Unlocking Top Talent: Why Latin America
is the New Frontier for Global Recruitment

See also: Intercultural Awareness

As the global economy continues to grow, UK businesses are competing to hire or outsource top talent from anywhere in the world.

In recent years, Latin America has produced a wealth of highly skilled and highly educated professionals, especially in the IT, engineering, and business sectors, who are ready for global recruitment.

This article dives into the benefits and challenges of hiring or outsourcing top talent from Latin American countries, and the skills you will need along the way.

Benefits of Sourcing Talent from Latin America

  • There is a growing population of young talent

    Latin America has one of the world's largest and fastest-growing youth populations, with 160 million young people between 15 and 24 years of age living in the region.

    This young demographic is ready to enter the workforce as highly educated, tech-savvy, ambitious, and enthusiastic individuals.

  • They often have multilingual capabilities

    The primary languages in Latin America are Portuguese and Spanish. However, a large part of the population is also fluent in English and French.

    So, not only will they be able to communicate easily with your team in the UK, but Latin American talent will also become valuable assets for companies with international customers or clients as they can connect with them in their preferred language.

  • It is cost-effective

    The Latin American workforce is paid less than those in developed countries like the US, UK, and France. This allows companies to save money without compromising on quality or expertise.



The Challenges of Outsourcing Latin American Talent

  • Navigating cultural differences

    Each Latin American country has a unique culture that can differ from other countries in the region and the UK.

    Cultural differences, such as religious beliefs, might impact communication between teams as colleagues will have different workplace attitudes, values, behaviours, and etiquette. This can cause misunderstandings or ill feelings between teams.

    However, learning about and embracing different cultures can be enriching and a great way to enhance workplace satisfaction.

  • Working across different time zones

    Latin America, which spans two continents, is divided into seven time zones (UTC-2 to UTC-8). These varying time zones and their significant differences from the UK might make it difficult to collaborate on projects, schedule meetings, and meet deadlines.

    Clocks showing different time zones.
  • Remaining compliant

    When expanding your team overseas, you must comply with local employment laws, such as minimum wages, annual leave entitlement, working hours, termination rules, and more.

    If you do not comply with local employment laws, you may be subject to significant penalties and risk damaging the reputation of your business.

    Luckily, UK companies can hire an employer-of-record (EOR) provider to responsibly handle all aspects of employment, including compliance, onboarding, payroll, taxes, and benefits.

    By using a Brazil EOR provider, UK companies can hire top talent from the largest Latin American country quickly and cost-effectively, without the need to establish a separate entity in each country.

  • Finding talent in a competitive market

    Finding and attracting top talent from Latin American countries has been even more competitive in recent years as the region has seen a surge of investment in the tech sector.

    Google recently invested more than $850 million into their second Latin American data centre in Uruguay. This follows in the footsteps of Chile's data centre, which opened in 2015. In addition, Microsoft opened an AI Co-Innovation Lab in Uruguay last year. It was the first of its kind in Latin America and the third outside of the USA.

    These tech investments open up a plethora of local job opportunities for Latin American tech professionals.

    However, companies in the UK can convince top talent to work remotely by investing in cross-cultural training programs, promoting the benefits, and using technology that enhances collaboration.


The Future Of Global Recruitment

With countries like Brazil and Mexico investing even more in IT infrastructure and education systems, the future looks extremely promising for Latin American professionals.

You can expect to see more Latin American professionals in leadership roles and other key positions as more companies recognise the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

For UK companies, hiring and outsourcing top talent from Latin America will only become more competitive in the near future. Consider using online platforms and recruitment agencies that specialise in connecting companies with remote workers from Latin America.


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