What is nearshore? Terms for your next hire

How to use this glossary for Latin American hiring

Use these terms while reviewing a proposal or writing a role description. Start with the decision you need to make: add someone to your team, or hand a defined piece of work to a provider.

For an individual hire, read staff augmentation, direct hire, and employer of record together. They answer different questions. Staff augmentation describes how a person joins the work. Direct hire and EOR describe employment arrangements. Ask the provider to draw the reporting line and name the employer.

For a project, start with outsourcing, statement of work, and acceptance criteria. Describe what you expect to receive. Then decide who will plan the work, review changes, and approve the result.

For example, adding a developer to your existing sprint puts daily planning with your team. Asking an outside team to deliver a billing integration requires a separate agreement about scope and acceptance. Either arrangement can be nearshore. The geography does not settle who owns delivery.

Keep these questions beside each proposal:

• Who selects the person, and who assigns their daily work?
• Which entity signs the employment or services agreement?
• What does the quoted price include, and what can change it?
• What happens if the person leaves or the work falls short?

Write the answers in the same format for each option. A monthly invoice and a recruiting fee cannot be compared fairly until you know what each pays for.

Use the definitions to find questions that need written answers. If a proposal says the team is managed, ask who reviews its work. If it promises a replacement, ask what starts the search and who covers the handoff.

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If you have a role ready to discuss, talk to Opus about a role.

Which terms should you check before signing?

The glossary definitions give you a starting point. Your agreement should turn broad labels into specific duties. Pay particular attention to terms that affect your manager's time, the hire's schedule, and the amount you will pay.

Nearshore, offshore, and onshore

These terms describe where work happens relative to the buyer. They do not define the quality of the work or the amount of supervision needed.

For a US team, a Latin American hire can be nearshore while working entirely remotely. An onshore hire can also be remote. Keep location and workplace arrangements separate in your role description.

When comparing nearshore and offshore options, start with the work that requires a live conversation. A support role may need a fixed coverage window. A developer may need shared time for code review and planning, with other work done independently.

Ask each candidate about the proposed schedule. A location can make overlap possible, but the person's agreed hours determine whether that overlap exists. Put those hours in the offer and team calendar.

LatAm and country-specific terms

LatAm is shorthand for Latin America. It is useful when describing a search region, but a hiring agreement needs a named country.

Ask where the person will normally work and which entity will engage them. If they plan to move, ask how the provider handles a change of country before approving the move.

Keep country questions separate from candidate questions. Assess the person's communication through an interview and a relevant work sample. Ask them to explain a decision or write a handoff note that resembles the job.

For payroll and leave, request a country-specific explanation from the provider. Have it identify which costs sit within the quote and which require separate payment. Avoid carrying assumptions from a previous hire into a new country.

Time-zone overlap and asynchronous work

Time-zone overlap is the shared window when both sides are working. Asynchronous work is work that can move forward without a live conversation.

Mexico City stays at UTC-6 without daylight saving time. Tijuana follows a seasonal clock change. A country name alone is therefore too broad for scheduling. Use the city when setting recurring meetings. IANA time-zone data

Bogotá stays at UTC-5, while Buenos Aires and São Paulo stay at UTC-3. Those cities do not change their clocks for daylight saving time. Their time difference from a US office can still change when the US office changes its clocks. IANA time-zone data

Write down the meetings that require attendance and the decisions that can happen in writing. For customer-facing work, state the coverage window and who handles calls outside it.

For asynchronous work, give each task an owner and a clear next step. A handoff should say what is done, what is blocked, and where the next person can find the work.

Staff augmentation, outsourcing, and managed services

Staff augmentation adds people to work your managers direct. Before choosing it, name the manager who will own the hire's backlog and provide feedback.

Outsourcing assigns work to an outside provider. The agreement needs to say how much responsibility that provider takes for planning and delivery.

A managed service needs a defined service boundary. Ask who monitors the work and who responds when something fails. A promise to manage the account does not tell you who manages the people doing the work.

Test the proposal with a routine problem. Suppose a task misses its deadline because a requirement was unclear. Who notices, who decides the next step, and who speaks with the worker? The answer should match the level of management your own team can provide.

Direct hire, recruiting agency, and EOR

These terms describe different parts of hiring. A recruiting agency finds candidates. Direct hire describes an employment relationship with your company or local entity. An EOR is the legal employer in an arrangement where the person works for your business.

Ask which services the proposed agreement includes. Candidate search, employment, and daily management are separate responsibilities, even when one provider handles several of them.

Request the name of the employing entity and the contact responsible for payroll questions. Also identify who handles performance concerns and who explains changes to pay or benefits.

If someone proposes an independent contractor agreement, have the arrangement reviewed against the person's location and actual work. Describe how the role will operate before choosing the contract label. Do not use the label alone to decide which duties your company has.

Dedicated teams and nearshore software development

A dedicated team is a team assigned to your account or project. Ask whether the named people work exclusively on your account and whether the provider can substitute team members.

For nearshore software development, decide who owns technical decisions before interviews begin. A developer joining your team needs a clear route for code review. An outside team delivering a project needs agreed acceptance criteria and a handoff plan.

Ask where the code will live and who controls access to the repository. Identify who can approve a release and who maintains the result after delivery.

If a team member leaves, ask how the provider transfers system knowledge. Request a process for keeping setup instructions and design decisions current while the project is running. Documentation written only at the end may arrive too late for the next person.

Monthly rate, salary, and fully loaded cost

Separate the worker's pay from the amount your company pays. A salary, a contractor invoice, and a provider's monthly rate can cover different items.

Request a written list of included costs and separate charges. Check equipment, paid leave, and any setup or exit fees. Ask how absences affect billing and whether rate changes require your approval.

Keep currency terms explicit. Record the invoice currency, the payment currency, and who bears exchange-rate changes. A quote should also state how long its price remains valid.

Use the same period when comparing proposals. Convert monthly and annual quotes to a common basis. Keep one-time charges visible rather than hiding them inside a recurring amount.

For your internal budget, include work your own team must still perform. Interview time and ongoing management may sit outside the provider's invoice. Name those duties so the hiring manager can plan for them.

Vetting, shortlist, and time to hire

Vetting should produce evidence you can use in an interview. Ask to see the assessment criteria and discuss how they relate to the job.

A senior title alone does not show that someone can handle your system or explain a difficult decision. Use an interview task that resembles the work. For engineering, that could be reviewing a small change and explaining the tradeoffs.

Agree on must-have skills before the search starts. Separate those from skills the person can learn after joining. A shortlist should give your team enough evidence to decide whom to interview.

Keep shortlist delivery, offer acceptance, and the first working day separate in your plan. Ask what event starts any hiring-time measure and what event ends it.

Reserve interview time before candidates arrive. Then ask each finalist about their start date before scheduling onboarding or promising coverage to another team.

Statements of work, acceptance criteria, and service levels

A statement of work defines what the agreement covers. Acceptance criteria define what completed work must do before you approve it. A service-level agreement sets measurable service commitments.

For a software project, describe the expected behavior and how your team will check it. Identify who approves the result and how long they have to review it.

Ask what happens when scope changes. Who estimates the added work? Who approves the cost? Which deadline moves? Put those answers in the agreement while both sides are discussing the same project.

For service levels, separate a response from a resolution. A reply that acknowledges a problem does not mean the problem is fixed. Specify the contact route and how unresolved issues move to someone with authority to act.

Onboarding, replacement guarantees, and exit terms

Onboarding turns an accepted offer into someone who can work. Assign an owner for equipment and access before the start date. Give the hire a useful first task with enough context to complete it.

Read a replacement promise alongside the termination terms. Ask what triggers a new search, whether you must give notice, and what you pay during the transition.

Clarify the remedy. A replacement search, a refund, and a credit are different outcomes. Ask which one the agreement provides and what conditions apply.

For an ongoing role, plan how work and access will transfer if the person leaves. Name the owner of open tasks and decide where the hire will document current work.

For a project, confirm that your team receives the files and permissions needed to maintain the result. Schedule the handoff before the final approval so your team can check that it can use what it receives.

Bring the role description, required shared hours, and questions about the contract to the hiring conversation. Talk to Opus about a role.

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