13% Growth in 1 Year: How McGraw Hill Scaled Up and Saved

When it comes to education, student engagement is more important than attendance, with engaged students 250% more likely to thrive. What does that mean? Today’s schools are a changing landscape. Excited students are successful students.

With the rise of EdTech in the classroom, exceptional educational outcomes are also accessible. McGraw Hill is no stranger to this cause. They’re a premier digital education company, supplying a staggering 99% of U.S. schools with products geared towards creating a successful learning experience.

From lesson interfaces and apps to traditional textbooks, McGraw Hill is an industry leader. Their premium materials are developed with world-class subject matter experts. Worldwide, McGraw Hill content is distributed to over 100 total countries.

In late 2021, a substantial investment allowed the company to further expand its digital tech offerings. But how could they take on new projects when their current team was already stretched to the max? They needed to hire new developers, and fast.

To prioritize the projects that would change an industry, McGraw Hill needed to grow its engineering department. The company’s Vice President of Engineering, Kirk Gray, was worried. The department couldn’t take on all its desired proposals because the workload was too much for the existing team.

Before partnering with Jobsity, Gray had looked for alternative solutions to expand his engineering department. He’d tried outsourcing overseas, contracting locally, and other full-time equivalent (FTE) hiring to meet his workforce needs. But all these staffing options fell short.

The Problem? Gray found local, U.S.-based talent too expensive and out of budget. On the other hand, overseas outsourcing firms led to challenges with scheduling and communication. It was even apparent when he tried to hire full stack developers, a very common role. These issues show up all the time when companies attempt to outsource overseas. 

The disparity in time zones means there’s very little—if any—overlap of regular working hours. And while this might work for teams that require little collaboration, that’s rarely the case for engineering and development departments. Add a language barrier to the mix, and it’s easy to see why McGraw Hill needed to hire from a more aligned talent source.

The solution was nearshoring. Nearshore staff augmentation with Jobsity let Gray hire 25 engineers, growing the team headcount from 195 to 220. That’s a 13% boost in one year! And it wasn’t just about the new hires. Gray also valued the additional benefits of working with nearshore talent.

• Savings: In terms of saving money, Grey found that choosing nearshore talent led to a 50% cost reduction compared to hiring developers based in the U.S. This meant they could add more team members without exceeding their budget. The extra output from these additional developers played a crucial role in the company's success.

• Ease: Jobsity maintains a pipeline of curated, highly skilled candidates who are experts in the latest in-demand technologies. When a company needs a developer, our Technical Sales Team carefully selects the best matches according to qualifications and client preferences. In the case of McGraw Hill, they hired 25 engineers, leading to a 13% growth in the development team. They hit the ground running! 

• Cohesion: Jobsity’s dedicated to thoroughly evaluating candidates; we bring only the most qualified individuals on board. Our assessment includes factors like formal training, work experience, English fluency, and traits like a go-getter attitude. Every Jobsity developer not only excels in nearshore software development, but also has the cultural understanding to seamlessly integrate into an American work environment. They also share a compatible timezone, so their working hours and communication styles align with your U.S. hires. By tapping into talent from Central and South America, Gray was able to maintain the team cohesion he needed.

• Support: After Gray selected his new engineers, he was given a dedicated Client Success Manager to ease onboarding. As clients approve new team members, we keep hiring to ensure a pool of qualified candidates is always available. This has allowed Gray to scale up with company demand: they now have 38 Jobsity developers on staff! Jobsity is committed to stepping in whenever McGraw Hill needs to expand in the future.

McGraw Hill needed expert talent to handle ambitious projects—and stick around for the long-haul. They needed a nearshore staff development company they could trust. With the peace of mind afforded by Jobsity’s exceptional retention rates and risk-free trial, Gray’s hires included the following roles:

• Front-end Developers specialize in creating the user interface and visual elements of a website or application. They use languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to ensure a seamless and visually appealing user experience.

• Back-end Developers focus on the server-side logic and database management of a website or application. They work with languages like Python, Ruby, or Java. Back-end developers ensure that the application functions smoothly by handling data processing and server operations.

• Full-stack Developers possess expertise in both front-end and back-end development, so they can work on the entire web development process. They handle tasks ranging from user interface design to server-side scripting, making them versatile contributors to any team.

• Cloud Architects design and implement cloud computing solutions for organizations. They’re responsible for creating scalable, secure, and efficient cloud infrastructure. Cloud architects utilize services from providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud to meet the specific needs of the project and business.

• Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) focus on verifying the reliability, performance, and availability of software systems. Their goal is to design and implement solutions that enhance the overall reliability and performance of applications and services.

Jobsity makes it easy to hire a carefully selected, dedicated team for your projects. We take a personalized approach to help you expand your staff while saving you up to 40% in hiring costs.

Our expert developers represent the top 3% of tech talent. They specialize in Golang, Angular, AWS, Java, Node.js, custom mobile app development services, and more. They not only have the expertise but also the interpersonal skills to seamlessly integrate into your team.

With an extraordinary average retention rate of three years, Jobsity developers are fully committed to your success.

Now is the perfect time to grow your business. Book a call to get started today!