Ukraine: the Dirty Truth of IT Labor Market

If you are thinking about outsourcing software developers for long-term period (more than 6 month) it may be a solution for you to choose a dedicated team business model which suppose that you will hire developers outside your country and will manage them as your local team. So, the key to success in this case is the rightly chosen developers.

This article describes the real situation in Ukrainian labor market and advises possible ways to succeed while hiring the right developers.

Ukrainian mentality: they are ready to say you “no”

Ukrainian developers both can be a good team players or work independently.

Thanks to European mentality, they won’t agree with everything you tell them to do. If you give them unrealistic task or set incorrect goals, be sure your team will explain why you are wrong.

So if you prefer relations “senior-subordinate” and don’t like when your employees say you “no, it is impossible to do that for one month because…” or advise some possible ways of solving problems, you may think about Asian countries where due to their mentality subordinates must agree with all tasks of their bosses.

Today, 99% of Ukrainian developers are employed and have already worked under their projects.

Why is it so?

Ukraine as IT Outsourcing destination is increasingly becoming more and more popular. In fact, demand of software developers is much higher than supply. According to official statistics, today there are more than 50 000 of open positions for developers.

Thanks to educational system of USSR, Ukraine still has one of the best universities that train prominent mathematicians, physicists, engineers and software developers.

So the real truth is that to hire Ukrainian software developers in most of cases you are to gain them over from another company.

What does it may mean for you?

You are to offer bigger salary than developer has already received.

Sometimes it is worth to offer your developer the highest salary in the market. It will prevent you from the risk of losing valuable worker.

The good news is that the average salary in Ukraine is still significantly lower than in Western Europe, Scandinavian countries and the USA. For example, a salary of a middle .net developer (with experience from 2 to 5 years) may vary from $800 to $1 800.

One more good thing for Scandinavian countries where are the highest rates on social liabilities, in Ukraine you will definitely safe money as today exist many ways of tax minimizing.

You are to wait.

According to Ukrainian labor legislation, employees have to give a two week’s notice about their quitting. In fact, some Ukrainian IT companies sign a work contract with developers where stipulate for longer period (1 – 2 month).

You are to sell your project.

Another key factor that influence decision of developer whether to change employer or not is the project per se. So, if you have a really interesting project, be sure that recruiter of your outsourcing partner has a short description of it. It may foster recruiting process.

Tips to hire successfully great developers in Ukraine

  • Find the right outsourcing partner. Check that it has capabilities to find good developers within the time limit.
  • Provide recruiters of your partner with short description of your project. If your project is interesting, it will be easier to “hook” the right candidates.
  • Investigate the average salary in the market and offer more. In any way, you will pay significantly less than your in house developers, but higher salary may become the best retention program.  Think about time losses if your developer decides to leave you.
  • Another “bait” for developer may be your invitation him/her/them to your country.  You will kill two birds with one stone. First of all, your offer to travel to your country will be another incentive to choose your company. Moreover, your face to face contact with developers will definitely simplify the process of building trustworthy and reaching of mutual understanding.
  • Check that newly hired developers will sign a work contract with your outsourcing vendor. In order to minimize risks of unexpected resigning of your developers it may be a good idea to agree beforehand the period of a notice and make it longer than 2 weeks.

Do you have experience of cooperation with Ukrainian software developers? What do you think about them and their mentality?