.

Valuable During Economic Slowdown- This is one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing. Consider the time when there are few projects and yet, an employee has to be paid his full salary. For one $1000 earned, you pay an employee his due of $1500. Where does the extra $500 come from? More importantly, why pay when you can, in fact, invest $700 on an offshore firm and profit $300 from outsourcing?

Ensures Quick Project Completion- A freelancer is not an alternative to offshoring. Offshore providers work as a team. Most times, these are small, but established companies providing services for outsourced projects. They have the resources – hard and soft, and the infrastructure to take care of your needs. Compared to a freelancer(s), you can be sure that project requirements will be met and within the time frame you have appointed. Besides, with services under one roof, it saves you time and effort to appoint individuals to take care of your project, part-by-part.

So, is offshore staffing a spot of green for home companies?

Yes. It is!

If you believe in maximum ROI (return on investment) offshoring is your way to go.

Let’s face it. Manipulations have been around since time immemorial and it is practiced by almost everyone. If you are new to the world of offshore staffing, there are some clients who would take advantage of your ‘newness’. In this post, i will talk about how they usually do it so that you can be prepared for them before they strike.

• First in my list is the technique where business owners use their authority over their outsourced employees to convince them to do something that is beyond the contract.

• A very common manipulation tactic is to demand something from your when you are focused on your work. The person who does this knows very well that your attention is towards what you are doing. They do it on purpose and take advantage of your consent. For instance, getting you to do something beyond your project scope – getting a tag-line written by you when actually, the contract is just one logo design.

• A client can sometimes also divert the topic you have been talking about in order to bring in something distantly related to the issue at hand so as to distract you. They can do it quite fast. Be careful when you talk to them, especially if you are a fresher because then you are highly likely to fall for the trick.

• If your client has repeatedly requested something that is beyond your ability to provide or is completely irrelevant to the project you have been entrusted with, he/she is manipulating you with the hope that at one point of time you will say ‘yes’.

• The last and probably commonest is the tactic of creating fear. Your clients present a scenario before you that is not real or can never be real and then they themselves provide a solution to the scenario to make you question your abilities and feel scared.

So, now you know how most business owners who outsource their projects can manipulate their offshore staff. However, not all clients do this and there are professionals who can dodge this kind of tricks. As your experiences grow, you will automatically be able to understand if, when and how you are being manipulated. Till then, use this guide and look out for what may come.

The concept of offshore staffing came into existence only because of one reason, cost reduction. Developing countries like India have huge human resource and they offer extremely affordable rates for all IT related services.

The concept of offshore staffing came into existence only because of one reason, cost reduction. Developing countries like India have huge human resource and they offer extremely affordable rates for all IT related services.

If you are not aware of the benefits of offshoring, start reading the points mentioned below.

• Get Access to Talent - Indian web development companies employ expert web designers and developers to offer quality services. Hence, when you hire a website designer from an offshore IT firm, he takes full responsibility of your project and designs a user friendly website.

• Save Project Cost – Hiring an Indian web developer, you can save up to 50% money. He will work dedicatedly on your project, offer better output, but charge you less money for his services.

• Delegate to be Efficient – A USA-based famous developer works on multiple projects at the same time and can’t pay equal attention to each project. On the other hand, when you pick a team of web developers from an Indian company, they work only on your project and pay attention to every small detail.

• Benefit from a One-Stop Solution - Most web development companies in India offer various services under one roof. Hence, if you need a web designer, programmer, content writer and SEO expert, you can hire all of them from one company.

• Eliminate Recruiting Costs – Outsourcing is a great option for USA based web design companies as well. For instance, if you don’t have any content writer in your office, instead of appointing a new writer, you can outsource the content writing jobs to overseas companies and focus on your own projects. A permanent employee will ask for a hefty salary, medical and pension benefits etc. but an offshore staff will never bother you for any privileges.

• Enjoy Flexible Work Hours - Offshore companies work day and night to meet project deadlines. They will offer a number of communication methods and change the shifts according to your time zone.

When you hire a programmer or designer from an offshore company, make sure that they are trustworthy. Ask the service provider to sign a written contract so that they can’t steal or sell your data to anyone else.

The recent worldwide financial crisis had forced many companies to rethink their hiring strategies. Some companies chose to reduce size of the work force to handle the situation. While this apparently appeared as a good method to deal with the financial crisis, it resulted in various problems. The existing work force complained about suffering from excessive pressure at work. The quality of work also suffered since every person had to complete more tasks.

Some companies, however, handled the situation by opting for offshore staffing. Such a strategy allowed them to outsource projects, without putting excessive pressure on the current team. Though currently financial situation has improved, many companies still opt for this policy. This is primarily because of the fact that offshore staffing offers various advantages. We highlight some of these advantages.

High Quality Services

Outsourcing a project to a company based in another country can help you to enjoy high quality services. We will explain this point in details. Let us assume that you came across a web programming project. Unfortunately, your team lacks the expertise to accept such a project.

Rather than rejecting the project, you can outsource it, or hire a programmer based in another company who would work on it on your behalf. Of course, for availing these advantages, choosing an experienced programmer is essential.

Cost-Effective Option

Another major advantage of outsourcing is that it helps you to save money. Let us assume that you are based in UK or USA and an one year programming project would cost you approximately US$100, 000. However, if you outsource the project, it would you cost you US$25,000.

Moreover, if you choose the right company, they might deliver your project within 6 months.

Allows You to Focus on Crucial Activities

Outsourcing a project allows you to focus on other critical core activities that will bring in higher revenues. You do not need to burden your employees with extra work. Rather, you can assign them important tasks and provide them with reasonable deadline. This will also help you in maintaining quality of these core activities.

Lets You to Hire Competent Professionals Without Involving yourself in Paperwork

With outsourcing, you can hire professionals, without involving yourself in technicalities or paperwork that are essential for hiring permanent employees. This saves time as well as energy. Also, it is not compulsory to provide these professionals with benefits, such as medical insurance or health benefits.

Quicker Delivery of Projects

Outsourcing helps you in completing projects within the deadline. This saves time, allowing you to take up extra work. Additionally, this helps you to create a positive impression on the client.

It is true that outsourcing projects may not be the right option for every company. However, for companies that receive bulk projects, offshore IT staffing can be a smart and cost-effective option. Earlier, communication was a major factor that interfered with successful outsourcing. However, modern technology has solved this issue. Overall, it is a good solution for a company that requires to expand its work force, but lacks the budget for taking the risk.