Offshore and Nearshore Hiring Titans – Pakistan vs Mexico

As the world moves towards more diverse workforces to accommodate various challenges that come up in scaling businesses, there is a growing need for hiring offshore talent. Let’s face it, even the biggest companies in the world know and recognize the potential of offshore talent that is becoming scarce in the U.S. despite being such a large economy. That might also have a lot to do with the fact that there are fewer college graduates in the U.S. than in other developing countries and most people would prefer to do freelance work and follow alternate passions than contribute to the corporate workforce. But the challenge remains as 76% of hiring staff say attracting quality candidates is their biggest challenge. Offshore hiring enables tech giants, multinational companies, and growing businesses to invest in foreign talent and increase their influence with the help of offshore talent. When searching for quality talent, most companies would land in the usual spots, like India and the Philippines, but two rising titans are raising the bar ever so steadily, creating opportunities for offshore hiring: Mexico and Pakistan. And between these two, we’ll explore why Pakistan is fast becoming the top choice for offshore hiring.

Exceptional Talent Pools and Rising Competencies

If you think about hiring offshore talent from either Pakistan or Mexico, the bigger consideration is the talent pool that exists in these countries. Developing and rising economies, have a high turnout of professionals entering the workspace and striving to better themselves with new skills and technicalities that make them competitive candidates in the global workforce as well. Most companies would gravitate towards these locations because they can find a comprehensive talent pool for various specialties like IT, STEM, engineering, and customer service support. These skills are always in demand and these demands are very easily met in both these countries.

Pakistan takes the cake in being ideal for offshore hiring because it boasts a wider talent pool of college graduates who have high-demand skills in IT, STEM, and development as well. There is a greater pool of skilled workers who have special competencies and can work in top fields like programming, IT, customer support, and web development among other high-demand skills and competencies. The growing capabilities of Pakistan is rising in comparison to even India with more IT professionals now working for major companies. Regardless of the kind of offshore talent you are looking for, Pakistan comes out on top in terms of the diversity of the talent pool in comparison to Mexico, which has a good talent pool, albeit a smaller one with fewer professionals with specialized skills in comparison to Pakistan.

Who Saves the Cost in Offshore Staffing

Most companies would stop and think about the benefits of hiring offshore talent and most would go ahead with the decision because of the eminent cost-saving aspects of hiring offshore talent. Companies have saved millions of dollars by outsourcing their jobs to offshore locations that offer low-cost offerings with high-scale talent, which is the perfect combination for any business that has large-scale operations and requires a larger workforce. Outsourcing and out staffing talent in Mexico usually are triggered by the decision of big companies to save money and create a better workforce without having to doll out the big bucks for a well-trained team. But the cost of living in Mexico is not as low as in Pakistan which means that there are higher salaries required for hiring in Mexico, which are still lower than those you will find in the U.S. but higher than the ones you will find in Pakistan.

On the other hand, Pakistan is a developing country that has a lower cost of living which means that you can find specialized skills in the Pakistani workforce at half the price of what you will get from staffing agencies in Mexico. The competency level remains the same and, in some cases, higher with more offshore staff with specific skills present in Pakistan, but the cost of offshore hiring from Pakistan is less and more affordable, which means that there can be more people available to hire offshore in Pakistan than hiring in Mexico for the same price. Since cost saving is such a big aspect of why companies decide to go offshore in the first place, looking for highly skilled talent makes more sense in Pakistan as well.

Proximity as an Advantage for Hiring

When hiring for a specific position, most companies would prefer that they find a resource that is close to home. That is also why most companies don’t consider offshore hiring because they often fear that having someone in another remote location could compromise data security and create hurdles in effective communication, but there are options out there. If you are looking to hire someone who is in a remote location, nearshore Mexico hiring is a good choice for you. Mexico shares a time zone with most companies in North America which gives it a competitive advantage over Pakistan. Nearshoring from a resource in Mexico is much more feasible for most companies, but the question remains, is that still the best option for you?

Most companies would prefer that the talent they get is of top-notch quality even if it is in a different location, so in that regard hiring from Pakistan serves a different kind of competitive advantage. Pakistan’s time zone aligns with most European countries and despite time zone differences can easily establish uninterrupted connections with companies in the U.S. as well still making it a more competitive and ideal environment for offshore hiring. But based on your needs you can decide to have nearshoring in Mexico or cast a wider net and hire offshore in Pakistan, especially if you are anywhere else other than the U.S. and require offshore or remote talent that will be easily facilitated to you by hiring professionals offshore from Pakistan. It makes sense that most companies would hire someone from their vicinity as that is the convenient choice, but convenience doesn’t always equal quality, as that is rarely the case and, in most cases, hiring quality talent offshore is the better decision especially if cost-saving is also a big consideration for a business.

Putting The Skills to The Test – Offshore Talent Quality in Pakistan

There are great industry giants like Google or Amazon that hire offshore talent for their specific operations like customer support or IT staff augmentation.  With more companies gearing towards hiring candidates with high qualifications, that lays down the foundation for experts from Mexico and Pakistan to put their foot forward in the race to hire the best-skilled candidates. While Mexico has a considerable talent pool of qualified candidates, most of their competencies are higher in manufacturing skills, whereas Pakistan takes the lead in growing talent in IT and STEM, with millions graduating each year and joining the workforce.

As almost 52% of recruiters say they are most interested in candidates with a degree in STEM, it seems that Pakistan once again becomes a high contender in that field, producing thousands of STEM graduates each year that provide a competitive edge to these companies by hiring these highly skilled offshore professionals. While the level of education is very high in Mexico as well, and you will be able to find qualified candidates there too, Pakistan comes on top as one of the most frequently accessed areas for technical staff for IT augmentation and STEM due to its high propensity for producing talent that is part of an emerging tech hub with IT parks that have a strong focus on computer science and software development, a skill that is fast-becoming one of the most coveted in the world, anywhere in the world.

Speaking the Language of Success

One possible consideration that most businesses have with hiring nearshore or offshore is the discrepancy within the accents that you might find in the talent recruited from nearshore or offshore locations. While this is a valid concern, it is not a deal breaker at all. When looking for quality offshore talent or nearshore talent, both Mexico and Pakistan have a lot to offer, because both countries not only have a very vast English-speaking population but both are well-versed in U.S. culture. A possible leg up for Mexico is that is made up of a majorly Spanish-speaking population, and most people are bilingual having proficiency in both Spanish and English. For companies in the U.S., this is a pretty substantial advantage as these people are incredibly useful as nearshore talent to U.S. companies that work with customer support and professions like debt collection where you must communicate with bilingual customers. Spanish-speaking nearshore Mexico talent takes the cake thereby providing bilingual proficiency.

On the other hand, Pakistan has one of the largest young populations in the world with most people having perfect proficiency in written and spoken English. Not only that, but they are also quite familiar and enamored with the U.S. culture and can communicate and connect with the population of U.S. customer bases as professionals without any issue. So, when it comes to speaking the language of success, Pakistani debt collectors chat support executives or customer support representatives have excellent English speaking skills and clearer accents as they can easily train themselves to adopt the accents that are prevalently spoken in the U.S as well as the U.K. Both Mexico and Pakistan are home to thousands of confident, young people that spare no efforts to connect with a wider and diverse public including the customer base from different countries and make excellent representatives and staffers wherever they are placed.

Remote Scouts – The Hub of Nearshore and Offshore Hiring

So, there you have it, these are some of the points to consider before making your choice for the best country to hire for nearshore and offshore capabilities and talent. Pakistan and Mexico have laid down their cards and you are free to choose whoever suits your business needs the most. But one thing is for certain, whenever you choose to hire offshore or nearshore talent, you won’t find a better resource than Remote Scouts. With over 10 years of experience in offshore staffing and screening, we ensure a smooth and straightforward process of recruiting, screening, training, and hiring nearshore and offshore talent that is of top-tier quality. For your next hiring spree, you should consider Remote Scouts to take care of everything from talent acquisition to proper hiring and onboarding so you end up with the best-in-class talent that will add value to our business and grow it to the heights you have dreamt of!