As a startup, CodersLink is all too familiar with the late nights and the mounting pressures surrounding product deadlines, delivery, and scaling. In our time spent connecting U.S. companies to world-class Mexican developers and engineers, we’ve learned a couple of very important lessons:
#1 The challenge of scaling is unique to each company and its situation and goals
#2 Looming deadlines with a short-staffed talent team can lead to negative deliveries
#3 Mis-hires are costly mistakes with long-term repercussions
#4 Quality talent is not bound by borders
Let’s take a look at how the talent solutions model helps startups address these pain points.
Looking at Scaling Through a Hiring Perspective
Most startups will experience growing points at one point. Scaling a company is multifaceted—as any seasoned entrepreneur will tell you. There are a lot of factors on the line, but as a company that deals with the tech talent hiring side of things, we know that finding and establishing the right team can be a big part of the scaling equation.
We’ve seen it happen with some of our partner companies.
Easy Expunctions, a Startup Partner in a Fast-Paced Race to Delivery
For example, when we started working with Easy Expunctions they needed tech talent to grow their product while preserving cash flow and maintaining costs at a minimum. This is a common trajectory for many young and up-and-coming companies that see some initial success and momentum.
Easy Expunctions is a software-fueled services company that cleans and expunges criminal records without the high costs of hiring a lawyer. As their product caught fire, they found themselves needing to increase product output and delivery without expending too many resources.
For them, the answer lay in the ability to tap into a reliable talent pool and have flexible hiring options as the company’s needs fluctuated. This meant access to specialized talent on-demand that allowed them to keep the hiring costs and time spent on the hiring process at a minimum.
In other words, approaching in a practical and structured way. Many entrepreneurs fear losing the edge of their fast-growing and visionary ideas. As the company’s needs change, they may feel defensive in changing job roles that they had nurtured from the beginning.
At the same time, the entrepreneurial soul is one that resists being tied up by bureaucracy that might tether or in some ways restrict creative growth. This defensive instinct leads many startup founders to fear tapping into new talent pools due to the uncertainty or misconceptions about hiring in Mexico or other LATAM countries.
And yet, CodersLink helps with:
- Speed
- Efficiency
- Strategy
One venture capitalist once described scaling as a ‘black art,’ given its often nebulous and mystifying properties. Business experts and entrepreneurs have tried to nail down the key principles of a successful scaling strategy. We’re not about to attempt to do that here. What we want is to look at scaling through the hiring lens and how approaching this one aspect of scaling can be a strategic win for many companies.
Working with a trusted partner to slowly (or quickly) integrate new members into your team is a great way to maintain control while leveraging the expertise of an external party. While working with us, Easy Expunctions routinely turned to our team and communicated a need for a specialized role or positions.
Using an On-Demand Talent Pipeline for Looming Deadlines
One of the advantages that Easy Expunctions had with CodersLink was their direct access to an on-demand talent pipeline. What does that look like exactly?
Well, once we had established a relationship with the company: familiarize ourselves with their needs, project roadmap, and company culture, we had a working relationship that allowed for quick adjustments and adaptations.
In other words, if the company suddenly needed a software engineer to jump in and support the core development team, they could reach out to us for help. Due to competition, many startups struggle in hiring specialized software developers quickly. Without much delay, our recruiting team could provide a list of viable candidates for the position. The company could then be confident that the 2-3 candidates we sent over had the qualifications needed and would be a good fit, though they would make the final call.
Avoiding Mis-Hires To Avoid Setbacks
Any hiring manager will tell you that a bad hire can be a major setback. This is especially true when a company is working around the clock to meet deadlines.
The cost of a bad hire is not exact and can fluctuate depending on the position, how long it took to hire the person, and the amount of time they spent working for the company before they were let go or left on their own accord. The U.S. Department of Labor’s system to calculate a bad hire says that the cost of a bad hiring decision is at least 30 percent of that individual’s expected earnings for one year. So, if you hire a software developer that is looking to make $90,000 per year, the cost to the organization of hiring the wrong one is about $15,000.
Of course, there are other expenses that are much more difficult to quantify such as:
- Time spent on onboarding and training
- Impact to company morale and momentum
- Stress caused to the rest of the team and managers
- Time spent in performance reviews or talks
Keep Costs Low While Accessing World-Class Talent
For company founders and hiring managers, the challenges of hiring are also economic. In the United States, for example, the average salary for a software developer hovers around 120,000 according to U.S. News.
By contrast, companies can access elite talent in Mexico for a fraction of the cost. Due to the differences in cost of living, the average salary for a tech professional in Mexico is 4,285 per month or $51,420 per year.
When comparing tech salaries in Mexico and the U.S., the cost-saving is substantial for a company and often allows them to hire one or two specialists as opposed to filling only one vacancy.
Reap the Benefits of a New Talent Pool with a Trusted Talent Solutions Partner
In the last few years, the LATAM tech ecosystem has garnered attention. Leading the region, of course, is Mexico. The country has over 326,000 working software developers and graduates about 130,000 engineering students every year.
Hiring developers in Mexico may seem far-fetched or out of reach, but with the right partner, it’s like hiring in your own backyard. CodersLink does the administrative work, recruiting, and ensures legal compliance so companies can focus on building reliable tech teams that move their company forward.
