8 months ago
Norway Discards Temporary Employment from Staffing Agencies – What’s Next?
Table of Contents:
The New Regulations: What You Need to Know
Benefits of Nearshore Outsourcing
Scalefocus on the Scandinavian Market – A Success Story
The New Regulations: What You Need to Know
In late 2022 the Norwegian Government processed amendments to the Working Environment Act to tighten the rules on hiring from staffing agencies. As permanent employment is viewed as preferable and strongly encouraged by Norwegian law, temporary employment for up to 12 months is most likely to be officially discontinued as soon as this April when the terms are expected to be established.
But what does that really mean? Basically, companies will not be permitted to temporarily hire via staffing companies when direct employment is possible. This empowers employers to hire employees on a temporary basis if they can prove the positions are temporary.
When the amendments enter into force in April 2023, short-term hiring from staffing agencies will no longer be an option. And it comes as no surprise that companies that normally use staffing agencies to address their software development needs have already started looking for alternative solutions. Recent conversations with our Norwegian partners’ senior decision-makers have indicated that collaborations with IT service providers might be the way forward.
Benefits of Nearshore Outsourcing
So, why is nearshore outsourcing the answer? Outsourcing abroad has been trending for decades now, and nearshore partnerships with EU vendors are as reliable, regulated, and predictable as they come. Short distances, similar time zones, and visa-free travel guarantee excellent communication, which is vital in all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle. The production quality is also considerably higher compared to other popular outsourcing regions such as Asia, Africa, or Latin America.
You can read on to find out the top benefits of Nearshore Development Centers (NDC).
Here they are in a nutshell:
1. Access to Talent Pool
Companies choose to hire abroad because IT outsourcing gives them access to a much wider talent pool to tap into. If they lack the necessary IT resources, they can quickly start a collaboration with an NDC – in the case of Scalefocus, it only takes about 40 days to get a project up and running.
Data scientists, software engineers, project and account managers, designers, and testers – NDCs have all the experts in already assembled and functioning teams.
They will provide the necessary strategic planning and monitoring to quickly allocate resources, as well as identify and rectify potential issues.
2. Cost Efficiency
It is common knowledge that in-house software development is a pricy endeavor. It costs an arm and a leg, really. IT professionals in Norway are among the highest earners worldwide, and this is even before expenses for office spaces, infrastructure, or taxes come into the picture.
No wonder businesses are trying to avoid wasting precious time and spending fortunes on recruitment by connecting with vendors like Scalefocus. By employing a nearshore team, companies cut costs by up to 50%, which allows them to reinvest in their core activities, boost productivity, and expand their portfolio.
3. Flexibility and Scalability
Scaling up and down can be nerve-wracking if done in-house. Just ask your HR officers about temporary employment. However, flexibility is crucial in a dynamic market environment, and efficient enterprises have mastered the art of optimizing resources.
IT outsourcing gives companies the unlimited flexibility to easily plug in and out whole units or individual professionals in accordance with project schedules. This facilitates the management of piling up projects as their core businesses expand and optimizes the cost of under-utilized office space and IT assets whenever the workload has temporarily decreased.
4. Technology, Innovation, Agility
Cutting-edge technology, latest coding languages, cross-industry expertise – when you work with an NDC, you get a number of priceless assets as part of the package rather than just a group of IT professionals. Forward-thinking companies use that experience to finetune their operations and improve their own employees’ qualifications.
By leveraging technology and innovation, businesses benefit from more agile business processes and accelerated time-to-market, giving them a competitive advantage. When launching new products or functionalities, this might make all the difference.
Service Models at Scalefocus
Nearshoring allows you to choose among a variety of service models depending on your business’s unique needs:
- Remote Delivery Center – Allows you to expand your team quickly and efficiently, ready to tackle any IT challenges you may have.
- Consultancy & Technology Advisory – Efficiently solving complex business challenges to fully transform your project.
- Staff Augmentation – External resources that bring flexibility and scalability and could be coupled with in-house work.
- Solution Development – Our experts will take up your project, design a business plan with key objectives, and move forward to implementation.
- Dedicated Teams – Entire team(s) of experts focused on your project alone, suitable for project-based work.
- Managed Services – Outsourcing a set of non-core services with specific KPIs and deliverables that focus on value creation and reaching business objectives.
Scalefocus on the Scandinavian Market – A Success Story
Most tech companies find it challenging to expand their portfolio while maintaining their existing products and services. Our client – a leading Scandinavian provider of mobile and SMS communication services, was also facing opportunities for growth but lacked the resources to scale up fast.
In Scalefocus, the enterprise found a strategic technology partner that helped them accelerate the pace of innovation. Our NDC enabled them to extend their viable products’ capabilities and start working against the Proof of Concept of their next-generation Communications platform as a service (CPaaS) while establishing a new standardized and holistic approach to software development.
The results:
- Vastly improved operational efficiency,
- Faster time to market for new features and products,
- Decreased overhead and training costs, and
- Newfound business flexibility – our partners could now respond faster to changes in the market and exploit opportunities for sustainable growth.
You can read the whole case study here.
Key Takeaways
Cost efficiency, closing the skill gap, scalability and innovation – the advantages of nearshore outsourcing are hard to ignore when looking for long-term or temporary partnerships. The Scalefocus remote software development centers have helped businesses of all nationalities and sizes face critical challenges, experience unprecedented growth, and even become leaders in their field.
We will be more than happy to hear from you, too – contact us now to discuss your projects!
