One of the most vital and costly decisions a business can make is hiring the right people. Every dollar counts, especially for small and mid-sized businesses. “Should we hire locally or go offshore?” is a question that businesses are asking as global hiring becomes more accessible than before.
This article clarifies the true costs of both models, which go beyond salaries, and offers data that companies that are expanding rapidly should be aware of in 2025 to make the best choices.
Comparing Local and Offshore Costs
Cost of Local Hiring
Local hiring has known but large costs, especially in North America or Western Europe
- Benefits & insurance: Paid time off, 401(k), healthcare, etc.
- Base pay: Typically, two to three times the global average
- Training & onboarding: Time and costs to ramp up
- Recruiting fees: Up to 20–30% of yearly salary
- Turnover cost: Churn results in lost momentum, retraining, and rehiring
Hiring a full-time finance or operations job in the United States can cost anywhere from $80,000 to $140,000+ per year.
Costs of Hiring Offshore
The total expense decreases significantly when hiring offshore, especially when working with a staff augmentation partner. Lower pay based on cost of living, elimination of the need for office space or local benefits, quicker access to pre-screened talent, integrated training and HR support, and lower overhead related to hiring and compliance.
Notably in roles like accounting, data entry, marketing operations, and support, businesses find that they can save 50–70% per role by outsourcing without giving up quality.
What the Best Articles Don’t Say: New Perspectives That Will Be Important in 2025
Churn Cost
Top articles often ignore the true cost of churn, particularly in the context of local hires. In addition to time and recruitment costs, the loss of institutional knowledge and team morale occurs when an employee quits within a year, which is typical in competitive job markets.
Because they receive better alignment, support, and potential for professional development, offshore teams deployed by strategic partners frequently exhibit higher retention rates.
The Best of Both Worlds Are Offered by Hybrid Teams
You don’t have to pick between the two by 2025; the best companies will have hybrid teams, with offshore peers supporting a lean core. With this approach, you can retain local decision-makers while assigning global experts to handle the more difficult tasks.
Time to Hire > Time to Impact
It’s great to hire people fast. However, how long does it take for someone to have an effect?
It can take weeks to post a job, screen candidates, carry out interviews, go onboard, and get local hires working. Offshore employees are bench-ready; that is, trained, pre-screened, and available for deployment in as little as one to two weeks thanks to seasoned partners.
Opportunity Cost of Hiring Locally Only
Hiring only locals means turning down talent from around the world, which often slows growth. While it isn’t always apparent, that opportunity cost does exist. Businesses can expand more quickly, take on more clients, or finally finish the backlog of projects without going over budget via offshore hiring.
Adaptability in a Changing Market
Business cycles are becoming shorter, and uncertainty has become the new norm. With staff augmentation models, you can scale up or down without running the risk of legal issues, allowing you to change the number of employees as your business grows.
When Is It Appropriate to Hire Locally?
For roles that require high levels of client or executive interaction, in-person collaboration, or thorough market or regulatory knowledge, local hiring is still vital. It’s usually best to retain leadership positions, customer-facing jobs, and jobs involving sensitive data governance in-house.
When physical presence, response time, or culture has a direct impact on business performance, local talent also becomes crucial. In these situations, context and proximity often take priority over financial considerations.
When Is Offshore a Strategic Choice?
For transactional, repeatable, or back-office tasks like finance operations, customer service, IT helpdesk, data processing, or marketing production, offshore hiring makes the most strategic sense. In these roles, speed and scalability are more important than proximity, and quality can be preserved remotely.
Additionally, it’s perfect for rapid growth without giving up agility or inflating overhead. These days, many businesses use offshore teams as an extension of their core employees rather than merely cutting costs.
The Final Verdict: Consider ROI Rather Than Just Cost
It’s essential to think beyond headline salaries when comparing hiring procedures in the US and overseas. The true value is found in the return on investment (ROI). Not only can offshore hiring save up to 70% on costs, but it also speeds up time to impact, gives your local team more flexibility to scale more quickly, and frees them up to focus on higher-value work.
By focusing on productivity, saving time, and achieving strategic goals, companies that evaluate hiring through the ROI lens obtain an important edge over their competitors.
Why Is Relay Unique
Relay helps companies grow teams with the best offshore talent without the usual downsides of outsourcing:
- Relay provides companies with bench-ready, pre-vetted experts in operations, data, and finance.
- Relay provides world-class offices, not remote workers.
- We maintain enterprise-grade infrastructure that adheres to the highest security and compliance standards.
- We provide strategic assistance to facilitate the efficient growth of teams.
We assist businesses in sectors such as e-commerce, construction, and real estate to grow more quickly by hiring wisely.
Conclusion: A Smarter Strategy Is the First Step Towards a Smarter Hiring Process
While hiring locally may seem familiar, it’s not always the best course of action. This is especially true when financial resources are limited, and quick action is essential. You can move more quickly, you can accomplish more with fewer resources, and you can provide your employees with greater flexibility by utilizing offshore hiring. It doesn’t have to feel like outsourcing when you work with the right partner; it can feel more like growth.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. How much money can companies save by hiring people from other countries?
A: Because of lower salaries, lower overhead, and bundled support services from staffing partners, most companies save 50 to 70 percent per role when hiring offshore.
Q2. Is talent from overseas just as skilled and reliable as talent from the area?
A: Definitely, particularly when sourced from educated partners. Strong technical expertise, certifications, and fluency in English are frequently acquired by offshore workers, who also tend to be more adaptable and retain information better.
Q3. Which roles are best suited for outsourcing?
A: Process-driven, remote-friendly, and scalable roles are the best. AP/AR, bookkeeping, customer service, data entry, marketing, and reporting are some of these jobs.
Q4. What is the best way to start hiring people from abroad?
A: To begin with, determine which positions are consuming the time of your local team but do not necessitate a local presence. Next, collaborate with a staffing company like Relay that can scale your needs, ensure quality, and place talent quickly.
