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Naturally, all entrepreneurs understand the importance of outsourcing and in this article, we’ll talk about hiring in the Balkans.
It allows you to focus on core tasks, and it’s simply one of the most effective ways to grow your business.
And thanks to remote work, any company could legitimately outsource to talented workers from all around the world.
For many years, places such as the Philippines and India were the top spots for entrepreneurs to hire remote workers.
This was largely thanks to the influence of Tim Ferriss’ seminal 4-Hour Work Week and other similar books.
Of course, it’s no secret that these are great places to find remote work at affordable prices.
However, a new trend has been on the rise. More and more American companies are now focusing on hiring in the Balkan regions.
Let’s explore this trend.
Top Reasons Why American Entrepreneurs are Hiring and Outsourcing to Southeast Europe
It turns out there are many benefits of outsourcing to the Balkans.
Here are a few reasons why entrepreneurs are so interested in this region.
Affordable services
We all know that outsourcing certain task is many times cheaper than having them done inhouse.
But you might not realize that outsourcing to the Balkans is a very cost-effective solution as well.
The Balkan region’s average salary is relatively low. This is especially true when compared to salaries in the US.
The average salary in Serbia, for example, is around 500$/month for the majority of administrative jobs and goes up to 1200$ on average for highly specialized tasks.
Because of this, a small business could legitimately cut costs up to 50% by outsourcing there.
This would obviously be a massive help to any growing business.
Outsourcing costs are extremely similar when comparing the Balkans and India.
However, you’ll find that the performance of Balkan workers exceeds that of its competitors.
Autonomous Employees With Problem Solving Mindset
The top value US entrepreneurs & companies seem to find when hiring in the Balkans versus other popular outsourcing locations is the new hire’s ability to work autonomously.
Balkan employees are very independent and aim to be masters of their own domain.
They know how to take responsibility/ownership of problems as they arise and can truly work autonomously.
This is something most companies typically struggle with when outsourcing to the Philippines or India that are perhaps a better fit for handling entry-level, repetitive tasks with the constant need for micromanagement.
When choosing to outsource to Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, or Macedonia you will get highly educated/qualified workers that really have a problem-solving mindset.
English proficiency
English proficiency is an absolute must, both for direct communication as well as communication amongst the team.
Perhaps to your surprise, Serbia ranks in the top 15% for English fluency when benchmarked against all intercontinental European countries.
Feedback on overall communication skills is overwhelmingly positive both in terms of technical proficiency and also soft skills.
As an added bonus, virtually everyone is multilingual.
In fact, students in this region are expected to learn multiple languages starting from elementary school, and English is always a very popular choice.
Many Balkans speak French, German, Spanish and Italian as well.
This is one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing to the Balkans.
Not only are they proficient in English, but they’ll likely be proficient in a variety of languages also.
Cultural similarities
One thing you might not have considered is how cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings when outsourcing.
Although countries like India and the Philippines are popular choices, their cultures can be very different from America. This can potentially lead to some costly misunderstandings.
This isn’t an issue with the Balkans.
Many people who live in these countries have spent time in Western European countries since these countries are typically very popular for traveling and student exchange programs between the Balkans and the EU.
As a result of being close to the ”Western European mentality”, they’re more likely to have the same expectations when it comes to work performance and efficiency.
Therefore, Balkans typically understand both the language and the culture.
Both of these are incredibly important when it comes to getting work done.
Highly skilled workforce
Countries in the Balkan region place very strong value in education.
The result of this is a workforce that’s highly skilled and highly educated.
You should not be surprised if most of the candidates you interview for a position have a university degree (most popular being Economics, Law, or IT).
But due to higher unemployment rates in these countries, most of the college graduates can not find a job within their industry.
It would be very difficult to find another part of the world that offers the same combination of affordability and skill.
Closer proximity
Another one of the major benefits of outsourcing to Southeast Europe is its relatively close proximity compared to other popular outsourcing spots.
You might be wondering why this is important if you’re outsourcing to a different country anyway.
However, this makes more sense when you take time zones into consideration.
Most Balkan countries are only a few hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
India and other countries on the other side of the world are an entire day ahead.
This can make a huge difference when it comes to productivity.
If they need to do sales calls or meetings on US time, a time difference of 6 hours or so will make it much more manageable.
Sharing a workday can make your workflow much more efficient.
And of course, nobody likes late-night meetings.
Are You Ready to Hire in the Balkans?
As you can tell, there is a wide variety of reasons to outsource to Southeast Europe. Balkans are hard workers, highly educated, and often multilingual. They’re quickly replacing India as the go-to place for outsourcing.
If you’re interested in seeing for yourself what the Balkan region can do for your company, we can help.
At Balkan Hire, we specialize in matching entrepreneurs with qualified candidates that can help them grow their business. All of our candidates are fluent in English and undergo extensive training to meet the demands of the Western job market.
You could spend days and weeks searching for your next hire, or you can let us do the work for you. So what are you waiting for?
Contact us today, and we’ll have your next top-performer ready for you in no time.
