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Client Overview

A U.S.-based engineering company, responsible for building, maintaining, and revitalizing nationwide infrastructure, approached us to establish a nearshore development center in Costa Rica as part of their global strategy.

Project Objectives

1. Establish a Development Center: Plan, design, and operate an engineering center of excellence in San José to support the company’s growing global operations.
2. Scale Workforce: Grow to 60 employees over 18 months, covering roles across engineering, human resources, and technical support.
3. Transition Operations: Ensure a seamless handover of facilities, services, and staff to the client after the engagement period.
4. Optimize Recruitment: Implement tailored sourcing strategies and metrics for efficient talent acquisition.
5. Achieve Cost Savings: Deliver significant cost savings compared to hiring domestically in the United States.

Execution Plan

1. Talent Acquisition Strategy

• Custom Sourcing Strategies: Different roles required distinct approaches. For example:
  
  • Highly specialized roles: Targeted outreach through partnerships with universities and professional organizations.
  • General engineering roles: Advertising through job boards and industry networks.
• Robust Metrics: Recruitment metrics were tracked in real time, enabling continuous improvement in outreach methods and reducing time-to-hire to 45-60 days for critical roles.

2. Collaboration with Departments

• Partnered with client teams to refine:
  
  • Job descriptions
  • Career pages
  • Recruitment emails
• Ensured alignment with the client’s onboarding and human resources practices for a smooth integration process.

3. Emphasis on Retention

• Implemented programs to foster engagement and retention, achieving a 90%+ retention rate for all hires throughout the engagement.

4. Knowledge Transfer

• Collaborated with Costa Rican universities to build a pipeline of skilled professionals.
• Educated the client on managing and integrating international teams, ensuring operational efficiencies across geographies.

Outcomes

1. Workforce Growth

• Successfully hired 60 employees within 18 months.

2. Cost Savings

• Achieved up to 50% cost savings for most roles compared to U.S.-based salaries.

3. Retention

• Maintained a 90%+ retention rate of employees throughout the engagement, ensuring continuity and stability.

4. Time-to-Hire

• Reduced average time-to-hire for critical roles to 45-60 days, significantly faster than industry benchmarks for specialized engineering roles in the United States, which often take 8-12 weeks.

5. Operational Excellence

• Delivered a fully operational engineering center of excellence with seamless integration into the client’s global operations.
• Transitioned all facilities, services, and staff to the client.

Key Learnings

1. Tailored Recruitment Approaches: Every role required a unique sourcing method, which contributed to faster hiring and higher retention.
2. Cost Efficiency: Nearshore hiring in Costa Rica provided significant cost advantages without compromising on quality.
3. Knowledge Transfer: Collaborating with universities and investing in training helped build a sustainable talent pipeline.
4. Operational Integration: Adapting governance models to align with client practices ensured seamless collaboration between teams.

Conclusion

A strategic approach to building a nearshore development center can deliver exceptional results. By leveraging Costa Rica’s talent pool, we achieved rapid workforce scaling, significant cost savings, and operational excellence for our U.S.-based client in the engineering sector.