We structure offshore hiring around five stages.
Establish. Explore. Engage. Employ. Evaluate + Elevate.
Each stage supports a different part of the process.
Here’s how each stage is carried out, and what it means for onboarding, performance, and long-term retention.
The LevelUp Process
Establish
Establish starts with the discovery call. This is where we learn about the client, explain how LevelUp works, and clarify what the role actually needs to achieve.
This is where LevelUp reduces risk before recruitment even starts.
At the start, conversations are less about goals and more about alignment.
Most clients come in with urgency. They want someone to start quickly. Sometimes the role they describe combines responsibilities that don’t really fit together.
That’s where issues usually begin.
Instead of agreeing to everything upfront, the focus is on getting clarity early. What the role actually involves. What timeline is realistic. What trade-offs need to be considered.
That part matters more than it sounds.
“Being honest early, even when it’s not what the client expects, builds more trust than agreeing too quickly.”
When expectations are clear from the beginning, the rest of the process is easier to manage.
Explore
Explore is where sourcing begins, but it is not just about collecting CVs. The process includes building relationships with candidates, understanding what they are looking for, and presenting anonymous candidates to the client at first. There is also an NDA in place, which helps create trust early and keeps the process professional.
Sourcing candidates is not treated as a volume exercise.
Candidates don’t go straight from recruitment to the client. There are a few layers involved. Recruitment screens first, then operations takes a closer look.
For some roles, there’s an added technical check. In certain cases, leadership is still involved before anything is shared.
That extra step is intentional.
“One BPO screened out people I thought were good. Another sent absolute rubbish.”
The goal here is to avoid both ends of that. Not filtering out the right people too early, and not passing through candidates who clearly aren’t a fit.
By the time a profile reaches the client, there should already be confidence in it.
Engage
Engage includes the LevelUp vetting interview first, followed by the client and candidate interview. If the candidate is not the right fit, the process loops back into sourcing rather than forcing a match that is unlikely to last.
By the time a candidate reaches this stage, most of the heavy lifting has already been done.
The interviews are still important, but they’re not the first real filter. They’re a final check to see how well everything holds together.
That matters because interviews on their own can be misleading. Some candidates come across well but struggle once the work begins. Others are confident in conversation but not as strong in execution.
“There’s a lot of good salespeople out there, but catching when they’re just bluffing their way through is something the recruitment team does well.”
This is why the process doesn’t rely on a single interview.
For technical roles, there may be deeper validation. In some cases, candidates are assessed beyond conversation. In others, the focus is on how they think through real situations.
Who reviews the candidate also depends on the role. It’s not always the same person making the final call.
By this point, the goal is simple. Make sure the candidate the client meets is someone who can actually do the work, not just talk about it.
Employ
Employ starts with the signed contract, but it also includes LevelUp onboarding and core values training. The team member is being introduced to how LevelUp operates and what standards are expected early on.
Day Zero starts before any work begins.
Onboarding remote employees is not treated as a single event. There’s already a structure in place before the team member and client start working together. Systems are set up. Communication expectations are clear. Responsibilities are defined early.
From the team member’s side, they are introduced to how things work. Who to reach out to. What should be escalated and what shouldn’t. What the client expects from them in the role.
At the same time, the client is also being onboarded.
Both sides are being aligned in parallel.
“We have two sets of processes running in parallel and we have touch points between them to ensure that we’re in sync.”
That alignment early on makes a difference. It reduces confusion and avoids small issues building up in the background.
Evaluate + Elevate
Evaluate and Elevate is where the process becomes ongoing rather than one-off. There are quarterly LevelUp employee exchanges, which are built around regular conversations on performance and satisfaction. It also includes yearly appraisals and a yearly employee appraisal with salary discussion. These touchpoints help keep the relationship active instead of reactive.
The process doesn’t step back once someone starts.
The first few weeks are watched closely. That’s usually where issues show up. There’s a difference between what was expected and what’s actually happening.
These aren’t treated the same way.
The team looks at what’s really going on before acting.
“We investigate first if it’s really a performance issue, or if it’s skill, knowledge, or behaviour.”
A behaviour issue needs a different response from a skill gap. A knowledge gap is handled differently from a communication issue.
This is where early intervention happens, and it continues beyond the first few weeks.
Support doesn’t become reactive. The team stays involved. They keep an eye on attendance, responsiveness, and overall performance. If something starts to shift, it’s raised early, not after it becomes a bigger problem.
“We’re coming to them with those things ahead of time before they’re feeling the pain.”
Retention is built into the process
Remote employee retention is built into the process right from the start through onboarding, core values training, quarterly exchanges, and yearly appraisal conversations.
The long-term outcome is shaped early.
Think about math in school. You don’t start with calculus. You start with the basics. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
When a student understands these early lessons, it becomes easier to move into algebra and more advanced topics because each step builds on the last.
Without that foundation, even simple problems become harder to solve, and they often have to go back and relearn before they can move forward.
The first few months in an offshore role follow the same pattern.
This is when the team member understands the work, adjusts to expectations, and finds their place in the team.
“If we can have someone who is committed and feels engaged through that first six-month period, the chance of them staying a lot longer is a lot higher.”
That is why the process is structured this way.
The focus is on making the hire work over time.
If you’re considering offshore hiring, preparation matters just as much as process. This offshore hiring checklist outlines what to get in place before you begin:
