Vietnamese Working Spirit: Why Offshore Teams Stay Loyal (When You Get the Basics Right)

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“The Vietnamese working spirit can benefit staff retention. But only if you get the basics right.”

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Key takeaways

• Vietnam's population has grown to roughly 102.3 million, with a young, working-age-heavy workforce expected to hold through 2036.
• Companies with strong HR structure see meaningfully lower turnover: 6.5% at multinationals versus 9.6% at local companies (H1 2024).
• Demand for skilled IT talent is high, a sign of a fast-growing tech sector, so a clear growth path and competitive offer help secure and keep top candidates.
• English proficiency and academic background vary by candidate, so proper screening and structured onboarding make a real difference in team quality.
• Retention depends more on role clarity, local HR support and onboarding than on salary alone.

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Companies building offshore teams in Vietnam usually ask the same question a year in: will our staff stay? Losing a trained developer or QA engineer costs more than a recruitment fee. It costs project knowledge and months of ramp-up time for a replacement.

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Older content on this topic told a simple story: young population, growing IT graduate pool, workers who see a foreign employer as the ultimate prize and stay loyal. Some of that still holds, some of it is outdated. Vietnam's population has grown and its talent market has gotten far more competitive. Below is what the current, sourced data actually shows, and what it means for retention.

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Why retention matters more offshore

A local hire leaving is easier to manage: the reasons are visible and the replacement market is familiar. Offshore turnover is harder to catch early from another time zone, and by the time disengagement shows up in output, the decision to leave is often already made.

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Vietnam-wide data isn't tech-specific, but it's a useful baseline:

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Multinationals invest more in structured HR, career paths and benefits, and consistently show lower turnover. That gap suggests the structure a company builds around its offshore team affects retention as much as the paycheck does.

Vietnam's talent market today

Vietnam's population has grown to roughly 102.3 million, with a median age of 33.9 years, according to the General Statistics Office and UN population data. It's a large, young workforce, and it's still growing.

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The advantages

Vietnam is currently in what its statistics office calls a "golden population" period, where working-age people significantly outnumber dependents. Around 62.7% of the population is currently of working age, and this favorable ratio is expected to continue until 2036, giving companies a long runway to build and grow teams in the country. Combined with a large and increasingly urban population, this points to a deep, young talent pool for years to come, not a short-term hiring window.

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What to look out for

Two areas are worth planning for rather than assuming. English proficiency in Vietnam sits in the "moderate" band on the EF English Proficiency Index (63rd of 116 countries in the 2024 edition), so communication skills should be actively screened and supported with training, not taken for granted. Academic performance is also more mixed than it's sometimes portrayed: Vietnam's PISA 2022 scores in reading and science came in below the OECD average. This doesn't mean Vietnamese graduates are unprepared for technical roles, but it does mean structured onboarding and a proper technical assessment matter more than a candidate's diploma alone.

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This is exactly where a hiring mistake gets expensive: without the right screening, companies either overestimate a candidate's English fluency or underestimate the onboarding support a strong technical candidate still needs.

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‍Remote Resources maintains an established local network and screens candidates for both technical skill and English communication before a client ever sees a shortlist, so companies get vetted, work-ready candidates without having to build that screening capability themselves.

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Vietnam's IT talent pipeline

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More IT jobs than qualified candidates is exactly the condition that drives up turnover risk. Skilled developers, QA engineers and designers often have multiple offers, so companies that retain them tend to offer more than salary: clear growth paths, stable management and a good day-to-day experience.

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On cost, Vietnam is still meaningfully cheaper than the US, though not by some enormous, one-size-fits-all multiple:

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A lower salary is a real advantage, but it is not a substitute for retention planning. After all, offshoring staff has become much more than just a cost-cutting strategy.

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At Remote Resources, we maintain a 99% staff retention rate across Vietnam through equal-pay equity, hands-on HR support, and structured onboarding. We handle the people side of your offshore team, so you can stay focused on growing your business.

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Ho Chi Minh City: still the hub, more competitive

Ho Chi Minh City remains the center of Vietnam's tech and outsourcing industry, and its standing has grown. In the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (StartupBlink), it reached its highest-ever ranking at 110th globally and entered Southeast Asia's top 5 for the first time, after four straight years of climbing.

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That growth cuts both ways. It's good news for talent access, but it also means more competition for the same candidates, from local startups, regional tech firms and other international employers. Treating Ho Chi Minh City as a quiet, low-competition talent pool is now an outdated assumption.

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What actually drives loyalty

• Clear role expectations and a growth path: Vietnamese professionals early in their careers want to know what the role covers now, and what the next step looks like.
• Exposure to international best practices: Global teams, modern tools and established processes motivate candidates. Frame this honestly, not as a status symbol; that framing reads as dated to an increasingly experienced workforce.
• Local HR support employees can actually reach: Someone based nearby who can field HR questions and resolve day-to-day issues. Without this, small frustrations go unaddressed until they become a resignation.
• Onboarding that extends past week one: Turnover risk is highest in the first few months for any new hire, offshore or local.
• Fair, transparent compensation, reviewed regularly: The IT talent shortage gives skilled workers leverage. Salaries that fall behind the market invite competing offers.

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What to prepare before hiring

• Write the role and growth path down: A brief with responsibilities, reporting lines and a rough career path reduces the ambiguity that drives early turnover.
• Ask any staffing partner how local HR support works: Is there a Vietnam-based HR contact, and what do they actually handle: benefits, conflict resolution, performance conversations?
• Budget against current market figures, not outdated salary assumptions. Underpricing a role is one of the more avoidable causes of early turnover.
• Treat onboarding as a 90-day process, not a first-week event.
• Review pay and engagement regularly, not only at renewal. In a competitive IT market, a year-long gap is a risk worth avoiding.

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Vietnam's offshore case still holds up: a large workforce, a real technical talent pipeline, and a growing Ho Chi Minh City tech scene. But "Vietnamese employees are naturally loyal" is no longer the whole story. Retention now depends on the structure, support and management a company puts around the team.

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Remote Resources works with international companies to build dedicated offshore teams in Vietnam, with local HR support built into how each team is set up and managed. See Remote Resources' approach to people-first team building before comparing staffing partners.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is employee turnover higher in Vietnam than in Western countries?

It depends on the company and sector. Talentnet-Mercer's 2024 survey recorded 9.6% voluntary turnover at local Vietnamese companies and 6.5% at multinationals, a normal range for many global markets, though tech-specific data can vary.

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Why do offshore employees in Vietnam leave their jobs? 

Unclear role expectations, weak onboarding, limited local HR support, and pay that falls behind a competitive IT market where skilled candidates have multiple offers.

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Is Vietnam still a good talent market for offshore staffing in 2026? 

Yes, with realistic expectations. The IT workforce is large and Ho Chi Minh City's tech ecosystem is growing, but demand now outpaces domestic training capacity, so competition for good candidates is real.

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How does local HR support improve offshore team retention? 

A locally based HR contact can resolve issues, answer benefits questions and flag disengagement early, things a distant management team often catches too late.

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What should companies budget for offshore developer salaries in Vietnam? 

Roughly $3,500 to $4,000 a month for a mid-level developer, direct hire, though exact figures depend on seniority, role and whether hiring is direct or through a staffing partner.

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References & data sources

• Vietnam Population (Worldometer, 2026, based on UN World Population Prospects)
• Working-age population accounts for almost 63% of population (VnEconomy, citing Vietnam General Statistics Office)
• Vietnam's golden population period to end in 2036: statistics office (Xinhua)
• PISA 2022: Vietnamese students experience a decline in performance rankings (Vietnam News)
• PISA 2022 Results, Country Notes: Viet Nam (OECD)
• Viet Nam ranks 63rd out of 116 countries, regions in English proficiency (Vietnam News, EF EPI 2024)
• Vietnam's IT sector faces 200,000 personnel shortage (VnEconomy)
• True Cost to Outsource Software Development in Vietnam, Aug 2026 (Second Talent)
• HCM City among top 5 leading innovative startup ecosystems in Southeast Asia (Vietnam+, citing StartupBlink 2025)
• The Makeover 2024: Vietnam Salary Survey Report highlights (Talentnet-Mercer)

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