Hi Andrew, My experience from a) running some IT projects split between Ireland, the Midwest and Melbourne, and b) working at a business strategy firm on outsourcing is that looking at eg. India is still something you should seriously consider.
1) There is no good time to talk to all three parties all at once, ever, if it's US/UK/Australia. And you'll want to do it every day. (What you are saying about time zones is exactly the right question to ask - the fact is that it's just a lot easier to solve problems over the phone. Also, personal relationships matter, and they are hard to build over email.) A couple of hours of overlap each day goes a long way in this regard. 2) Because the labour costs are lower, you can afford to hire better people. That's why functions like R&D are being located in India - because there are lots of good people available. Of course the cultural gap is bigger, so the things you are saying about bringing people to work with you for a month or so will be important, as will interviewing carefully. I think also the career progression question for the people you hire offshore is a question as well, if you are trying to hire people who are genuinely talented. I would be tempted to talk to a couple of outsourcing firms there (assuming that they exist), being pretty specific about what you want (ie. a couple of dedicated people with specific skills) - it's not going to get you the cheapest rate in the market, but it will let you test the whole thing out without employing anyone directly, and they will already have some experience with the remote working model, including some kind of account manager doing a bit of supervision for you. My two cents. Cheers David On Apr 23, 1:39 pm, Rogers Andrew <andrew.rog...@anchor.com.au> wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm hoping that perhaps someone on the list has had some experience with > employing people overseas that may be able to point me in the right > direction. We're considering putting on some systems administrators in > UK/Europe and potentially the US to assist us with covering a 24 x 7 support > load. > > To a large degree we're trying to identify what we don't know that would be > useful to know in order to make this a smooth process, so I'm not sure I have > all the right questions to ask at this stage. I guess I'm mostly interested > in things others may have done that made the remote staff arrangement work > well which deviated from what you needed to do when only working with a local > team. > > Importantly we're not so interested in offshoring to lower labour cost > environments as seems to be the more common requirement for offshoring. > Rather we're interested in having a few talented staff looking after the > after hours events that our local team currently take care of and potentially > offer the ability to continue on urgent projects overnight to improve > turnaround times. > > A few questions that do come to mind: > > 1) Any advice in dealing with the international nature of the employment in > terms of keeping everything above board, meeting any local legal > requirements/obligations (eg tax reporting, superannuation, insurances etc). > > 2) Any tips on the recruitment process. In Australia we rely heavily on a > local knowledge of the market, people, forums etc to help us recruit. Any > techniques that you found useful in replacing a lack of local knowledge? > > 3) Were there any steps you found you needed to implement to promote team > interaction? > > 4) Have you found any timezones that work better than others, have you found > it important to have the people in the remote timezones having an overlap > with the hours being worked by staff in Sydney at the edges of the shifts? > > 5) Remuneration - any tips for getting a feel as to what local market values > are for wages? > > 6) A few other people have mentioned the importance of bringing new staff > over to Australia for a month or so to begin with to get some face to face > time. Have you tried this and if so has it been useful? > > 7) Any tips on keeping people productive and motivated or keeping tabs on > their level of productivity in the remote environment? > > 8) Have you found any additional challenges being faced by the locally based > staff as a result of bringing on the overseas staff? > > Any advice would be greatly appreciated. > > Regards, > > -- > Andrew Rogers - Managing Director > > Hosting ruminations :http://anchor.com.au/blog > We did the thinking for you :http://anchor.com.au/wiki > > Anchor Systems Pty Ltd - Hosting Heavyweights > Level 4, 81 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000 > andrew.rog...@anchor.com.au -http://www.anchor.com.au > Phone: 1300 883 979 - Direct: 02 8296 5100 - Fax: 8296 5199 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. > > Guidelines on discussion:http://tr.im/ujKF > > No lurkers! 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