By Josh N. Garcia
The World is facing a pandemic crisis. Countries are producing economic stimulus packages and businesses are using every resource to stay afloat. During this time, businesses need to be nimble and more creative. All businesses are looking to cut costs. For many businesses, these costs are often linked to salaries. If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us is technology is our friend, and the ability to work remotely is as efficient as going to an office every day. Today, many businesses are looking for ways to become more efficient, maintain high performance levels while reducing costs and employing remotely. This article focuses on why its ok for businesses to hire outside their home country and why Mexico is the best place to recruit high-level talent.
Reduce Labor Costs – This is an obvious reason many don’t like talking about, but businesses can save a lot of money hiring professionals from other countries. In many cases, up to 80% less. The positions are far ranging from social media management to sales professionals, but you can often find the same quality for less money. Let’s take the social media manager for example. According to payscale.com, the average salary for a social media manager in the USA is $50,661 usd per year. That’s roughly $4,220 usd per month (100,610 Mexican Pesos mxp). The average social media manager in Mexico earns less than 20,000 mxp per month (800 usd). That’s 5 times less than the USA. Another good example of this is a software engineer. The average software engineer in the USA earns $85,189 per year, or $7,099 usd a month (176,340 Mexican pesos mxp). The average software engineer in Mexico earns around 35,000 mxp (1,400 usd). Also, near 5 times less than salaries in the USA.
I know what you may be thinking. Does this mean I lose out on quality? On the contrary, many of these professionals receive advanced degrees for some of the most recognized schools in Latin America. Many have years of experience with a variety of businesses. I recently filled a position for a Marketing Specialist for an American owned business specializing in online education. The woman had recently completed her graduate degree in Public Relations and had at least 10 years of working in PR. This is one of many cases where the client received a high quality professional, for a fraction of the cost.
USD to Mexican Peso Value – This is a major factor. There is a huge amount of value for American business owners right now. There is even substantial value for Canadian business owners. At the time of this article, the USD to Mexican peso exchange rate was 24.87 (1 usd = 24.87). If the average salary for a bilingual professional is 15,000 mxp per month, that’s equivalent to $600 usd. With several macroeconomic factors in play, including the price of oil and a slowing Mexican economy, the peso could further decrease for the foreseeable future, making outsourcing opportunities appealing to US and Canadian business owners. One Canadian dollar was equivalent to 17.72 Mexican pesos at the time of this article.
Same time zones – We receive a lot of calls regarding outsourcing opportunities in Mexico. Many of the questions we get are related to how Mexico differs from other outsourcing hotspots like the Philippines or India. It may be obvious but having access to an employee in a different country is far more convenient if the biggest difference in time zones is 3 hours. In most cases, it’s the same time zone or an hour difference. Yes, many call centers may run all day and night and many services like Fiverr and Upwork have gig workers that will work through the night, however, I’m speaking about employees or outsourced employees who you can call directly if needed any time during business hours. On top of that, many of the professionals we hire are American or Canadian and just enjoy living in Mexico. We’ll touch on this subject in a subsequent category.
Hire without hassle – When you hire a full-time employee in the USA or Canada a business typically has to provide some sort of workers compensation or employees insurance. Insurances and other compensation vary by country and state, however, a business legally has to provide some of these basic insurances, incurring further costs. Another reason why outsourcing a position makes sense for many businesses. A business can hire an outsourcing company or recruiter to find them a professional to meet a certain skill set. If a business chooses to hire an outsourcing company, that company would be responsible for insurances and employee benefits based on the country where the employee resides. Even with salary, compensation and insurance, the costs are substantially less.
Everyone working remotely – As I mentioned before, this pandemic has proven we are in a digital age where working remotely is no longer a novel concept. Everyone has been forced to work remotely due to quarantine and now it’s easier than ever to hire staff abroad. The number of users for video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, GoTo Meeting and Google Meet has grown exponentially, and even late adapters have been catapulted into working remotely. There is often no need to meet more than a couple of time a week, especially with outsourced positions. With an ongoing pandemic, video conferencing could be the norm for the remaining part of the year.
Americans and Canadians Living Abroad – There is a stigma with outsourcing jobs. I get it. The general idea is a business that chooses to outsource to another country is taking away a job from an American or Canadian. This is sometimes the case, but not always. In the case of Mexico, there are over 1 million expats living in Mexico. There are specifically hundreds of thousands of Americans and Canadians living in Mexico, who just enjoy living here. At Ventes, many of the positions we place for typically go to American and Canadians living here. This isn’t always the case, however, it’s a large percentage. In addition, there are thousands of Mexican citizens who have lived in the USA or Canada most of their lives and returned to Mexico for family reasons or stricter immigration guidelines over the years. However, they speak perfect English with no Spanish accent and many times feel more American than Mexican. There are thousands of cases where Mexican citizens were taken to the USA as babies, lived in the USA for their entire lives, but were forced to return due to strong immigration laws in recent years. This doesn’t excuse their parents for entering the USA illegally, but it shares with you the access to English-speaking professionals available in Mexico. It also explains why many of these professionals will understand some of the cultural nuisances of living in the USA.
In sum, whether you are a small business looking for ways to cut costs or a multinational seeking a team of bilingual professionals, Mexico is a great place to locate talent. I hope this article has provided some insight into some of the more compelling cases to choose Mexico when outsourcing.
For questions regarding outsourcing opportunities in Mexico please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@ventesmexico.com
