How to Hire Remote Developers in 2024

According to a study by Fiverr, 73% of remote workers have gone remote in the last four years and nearly 80% of respondents want to work remotely as long as possible.

Remote work isn’t just a fad — it’s a reality. But to build a remote team, you’ll have to take a couple of factors into consideration before starting the process. One of them is hiring a team of experts who are well-versed in their domain. The second is to ensure that people are a good culture fit.

This hiring process is especially important if you need a group of talented developers to build a quality application. But, if you have never worked with a remote team, hiring expert developers can be difficult. Don't worry — with the help of a few strategies in place, you can streamline the entire process.

Why You Should Hire Remote Developers

Hiring remote developers offers several benefits besides cost reduction. Let’s divide the benefits among employers and employees below.

Benefits for Employers

• Reduction of Expenses: Remote work reduces expenses otherwise incurred on office space, stationery, office supplies, and utilities, among other things.

• Access to Talent: When hiring remote developers, you are not limited to local talent. Instead, you have access to talent across the globe.

• Increased Productivity: According to a global survey by Statista, about 60% of respondents report remote work setups having a positive impact on developer productivity.

Benefits for Employees

• Flexibility: Remote workers believe the biggest benefits of working remotely are the ability to have a flexible schedule and to work from any location, according to a survey by Buffer. By hiring remote developers, you’ll likely be able to attract a larger pool of candidates who want that flexibility.
• Increased Productivity: As mentioned above, data from Statista indicates that remote work has had a positive impact on developer productivity. That may be the result of changes in how they communicate and collaborate, their work hours, and lack of commute.

Challenges of Hiring Remote Developers

While there are several benefits to hiring remote developers, there are also challenges. Below we’ll discuss these different challenges and potential ways to solve them.

Quality of Service

One hesitation in hiring remote developers from another part of the world might be fear of the quality of service they will offer. Inexperienced hiring managers often make the mistake of hiring unqualified programmers since they offer services at reduced costs.

Solution

You can avoid this potential challenge by thoroughly evaluating and testing the coding ability and overall technical expertise of remote developers before signing a contract. You might look over a portfolio of their previous work to ensure they meet your requirements.

Cost Overruns

Handing off your development needs to novice developers may lead to cost overruns, delayed timelines, and several other problems. If you hire programmers with less experience at lower rates, you may end up spending more in the long run due to mistakes, delays, or other issues that arise during the development process.

Solution

You can avoid the situation of cost overruns by working with an experienced, agile, and reputed offshore software development firm. This way, you’ll get the best of the services at affordable rates.

Mismatched Expectations

If you don’t clearly communicate your needs and expectations during the hiring and onboarding process, remote developers may believe that they have understood the scope of your project when they have not.

Solution

You can avoid mismatched expectations by ensuring regular and clear communication when hiring remote developers. You should always go with a developer or agency that asks questions and establishes clear lines of communication.

Time Zone Issues

Time zone is another major challenge for companies hiring remote development teams. A major difference in or variety of time zones leads to challenges in communicating, setting up meetings, and resolving issues across a team. In the previously mentioned survey by Buffer, 7% of respondents said being in a different time zone than teammates was the biggest struggle of remote work for them.

Solution

Asynchronous communication is vital in supporting a workforce that works across multiple timezones. Since async-first requires highly motivated and independent people who can manage their work and remain accountable with little or no direction, you’ll want to source and evaluate developer candidates with those qualities.

Tracking and Managing Your Team's Productivity

Managing and tracking the progress of your project is an even greater challenge when you have your team dispersed across the world.

Solution

If you want to manage a remote team and keep your developers productive, you can assign your project to a dedicated project manager who will look after the productivity and manage the tasks strategically. Professional outsourcing companies have project managers for their clients.

Should You Hire a Freelancer or Full-Time Remote Developer?

The ultimate decision of whether you should hire full-time developers or freelancer developers depends on the specific needs of your project. We list the pros and cons of both models to help you decide better.

How to Hire Remote Developers

1. Find candidates.
2. Sort through applications and start screening.
3. Perform soft skills interviews.
4. Perform technical interviews.
5. Make an offer and onboard.

1. Find candidates.

If you plan to hire remote developers for your project, you need to attract a large enough pool of candidates to be able to narrow down to the best fits. You can source talent for your project in three ways:

• Job Ads: You can hire remote software developers by posting job ads on job portals like Indeed. You can also post jobs in the career section of your website.
• Freelance Marketplaces: If you have a short-term requirement of developers for a specific project, you can choose to hire developers from freelancing portals like Upwork and Fiverr.

• Social Media: You can look for skilled and qualified developers on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. There are many job-related groups where you can post the opening and interested candidates can get in touch with you.

2. Sort through applications and start screening.

To hire dedicated developers in the most effective way, you need to spend most of your time sorting applications and screening candidates. You should also screen their portfolios on platforms like GitHub and Stack Overflow and check whether they’re culturally fit.

This process will help you hire software developers from remote locations with the right skills.

3. Perform soft skills interviews.

After going through the screening process, you need to interview every candidate individually to make an informed choice. The process should be carried out in such a way so that the primary focus remains on whether or not a candidate is suitable for your company. Remote programmers should share the value of your company as well.

This kind of interview usually focuses on an employee's attitude, personality, and value system, and HR usually asks behavioral questions when hiring remote teams.

4. Perform technical interviews.

The best developers will have the soft and technical skills required for a specific role at your company. That’s why it’s important to run a soft skills and technical interview (although they can be combined into one interview).

A technical interview is typically run by a senior engineer, team lead, or technical architect. The goal is to evaluate how a developer candidate thinks so they should present an abstract problem and ask the candidate to break it down into tasks.

5. Make an offer and onboard.

At this stage, you’ve decided who to hire. Now you have to make an offer and, if they accept, onboard the developers.

During the employee onboarding process, you should establish effective communication channels, set up meetings, and gather the necessary paperwork. You should also present them with a list of things that every new employee should know. Finally, one of your in-house developers should be designated to offer more specific training to your remote developers and answer any questions they might have.

Building Your Remote Workforce

Hiring a remote team with the right skills and experience is not an easy task. When you are trying to hire dedicated developers, you need to consider a few questions. Where are you going to source candidates? Do you want to hire them as freelancers or full-time employees? We have tried to make things relatively easy for you, and hope that our article will help you make a definite choice.