Global talent provides U.S.-based tech companies with a wealth of benefits and advantages, but lower employment costs and tax incentives are not the only aspects to consider when building a global team. Tech companies need to examine all aspects of a global team — like nearshore and farshore hiring.
Nearshore Hiring is when global companies hire remote employees in countries where time zones overlap, like U.S.-based companies hiring in Latin America or Canada. Farshore Hiring provides a different perspective where tech companies hire in emerging tech markets where there is minimal to no overlap of time zones, like Central Asia or the Caucasus Region.
When tech companies decide it is time to find and hire global talent, the nearshore vs. farshore comparison is important and impacts how you manage remote teams across multiple time zones — and Truss may be able to help. Truss provides tech companies with a global end-to-end hiring solution and employer of record platform that will help your company find, recruit, hire, and manage remote employees in different time zones.
Contact Truss today to find out how we can help you grow your global team!
READ MORE: How To Choose an Employer of Record for Your Tech Company
Differences Between Nearshore and Farshore Hiring for Tech Companies
U.S.-based tech companies that have expanded their search for talent to different countries and time zones need to understand the key differences between nearshore and farshore hiring. The impact of different time zones can be significant — but if hiring companies focus solely on this aspect they may be making a critical mistake and missing out on top-tier talent.
The primary appeal of nearshore hiring is that it puts U.S. and remote global employees on similar schedules and facilitates collaboration. With that in mind — it is important to note that this appeal has contributed to a saturated market in these nearshore locations, which has increased wages and the level of competition for talent.
Farshore hiring markets — like Central Asia — provide tech companies with an untapped talent pool in emerging tech hubs like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan where companies can find talented individuals with lower salary requirements and government-supported tech initiatives. The primary drawback is that remote employees in these farshore markets may have a 9 – 12 hour time zone difference, making direct collaboration more difficult. The time zone difference does provide an added advantage, allowing tech companies to improve productivity with a follow-the-sun production cycle that starts nearly continuous operations and development.
| Category | Nearshore | Farshore |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Advantage | Real-time collaboration and operational convenience. | Reduced employment costs and access to untapped talent. |
| Time Zone Overlap (US) | High – 4 to 8 hours of daily overlap. | Low – 0 to 2 hours of daily overlap. |
| Communication Style | Synchronous: Supports traditional stand-ups, calls, and collaboration. | Asynchronous-First: Relies on detailed documentation, recorded video updates, and structured handoffs. |
| Cost Savings | Moderate: Saves 30% to 50% compared to U.S. hires. | High: Saves 60% to 70%+ compared to U.S. hires. Maximized further by tax incentives in Central Asia. |
| Market Saturation | High: Fierce competition from U.S. enterprise companies and nearshore staffing agencies. | Low to Moderate: Emerging tech hubs offer highly educated talent pools with higher retention rates. |
| Pace of Delivery | Fast: Follows typical U.S. business hours. | “Follow the Sun” Productivity: U.S. teams spec during the day and farshore teams build overnight, creating 24-hour development cycles. |
| Best Use Cases | Highly collaborative product design, front-end development, rapid MVP iterations, and roles requiring constant real-time feedback. | Deep technical builds, backend architecture, large-scale data science, steady-state R&D, and highly autonomous teams. |
Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team Across Multiple Time Zones
Tech startups and growing tech companies with an eye on costs may find that farshore hiring provides a distinct advantage — but how do you manage remote teams across multiple time zones? How do you navigate the challenges of being on almost opposite schedules? What steps can you take to make managing global teams simpler and more effective?
We are here to help at Truss with a list of best practices for managing remote teams in multiple time zones:
Emphasize Asynchronous-First Culture
When you have remote teams where the time zones are separated by 9 – 12 hours, direct communication is a challenge, and it forces management teams to prioritize asynchronous-first culture. This change replaces impromptu Zoom calls or face-to-face meetings with standard use of recording tools and videos to relay product changes, perform code reviews, and more. It is also important that important project decisions are not made or discussed in private Slack or Microsoft Teams channels — but instead create group channels where important decisions can be discussed in a public forum when time and schedules allow.
Define Core Communication Hours and Processes
When your tech company has remote teams in a different time zone, it is important to define core communication hours and processes. Determine the Golden Hours when the time zones may overlap for critical team meetings to solve complex challenges. When outside of these golden hours, it is important that all employees across teams follow the defined communication processes to ensure important updates and information are always communicated.
Establish a Follow-the-Sun Workflow
Tech companies that hire remote employees in farshore markets can turn a perceived drawback into a valuable asset by establishing a follow-the-sun workflow. This strategy can help create a nearly 24-hour operations cycle. Teams should focus on handing off work to the next team to continue the next step of the project. For example — U.S. teams finalize specs and code for a project during the day, and hand off the project to a remote team in Central Asia that takes in the feedback, writes code, and performs QA checks for the next team and the next day.
Hire for Autonomy and Communication
With an asynchronous-first culture, it is important that remote hires in farshore markets have the ability to work autonomously and communicate effectively with U.S.-based teams. This means that farshore teams may need to have more senior-level developers and engineers with management experience to lead junior developers. It is also important that these remote teams be able to communicate effectively in English to avoid any potential miscommunications.
READ MORE: Should You Find a New Employer of Record?
Are you looking at nearshore vs. farshore hiring? Do you want to learn more about how to manage remote teams across multiple time zones? Truss may be able to help with this overview, and provides U.S.-based tech companies with the tools and experience to find, recruit, and hire global talent that will help you drive success.
Contact Truss today to learn more about our employer of record services!
