Here is a universal truth: competition for skilled employees is fierce in today's marketplace - even more, when discussing technical talent. It upscales very fast. Despite having a market full of excellent professionals, building a tech team can be challenging as it requires searching, finding, hiring, training, and retaining talented individuals.

The challenge is even more significant when it comes to international hiring. This means looking for professionals with good English communication skills — even when they are not native speakers — who have a similar mindset to your company and are used to remote self-management routines.

As the largest country in South America and a top ten world economy, any global expansion strategy should consider the possibility of recruiting and hiring in Brazil. In addition, many managers should know that Brazil is one of the world's largest hubs of tech professionals and software engineers. According to the Stack Overflow report, Brazil is among the top ten countries to hire software engineers.

But hiring employees in a foreign market may seem like an overwhelming and unfamiliar process. As with any foreign market, Brazil's labor laws vary from other countries, so it's essential to understand the culture and benefits before starting the hiring process.

Why build your workforce in Brazil?

Time zone overlap

One of the biggest challenges of hiring remote talent is the time zone difference. But did you know Brazil is 1-2 hours ahead of New York and 4-5 hours ahead of San Francisco?

This time zone overlap makes collaborating with talent a whole lot easier. The usual problems with synchronous conversation and meetings or emergency calls are much less common. In addition, these few hours of difference are typically more cohesive with an organization's operations.

Another significant challenge for most companies working with offshore talent is real-time communication. For example, when you work with professionals in other countries, you need to ensure that they are active when you are. Otherwise, you may need help communicating and have to wait for hours to get a response on something that could be urgent.

Asynchronous communication is the way to go in these situations. But having some overlap in working hours is still important because if your team can't have at least a weekly sync meeting, communication issues and misalignment may soon arise.

Cultural similarity

The cultural similarity between dispersed teams can positively impact an entire organization through higher creativity and productivity. A culturally similar workplace can also help attract and retain top talent, as potential employees are likely to feel like they would fit in.

The cultural working structures in Brazil are similar to the US. Business hours are from 8:30 to 5:00, with an hour or two for lunch. The standard workweek is 40 to 44 hours, and there are several possibilities for contracts based on actual hours worked.

Brazil's hierarchical work culture is similar to the US, where the highest-ranking person will make the final decision. Even though people work together and have close relationships, employees don't usually question their managers. Instead, there is a level of separation that is simply a part of the culture.

When talking about Brazilian software engineers, we can set up a professional profile as:

Hard-working
Self-taught
Proactive
Problem-solving attitude
A knack for finding new and creative ways to do things
Excellent communication skills
Curious
Resilient

The Brazilian tech market

One economic indicator that helps frame the Brazilian market as one of the best to find and source talent in technology is the growing number of companies classified as unicorns (startups that reach a billion-dollar market valuation).

The success of many companies reaching this level of achievement proves how valuable the market for innovation and technology is, which results from technology-oriented strategies and overall maturity, experience, and highly skilled software engineers.

Stability

Brazilian developers are less likely to switch jobs often. This will significantly reduce your attrition rate and the costs related to high turnover, ensuring that you work with the same team from start to finish of a project. Additionally, less churn reduces lost time, delays, and communication problems throughout your project.

This scenario is different from India. For example, according to a report by TeamLease, the average attrition rate in the IT industry was 8.67% in September 2021. Therefore, retaining talent will significantly reduce the costs related to high turnover.

Favorable exchange rate

The conversion rate for the US dollar with the Brazilian real is about 1 to 5. Therefore, compared to the price of hiring US developers and taking talent density into account, Brazilians are more affordable.

USD to BRL exchange rate history (1,00 USD to BRL)
Data collected from IPEA - Institute of Applied Economic Research - on the first day of each year

2018: 3,27
2019: 3,86
2020: 4,02
2021: 5,16
2022: 5,63

Therefore, hiring in Brazil is a cost-effective approach. Companies can onboard candidates with the same skills for lower compensation while offering a competitive salary to attract top talent in the region. While you will have to pay much less to outsource software development from Brazil, you still get the same high-quality technical performance you would expect from developers in the US and other nations.

Olby simplifies building and scaling teams in Brazil

Having all the attributes above does not mean it is easy to find the right talent, as many recruitment teams and engineering managers know very well after spending hundreds of hours on this daunting task. Moreover, hiring talent and looking for jobs abroad must be simplified and less bureaucratic.

Companies partner with Olby to reduce intercultural barriers and promote thriving & long-lasting work relationships based on trust and partnership bonds. We foster connections between Latin American talent and international companies, leveraging life-changing opportunities and boosting global tech companies.

Olby is your partner in this journey. Grow exponentially with a successful team of highly-vetted Brazilian tech talent. Ready to hire your next team? Let's get there.