Key Takeaways
- Are you planning to choose IT Staff Augmentation Services?
- Even hiring resources from one of the best IT Staff Augmentation companies won’t be that fruitful if you do not follow through with the advanced onboarding techniques.
- Read our latest blog to know more..
The IT realm is abuzz with IT Staff Augmentation Services!
It is a unique strategy that helps you get contractual resources as and when you need them to help you meet talent gaps & impromptu business requirements.
But the success of IT Staff Augmentation Services depends upon how efficient the onboarding was for the IT staff augmentation resources.
Because the remote developers and contractual resources that you will hire via IT Staff Augmentation Services need to work in tandem with your in-house team.
For this, they need to be on the same page as your other team members, or, in other words, advanced onboarding techniques designed especially for IT Staff Augmentation Services are needed!
In this blog, we will help you with all these advanced onboarding techniques so that your IT Staff Augmentation partnership leads only to success.
If you are a business owner, a project manager, an HR professional, a software developer, a remote worker, or a tech enthusiast, this blog is about to give you keys to success while partnering up with one of the IT staff augmentation companies.
A few facts about Onboarding techniques
- 70% of the employees feel that onboarding processes are necessary in building a new hire’s experience.
- 34% of the employees did not get any onboarding process!
Fig 1. A pie chart representation of the employees going through onboarding programs in organizations. [Source: Backlinko]
- Only 12% of the employees feel that their onboarding was the best!
- 8 out of 10 businesses feel the positive impacts of an effective onboarding program in proper company culture adoption.
- The onboarding process can cost up to USD 1830 per employee on an average basis.
IT Staff Augmentation Services: The Onboarding
Since IT Staff Augmentation Services are different from the traditional hiring methods, thus their onboarding process cannot be the traditional one!
It is not about getting the maximum results from IT Staff Augmentation resources but to get them aligned with the in-house team.
This alignment needs an accurate mix of business goals, company values, work culture, and quality assurance!
Lastly, it is about creating such a work environment that the remote developers feel right at home and take charge of their tasks.
IT Staff Augmentation Services: Importance of Effective Onboarding
The better you make an employee feel when they are joining, the more productive they are going to be!
As their retention depends upon how you welcome and onboard them, thus onboarding matters a lot.
A well-planned onboarding process will help in,
- Reducing the transition time.
- Supplementing the On-Job Training, or OJT.
- Building trust amongst the team.
- Knowing the contractual developers hired via IT Staff Augmentation Services.
Once you have benefitted from the above pointers, your combined team will garner you better project outcomes and work quality!
Onboarding Process: IT Staff Augmentation Expert vs. Full-Time Employee
Let us see the difference in the onboarding processes for an IT Staff Augmentation expert and a Full-Time employee in a tabular format.
| IT Staff Augmentation Expert | Full-Time Employee |
| They are hired from a Global Talent pool. | They are hired from a Local or Regional talent pool. |
| They need a flexible work culture. | They can work in a rigid work culture as well. |
| They can have unique contractual obligations. | The employment terms are almost similar for all full-time employees. |
| They would require top notch communication and project management tools. | Since the team is sitting and working together, it can be avoided! |
| Example: A Python developer from India working for a US-based software company. | Example: A US-based Python developer working for the same company. |
If both resources get the same onboarding process, then both will suffer, and thus unique onboarding techniques are required for optimization and best utilization of IT Staff Augmentation services!
IT Staff Augmentation: Best Onboarding Practices
Now it is time to make you aware of the best onboarding practices that can be followed while partnering with an IT Staff Augmentation company.
Pre-Onboarding: Expectations & Communication
Clear communication helps in understanding the expectations of the company and the resource!
With clear understanding, there is no room for miscommunication or confusion.
Lastly, if a remote resource knows what they are supposed to do, how to do it, and the expected quality level, they will be able to work accordingly!
Onboarding Customization for Remote Developers
Each remote developer or contractual developer from an IT Staff Augmentation company will have certain unique preferences.
The earlier you know them, the better you can meet them.
And as soon as your business meets the basic needs and preferences of your IT Staff Augmentation experts, they will start feeling right at home!
For example,
- Time zone-specific trainings, virtual orientations, and follow-ups
- Providing necessary tools & resources
- Giving culture-specific onboarding gifts
Virtual Onboarding Technologies
If you wish to do a virtual onboarding, then it means all the legalities that an employee would do in the real world will have to be completed digitally!
Be it,
– Document uploads,
– Profile update,
– Signing of Important Documents such as Offer Letter, Joining Letter, POSH policies, Mediclaim policies, and more.
– And other onboarding stuff.
With the right online training platforms, video conferencing tools, employee resource management, and project management tools, you can achieve the best possible virtual onboarding!
Work Culture Building: Mentorships & Integrations
If the new joinee, be it a remote resource or a contractual developer, feels uncomfortable in their new company, they are bound to be less efficient and can get burnt out in the long run!
This would lead to higher iterations in the business.
Thus, it is the onus of the company using IT Staff Augmentation services to carry out various team-building exercises like,
- Team retreats
- Weekly catchups
- Fun activities
- HR sessions like the Johari Window
- And more to help the team in breaking the ice and getting to know each other.
Plus, if you assign a mentor to a new team member, then it will further expedite their conversion into an aligned resource!
IT Staff Augmentation Services: Compliance & Legal Considerations
Your onboarding process with IT Staff Augmentation is not just about cultural allegiance but also about legality and compliance.
Since you are hiring from a global talent pool, your work-for-hire resource will have different local laws. Along with these local laws, you will also have to adhere to international labour laws as well.
So, ensure that you find such an IT Staff Augmentation company that helps with all this in the first stage itself via,
- Appropriate Contracts
- NDAs (non-disclosure agreements)
- IPR Laws
- Labour Laws
- Local & International Taxes
Here’s how you achieve it in two steps:
IT Staff Augmentation Contractual Developers: NDAs & Contracts
Make the IT Staff Augmentation Contracts & NDAs as detailed and clear as possible.
You should share information like,
- Business Expectations,
- Work Timings,
- Communication and Project management tools,
- Quality Assurance,
- Payment Terms,
- Project Timelines,
- Escalation Matrices,
- SOPs, or Standard Operating Procedures, and
- Exit Clauses.
This will ensure that no topic is left uncovered!
IT Staff Augmentation Remote Developers: Data Privacy & Security Training
IT resources handle important technologies and can either come across your IPs or intellectual properties or develop new IP for you or your clients!
Thus, it is crucial that you safeguard yourselves and the clients from any data loss or theft issue by adding apt IPR clauses in the above contracts and NDAs.
Plus, adding data privacy clauses will help your IT staff augmentation partnership adhere to general data confidentiality as per GDPR and other laws.
IT Staff Augmentation Services: Team Integration & Relationship Building
Here’s how you build team integration and internal relationships while using IT Staff Augmentation services!
Buddy System & Social Integration
Buddy system works like an advanced mentor program as both the team members are working on similar tasks and helps the newly joined resource to skim through the usual hick-ups!
Social integration can be achieved by social events, team-building activities, and feedback-sharing sessions.
Regular Follow-ups & Feedback Loops
It is always good to answer a doubt rather than letting it fester and become a major client escalation!
Thus, ensure timely team meetings and individual check-ins with all team members and especially the contractual developers.
Allow any sort of feedback sharing in these sessions, as they help in opening up the team and also builds confidence in them.
IT Staff Augmentation Resource Onboarding: Measuring the Success for Continuous Improvements
Without measuring the current onboarding method’s efficiency, how will it become apt for IT Staff Augmentation services?
As the digital world evolves, so will the demand and supply of IT resources.
Thus, the companies, be they in the IT sector or not, will need to continuously improve their onboarding processes to make the most of IT Staff Augmentation services.
KPIs for IT Staff Augmentation Onboarding
KPIs or key performance indexes like,
- Productivity
- Retention Rate
- Employee Satisfaction
- And more will be best for measuring the performance of an onboarding technique.
Upgrading the IT Staff Augmentation Onboarding Process
From the above KPIs, you will be able to see whether your organization’s onboarding processes work or not!
Also gather as much feedback as possible from all the stakeholders involved in hiring contractual experts from an IT Staff Augmentation company.
Upgrade your onboarding programs accordingly!
Conclusion: Onboarding Evolution is a must for IT Staff Augmentation Success
We portrayed how vital the onboarding process is when partnering with one of the IT Staff Augmentation companies!
We also shared the few best practices to better your firm’s onboarding program via advanced techniques like virtual onboarding, buddy systems, mentorship, cultural integration, and more.
Now the choice is yours; adapt with the IT sector or move as you will.
Wildnet Technologies is a leading IT Staff Augmentation company in India that has catered its top-notch IT developers as contractual resources for more than 2100 development projects.
If you would like to learn more,
- 2024 Hiring trends: Hiring Dedicated Developers vs. Traditional Hires
- IT Staff Augmentation Services & Intellectual Property Rights
- Wildnet’s Digital Yum (our thought leadership’s weekly POV on the latest in the digital transformation industry)
Contact us now at info@wildnettechnologies.com and give yourselves the gift of contractual work-for-hire resources!
FAQs
FAQ 1. What is the IT staff augmentation process?
Ans: The process of catering IT developers on a contractual and remote basis to companies and helping them fill their talent gap is known as IT Staff Augmentation.
FAQ 2. How to manage staff augmentation?
Ans: By hiring from an apt IT Staff Augmentation company like Wildnet and then following through with their guidance regarding top-notch management of IT Staff Augmentation services.
FAQ 3. What is an example of staff augmentation?
Ans: Every time you hire a contractual resource from a third party to work for you is an example of staff augmentation.
FAQ 4. How to find the best amongst various IT staff augmentation companies in India?
Ans: Read this blog to know the easy way!
FAQ 5. When do you need IT staff augmentation?
Ans: When you are either in need of resources to fill your internal IT talent gap or get a sudden scaling request from a client but you have limited budget, then hiring IT staff augmentation experts is the best!
