# What to test when hiring remote Latin American talent: English, time zones and async work

Source: https://www.tessera.partners/insights/what-to-test-hiring-remote-latin-american-talent
Language: en
Last updated: 2026-10-02

Insight

When a remote hire from Latin America fails, the cause is rarely technical skill. It is usually communication, time zone fit or async work habits. Test those three things directly, with real tasks and a clear overlap plan, and you remove most of the risk before the offer. Here is how we do it.

Published October 2, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026 · By [Federico](https://www.tessera.partners/team/federico)

## Why do remote hires fail?

Most companies test the skill they can see on a CV: the code, the financial model, the sales record. They spend much less time on how the person will work at a distance. Yet remote work runs on writing, on overlapping hours and on decisions made without a manager in the room.

A strong engineer who cannot explain a trade-off in writing slows the whole team. A great salesperson who is online only when the team is offline misses every handoff. These problems show up in the first weeks, and they are easy to test before the hire.

The good news is that each of these risks can be measured with a short exercise. None of the tests below takes more than half an hour, and together they tell you more than an extra round of technical interviews.

## How do you test English for the real job?

English level varies widely across Latin America, by country, city and industry. The [EF English Proficiency Index](https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/) publishes a ranking every year, but a country average tells you nothing about one candidate. Test the English the role actually uses.

| Test | What it shows | Time needed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Short written update to a leader | Clarity, structure and tone in the main remote channel | 20 minutes |
| Live conversation with a future colleague | Listening, follow-up questions and confidence | 30 minutes |
| Explain a past decision in writing | Reasoning and the ability to persuade | 20 minutes |
| Role play with a customer or stakeholder | Pressure, empathy and precision | 20 minutes |

Grade the work against what the role needs, not against native speakers. A finance manager who writes clear, correct updates is ready, even with an accent. A customer-facing role may need more fluency. Decide the bar before the interviews start.

## How much time zone overlap do you need?

Most of Latin America sits close to US time. Buenos Aires and São Paulo are on UTC-3 all year ([timeanddate](https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/argentina), [Decree 9,772/2019](https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2019/decreto/D9772.htm)). Bogotá is on UTC-5 ([timeanddate](https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/colombia)) and Mexico City on UTC-6 ([timeanddate](https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/mexico/mexico-city)).

| Team location | Buenos Aires or São Paulo | Bogotá | Mexico City |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| New York | 1 to 2 hours ahead | Same time or 1 hour behind | 1 to 2 hours behind |
| San Francisco | 4 to 5 hours ahead | 2 to 3 hours ahead | 1 to 2 hours ahead |
| London | 3 to 4 hours behind | 5 to 6 hours behind | 6 to 7 hours behind |
| Central Europe | 4 to 5 hours behind | 6 to 7 hours behind | 7 to 8 hours behind |

Ranges reflect daylight saving time in the US and Europe. Decide how many shared hours the role needs. Leadership and customer roles usually need four or more. Deep technical work can live with less, if the team writes well.

## How do you test async work habits?

Async work means making progress without waiting for a meeting. Test it with an exercise that mirrors reality. Give the candidate a short brief with one piece of information missing, and ask for a plan by the next day. Strong candidates ask a precise question, state an assumption and keep moving. Weak ones wait or guess silently.

Ask for past examples too. How did they handle a decision when the manager was asleep in another time zone? How do they write handoffs at the end of the day? What tools did they use, and how did they keep a team informed?

## What about cultural fluency?

Cultural fluency is not about where someone is from. It is about behavior: how they give and receive feedback, disagree with a senior person, escalate a risk and manage deadlines. Some teams expect blunt feedback in writing. Others expect it in private, by voice. Neither is wrong, but a mismatch causes friction.

Use scenarios. Describe a disagreement with a director in your company and ask how the candidate would handle it. Listen for adaptability, not for one right answer. Our [5-Lens Method](https://www.tessera.partners/methodology) scores this as a separate lens because it decides so many remote hires.

## How do you check the work setup without bias?

Remote work needs a reliable connection, a quiet place for calls and a backup plan for outages. Ask about these practical points the same way for every candidate, wherever they live. Ask what they did the last time their connection failed before an important call, and how they handled it with the team.

Avoid assumptions based on the country. Many professionals in Latin American cities have excellent setups, and some candidates in Europe or the US do not. A short, practical question treats everyone fairly and gives you the information you need.

## How do you onboard a remote hire for success?

Testing does not end at the offer. The first weeks decide whether a remote hire becomes productive. Write down the first month: who the person meets, which documents to read and which first task shows progress. Agree the core overlap hours in writing.

Assign a buddy in a nearby time zone if you can, and schedule short check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days. Ask what is unclear, not only what is going well. Remote hires often hesitate to raise problems, so make the questions specific.

## What should the interview plan look like?

- One structured interview on results in the role, with evidence.
- One written exercise in English that mirrors the job.
- One live conversation with a future colleague in the main overlap window.
- One async exercise with a deliberate gap in the information.
- One scenario on feedback and disagreement.
- Reference checks with former managers who worked with the candidate remotely, if possible.

Keep the whole process short. Strong remote candidates often have several offers, so a plan that takes two weeks beats one that takes six.

## What we see in real searches

In our searches for remote roles, the candidates who struggle later are rarely the least skilled. They are the ones who went quiet when they were stuck, or who wrote long updates that nobody could act on. Testing writing and async habits early catches most of these cases.

We also see companies overestimate the need for perfect English and underestimate the need for clear English. A precise, simple update beats an elegant one that hides the problem. When we set the bar with the client before the search, both sides decide faster.

Finally, we see that time zone fit works best when it is agreed explicitly. Candidates are happy to adjust their day when they know the core hours from the start. Problems appear when expectations change after the offer.

## About the author

[Federico](https://www.tessera.partners/team/federico)

Federico is Co-Founder of Tessera Partners. He spent nearly 10 years in international corporate banking, including J.P. Morgan and Barclays. He leads searches for clients in EMEA, the US and Spanish-speaking markets.

## Keep reading

- [The 5-Lens Method](https://www.tessera.partners/methodology)
- [Remote hiring services in Latin America](https://www.tessera.partners/services/remote-hiring-latin-america)
- [Tech recruiters in Latin America](https://www.tessera.partners/services/tech-recruiters-latin-america)

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