Remote work; Now, your software engineer can come from ANYWHERE
To be clear, I do not see anything good coming out of this Pandemic. The health crises resulting in mass illness and deaths remain overwhelmingly heart-aching. However, I believe the disruption occasioned by this global pandemic has redefined how we engage, live, and work.
According to Owl Labs’ 2020 remote work report, 1 in 2 people won’t return to jobs that don’t offer remote work after COVID-19, and 23% of full-time employees are willing to take a pay cut of over 10% in order to work from home. Work as we knew it, has been hugely redefined and organisations who don’t embrace this change, and build internal systems to adapt, will struggle to motivate, retain and hire great talents.
Beyond ticking the compliance and regulatory boxes, the observed benefits of remote work is immense. Owl Lab’s report observed that 75% of people are the same or more productive during COVID-19 while working from home. In addition, 77% of respondents agree that after COVID-19, being able to work from home (WFH) would make them happier, collaborating the findings of an Oxford University Business School research that links happiness to productivity at work.
I believe this is a win-win for both the employee and the employer. On one hand, the organisation achieves more through employee productivity and real estate cost savings, and on the other hand, the employee gains better control over his or her time choices, saves money on the commute, and avoids traffic-related time losses.
For certain language-neutral professions like IT, work from home (WFH) has opened up a new vista of opportunities for skilled talents to uptake projects irrespective of location. When the right tools are in place, you could have your team work from anywhere in the world. This is empowering!
Today, an organisation in the Netherlands can reinforce its software engineering team with developers outside of Europe — say Africa; and enjoy the same and sometimes better code quality cost-efficiently. If your organisation is building a product for the African market for example, who best to be part of the development team than someone who lives in that region and has an understanding of the local market dynamics? Think of the sheer advantage that is. Strategy!
Communication? A perfect fit! 24 out of the 54 countries in Africa speak English with a time zone close to that of Europe.
Our market research reveals that most organisations in Europe who would like to have this advantage have not engaged due to the seeming complexity that accompanies the process of building remote teams. Let’s face it, without a partner with extensive knowledge and expertise in navigating the Africa tech talents ecosystem and European market, success will be far off. You need a partner who has built systems and tools that enable software engineers to work reliability in a distributed form without compromise on quality, and security.
Geria, a UK-based company with African operations, offers this advantage and currently helps businesses in Europe to access world-class Africa-based software developers. With only a few days of hiring time, organizations are able to build their products faster, smartly, and cost-efficiently. To learn more, feel free to visit Geria’s website or drop an email at hello@geria.io
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