Change is inevitable in every industry, but it’s especially apparent in the tech sector. Here, the effects are often clear earlier than in other industries.
Because of the rapid pace of change in tech, there’s a debate about how big and small tech companies alike should think when grappling with their most valuable resource: their people.
In this conversation with Edward “E.B.” Batten, Executive Vice President of Growth at BairesDev, we discuss what to make of the recent tech layoffs, which new trends will dominate the tech discussion, and how to foster a corporate culture for a remote workforce.
What is the main benefit of working with an outsourcing development company such as BairesDev?
Right now, you’re seeing a lot of large-scale software and technology companies, primarily product companies, shedding people left and right. Most admit that they overhired and extended themselves throughout the pandemic.
Software outsourcing is necessary in good times and bad times. When the economy was humming the last few years, hiring was incredibly difficult for everybody in technology. At one point, I read that there were around 5.3 software development jobs for every available software engineer in the world.
In that environment, outsourcing with a company like BairesDev is an excellent option because we can scale more quickly than pretty much anybody else in terms of size and quality. Companies needed high-end, experienced people to jump in quickly, often at large volumes.
On the other side of the coin, there’s today’s climate, where there are a host of economic uncertainties. When you work with a contingent software development outsourcer like us, both parties mutually agree on the parameters of the partnership that makes sense. Then, everybody is happy. If we agree that only 6, 12, or 18 months of assistance are needed, then clients are free to discontinue working with us afterward. In the meantime, they can continue down their software development roadmap without hiring full-time in-house employees. When the work is completed, if the macroeconomic climate is not improved, then they are done. They’ve consumed the budget dedicated to that initiative and can now focus on other priorities without concern for the possibility of having no more work for full-time employees.
How do companies determine where to put their software money?
The types of projects large and small organizations outsource mirror the market. Whatever is trending at that moment is what they require companies like us to produce for them. One example is Artificial intelligence (AI), which is a hot topic right now.
However, organizations have to be measured when there’s so much fluidity with any technology, especially with cutting-edge and emerging technologies. Some companies make these state-of-the-art technologies an essential part of their strategy, but for most, it’s mainly pet projects or something supplementary to their core business.
What do you think is the most special thing about BairesDev?
We like to talk about the genesis, the organization’s origin story, and where we are now. It carries more weight than in some other organizations. What we have is pretty remarkable. We are a company founded in Latin America with no external money, and we have become the fastest-growing and largest nearshore tech services company in the industry. In fact, based on publically available data, BairesDev is the largest bootstrapped tech services company in history.
Many organizations can claim to make the best software, have the best offerings, have access to the most phenomenal talent, and so on. But that’s a matter of personal opinion. One thing that’s not up to debate is how we got here and the way we did it.
We’ve read stories on the positive impact companies can have on all aspects of their talent’s lives, including the personal side. How can organizations do that?
One good analogy for this is the restaurant business. They have a product, and it’s the food. Good restaurants ensure the ingredients are perfect and the products are fresh and well cared for. They have to do that continuously.
An organization like ours doesn’t have any product that sits on the shelf. What we have is our people, our teammates, and our talent.
My favorite thing about what we do is to take opportunities and put them in front of people who otherwise wouldn’t have them. For example, let’s look at a software engineer based somewhere in rural South America who can now be a developer for Pinterest, eBay, or Urban Outfitters or a project manager for one of those companies. To me, that’s really special. Also, we focus on seniority and career growth within the organization, helping people progress in their lives. I don’t believe many of our industry peers do that to the degree BairesDev does.
We recognize that our talent has families and roots. We’re not often walking into situations where we say, “Hey, Mr./Ms. Software Engineer or Project Manager, we need you to move from Brazil to North Carolina for the next six months and leave your family.” That’s not how we do it, and the world is finally starting to understand how to treat people in that regard.
To me, that’s a big deal. We’re allowing people to do things they probably wouldn’t be able to do on a massive scale. One example is the story of Yuri Bett, a research-and-development engineer here at BairesDev, who has an autistic son. He stated that working remotely allows him to care for his boy, which he could not do with an office job. Stories like these bring me joy, and nothing makes me happier than that.
Can you speak more about the culture companies, especially those in technological fields, should create?
One thing that can be challenging for many organizations is the remote aspect. Working with a team distributed across states, countries, regions, and time zones is different than everyone showing up in the same office each day.
We’ve been a remote organization from the start. So we have much more experience fostering camaraderie, relationships, and efficiency remotely. We have to feed both the business and human aspects. These things can be difficult. Many large companies didn’t think it could happen until three or four years ago.
We would speak with an astonishing number of companies pre-Covid who would say, “Wait, you folks are working 100% remotely? Are you not in an office? Don’t you have a center of excellence where 400 engineers work shoulder to shoulder? You can’t develop software that way!”.
This approach has enabled BairesDev to build a diverse team of highly-skilled individuals spanning over 50 countries and 600 cities. In 2022, the company expanded its geographical talent dispersion by over 65%, following up on its commitment to provide opportunities for talented tech professionals, wherever they may be.
Now, more and more, the questions people are asking are, “Do you have good teams?”, “Do you have good talent?” and “Do you have a strong track record?” The change wasn’t overnight, but it felt quick in the grand scheme of things.
We’ve helped some relatively large organizations develop their culture and add the human touch. It’s not an absolutely flawless philosophy, but the pursuit of excellence drives us. Of course, we need to emphasize that we need human interaction. That’s why I make every effort always to have my camera turned on during meetings, so my team can see me. There is so much we can say just with facial reactions. Now, there is no physical water cooler at the end of the hall, where people would gather to chat like in the old days, but we can still interact.
Something I picked up from some of the folks on my team a while ago is having open office hours a couple of times a week. We simply host an open Zoom call, where whoever wants to come in can dive into something work-related or just chat about how things are going at home. Having a simple conversation and taking care of that human aspect is a big deal.
A recent article on CNBC mentions that despite the massive layoffs we’ve seen recently in the tech sector, tech companies are still struggling to find the right talent. So, what do tech companies need to remember when searching for the right talent?
There’s still an incredibly high demand for talent. But instead of being more heavily siloed up at the top of the pyramid, where large-scale companies are, demand comes down to the middle, with smaller companies.
Because of this, talent has become aware of the many choices out there. In some cases, larger organizations that historically may have had people tripping over themselves to go work there now have talented individuals thinking, “Wait a minute, I’ve just seen the cumulatively 50, 500, 5,000 people laid off from some of these big companies, and they may pay really well, but maybe I’m going to give some consideration to some of these other smaller companies.”
With that in mind, we can’t be overly hubristic about how good we are and what we’ve done in the past, thinking that the talent wants to jump to us. We must do our part in fostering an enticing culture with which talent wants to be involved.
