Learn To Hire Top Latin American Developers in 2024 With These Key Steps

Latin America is becoming the main source of tech talent for U.S. businesses across all industries. The 2024 IT market survey shows that the services market from LATAM to the U.S. is worth $9.21 billion dollars. Additionally, experts project that it will grow by 12.40% each year. 

If you wish to hire developers from LATAM, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will help you in determining whether hiring engineers from this region is suitable for your needs. Additionally, it will show you how to initiate and effectively carry out the recruitment and retention process.

Number 1: Understand if hiring Latin American developers is for you

There have never been more reasons than there are today to consider sourcing software developers from Central and South America. If you manage a U.S.-based business, one of the smartest moves you can make is hiring software engineers from this region.

The 3 Winning Qualities of Latin American Software Development Talent

Here are three benefits we’ve experienced while working with them and a bonus track:

Excellent quality

Clearly, there are great — and not so great — resources everywhere. However, the educational systems of countries like Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, and Nicaragua are deeply rooted in the sciences. Education from primary school to college is also free of charge to everyone.

As a result, thousands of highly talented experts graduate as software engineers every year. Most of them coded for the first time in high school or even primary school.. These people have programming in their blood and it’s their vocation.

The vast amount of passionate talent available enables us to select elite developers through a unique pipeline we’ve built over the years that has helped many businesses tackle an upcoming shortage of cost-effective developers. Hence, today we have an army of top-notch resources ready to support   U.S.-based businesses. 

Loveable culture

The warm, enthusiastic culture of Latin America has captivated many U.S.-based businesses. Many companies outsource developers from this region because its people value self-improvement, which enables them to stay at the cutting edge of their areas of expertise.

Latin Americans work wholeheartedly, developing a personal interest in your goals. They see your company as something more than a source of income and they want to feel like a part of it. It’s normal for them to ask you about your vision and get out of the box to meet your expectations.

They also love providing honest feedback, unlike professionals from Eastern cultures, who tend to be more tepid in this area. Even the savviest engineers from other regions may have a hard time expressing their thoughts about the risks or possible failures of a project. This hesitancy could cost you efficiency and time. 

Overall, Latin Americans are familiar with and even share American culture. This cultural affinity prevents communication barriers that might otherwise occur.

Same time zone

Working with an overseas team can turn the tiniest of tasks into huge headaches. Nearshoring enables you to engage with your team during normal business hours and communicate seamlessly through Slack or team calls.

Different working hours can also make turnaround times a real problem, especially in software development. Eastern Europe (GMT+2) and India (GMT+5:30) are 10 and 13.5 hours respectively ahead of the Pacific time zone. So, if there’s any problem, you have to wait at least 16 hours to get it checked. We all know how dangerous a delay like this can be for a product with thousands of users waiting for a resolution. 

The greatest benefit

Latin America is a unique region, and there are many reasons to love it. Quality resources, hard-working professionals, the same time zone, and high ROI are just a few. But the main reason we love sourcing in this territory isn’t in any number or statistics but in the hearts of its people. 

Each team member gives their all to make every project successful, leaving a piece of themselves in every product. Honest, responsible, enthusiastic — that’s their DNA…and ours.

Number 2: Know where to get the talent and how much they cost

The hourly rates for software development professionals in the U.S. range from 45 to 100 USD per hour. While the average rates to hire Latin American developers are from 40 to 60 USD per hour. There is also a considerable variation in rates according to the IT skills and area of expertise. This means hiring developers from Latin America is much more affordable than hiring from the U.S. Let’s see in detail the hourly rates of developers in the top LATAM countries working for U.S. companies:

Number 3: LATAM Talent discovery, attraction, and retention

1. Navigating through a Unique Talent Pool:

To make your offer appealing, it’s important to know what Latin American developers find attractive when looking for jobs. Recognizing factors like the tech community, career growth, and professional opportunities helps you attract top talent.

Additionally, finding where the best Latin American developers gather a complex task. Thousands of local job platforms exist at events and online platforms. Finding and engaging with these community hubs facilitates a more targeted approach to talent acquisition.

> Hot tip:  Latin American developers value the opportunity to set an ambitious career path when choosing a team to join. Companies that offer training, workshops, and conferences are ahead of the competition and attract more quality professionals.

2. Creating and Implementing Effective Assessments:

Evaluating technical skills is crucial when hiring in LATAM because of the bigger talent pool and diverse work styles. This involves designing coding challenges, and practical exercises, and evaluating the depth of technical expertise required for the role.

Not only that, but evaluating cultural fit is paramount for harmonious team dynamics. Assessments should delve into a candidate’s adaptability, collaboration skills, and alignment with the company’s values to ensure seamless integration into the existing team.

> Hot tip: Integrate real-life scenarios that are part of the day-to-day challenges at your business into your interviews. This will reveal the candidate’s ability to adapt to your work dynamics.

3. Managing Government Compliance and data security:

Each LATAM country has its own set of regulatory nuances, and navigating this variability demands a meticulous approach. Staying informed about employment laws, tax regulations, and data protection requirements is imperative to avoid legal complications.

> Hot tip: Consulting with a Latin American expert on remote working before making decisions as a company can be more effective. Creating safer results than relying on research or the individual compliance of new team members.

Protecting your business’s data and ensuring its security is extremely important in the global tech community. A data breach could greatly harm your business and even expose you to competitors using it. Following local data protection laws is also important.

4. Providing Fitting Compensation, Benefits, and Equipment:

Crafting competitive compensation that aligns with industry standards in LATAM ensures that your offers are attractive to top talent. Understanding regional salary expectations and cost-of-living factors is integral to this process.

> Hot tip: Besides competitive salary packages, performance-based bonuses and varied benefits are vital for attracting and retaining top Latin American Developers. Choosing benefits that cater to the preferences and needs of Latin American developers, such as healthcare, enhances the overall compensation package.

Additionally, oftentimes developers from the region can enhance output with a tech welcome package. It includes laptops, software tools, and communication platforms, which are essential for their efficiency and productivity.

5. Creating a long-term relationship:

Sustaining developer motivation in a competitive environment is crucial to hire Latin American developers. Establish strategies to keep your team engaged and committed for the long haul.

> Hot tip: A positive and inclusive work environment fosters a sense of belonging and job satisfaction, contributing to employee retention.

Lastly, integrating cross-cultural teams is a difficult process. Integration needs team-building activities to connect teams in different locations and make the team stronger. Virtual team-building exercises, shared experiences, and collaborative projects create opportunities for mutual understanding. See our real life example of how we achieve this team integration through activities on the following video:

Number 4: Make 3 simple decisions before you hire Latin American developers through tech talent partners

“Just one great partnership with the right person can have an incredible impact on your business success.” – Janine Ogg, co-founder of Love Your Small Business.

If you decide to skip the work of sourcing, recruiting, and managing compliance to hire top-tier developers with the help of an IT staffing partner, then there are just a few decisions you need to make to start working with these professionals on your team:

1. AI versus traditional recruiting

In talent acquisition, businesses must choose between using AI recruiting platforms or traditional candidate screening by staff augmentation companies. Each approach brings its set of advantages and disadvantages, shaping the landscape of modern recruitment strategies.

AI recruiting platforms have improved hiring speed and efficiency by quickly sorting through many applications. These platforms leverage data-driven decision-making, utilizing analytics to discern patterns and optimize candidate selection.

In contrast, traditional candidate screening facilitated by recruiting companies emphasizes the human touch. Human recruiters bring nuanced insights, considering factors such as communication skills, cultural fit, and adaptability.

Choosing between these paradigms requires a delicate balance. AI recruiting platforms offer scalability, consistency, and efficiency, while traditional staffing companies bring the depth of human insight, customization, and relationship building.

However, tech talent partners that combine AI automation and human involvement create a more effective screening solution. This solution can also provide personalized insights to find the ideal Latin American developers.

2. What you need in a good tech talent partner

You could consider a lot of unique aspects before hiring a tech talent partner. We have observed that the most important factors for a successful partnership in various businesses are:

• Compliance and security: A good partnership should offer you HIPPA compliance, data protection, and security. It should also prioritize civil compliance across the governments of Latin America and their diverse laws. Ensuring you’re not falling into any illegal practices.
• High focus on retention: There’s nothing worse than making a great effort to integrate a new team member into the company only for them to leave shortly after. This is why a good partner should offer you stability and retention of developers, and not just the initial talent matching.
• Good quality developers: All businesses aspire to high-quality developers. However, assessing the level of quality of each business can be challenging. One of the best ways to see the quality of the developers any partner provides is by reviewing their reputation through trustworthy sources like Clutch.
• Cultural integration to your team and not just technical prowess: Your team members should be skilled in technology and have good interpersonal relationships with the rest of the team. Yet, they should also share a similar culture and have a clear understanding of their work. To ensure this, it is advisable to partner with companies that prioritize cultural fit for their developers.

3. Temporary freelancers versus long-term problem solvers

Many businesses decide to hire LATAM developers because they are facing a challenging project that needs extra hands to carry out, others want their professionals to stay permanently, while others would like a short contractor that does a brief job. Making this distinction is important, as it will determine the kind of partnership you will look for. 

For a more uncommitted partnership or contract in the case of short needs or projects, fully AI recruiting platforms or freelancing platforms like Upwork are the way to go. But if you’re looking to work with a stable developer for a year or more, you could find an IT staffing partner like us at BEON.tech much more fitting.

Key takeaways

If you’re a U.S. business in need of more elite talent, Latin America could be the source of developers you’ve been looking for. Their matching culture, same time zone, and vast availability of talent make it a desired hub for recruiting. 

If you decide to hire LATAM developers on your own, you must keep in mind that there are many things you need to fully master before being successful. This includes sourcing across a multitude of platforms, creating an appealing offer, and making sure you’re in compliance with the government and with the best data protection practices. 

If you’re looking for a tech talent partner that provides elite software developers from LATAM shortly and simply, BEON.tech is the right place for you. Book a free call to see how we can help you today!