To overcome such a situation, we look for talents across freelancer websites like Optymize. In such perilous times, remote working and getting the work developed by remote engineers acts as the ray of hope.
In this article, we will discuss every how and why related to remote engineers, tips for their management, how to overcome challenges and learn the ways of how remote engineers can boost your in-house team of developers.
What is Staff Augmentation?
Augmentation is the process of making something greater in size. In the same way, Staff Augmentation is the process of hiring resources (Engineers, in this case), based on required skill sets to boost the knowledge, ability, and skill of in-house staff of the organization for a short period of time.
Staff Augmentation is based on an outsourcing strategy where the company evaluates the existing members of the in-house team, their skills, abilities, weaknesses, and capabilities to determine the definite skill sets needed to increase the strength of the in-house team. Staff Augmentation, more often, is used temporarily.
Staff Augmentation can be mainly categorized into three parts.
- Commodity: These staffs are reliable workers without any specific skill set who perform basic manual labor such as warehouse work.
- Skill-Based: This staff requires certain specific skills such as typing, handling of a spreadsheet to perform tasks like transcription and data processing, etc.
- Highly Skilled: This staff is required to have training and experiences in a specific field making them highly skilled to perform complex operations in the project.
When to Use Remote Engineers for your Project?
- An in-House Team with Less Expertise: Staff Augmentation is used to fill the expertise gap in the in-house team that inhibits the workflow. Expanding the in-house team by filling with experts who can perform specific tasks is one of the best ways to manage your projects for early maturity.
- Expand your Team: Staff Augmentation helps expand your team in a very short time. It will help to work on different parts of the project simultaneously.
- Knowledge Integration: When different teams work on developing a product there is bound to be a flow of knowledge from all the teams. Cooperation, communication, and motivation in-between teams and members also play a crucial role.
Why Hire Remotely?
A company always wants to make a profitable business while spending the required resources. Hiring remotely can give you access to the required talent for your organization. Along with this, it can also be used to save money by refraining you from expanding your in-house team permanently.
Extending a remote team can open the door for your company to launch a new project under the parent project.
It can have a great effect on the communication skills of both the in-house team and the augmented staff.
Remote hiring also saves development costs.
While the augmented staff are busy with their assigned tasks, the in-house team can spend their time prioritizing different sections of the project which will increase the pace of work for your company.
The in-house team and Augmented staff will remain connected with each other via emails, chats, calls, and conferences, leaving behind the barrier of geographical limitation.
Another important aspect of remote hiring is that you will be able to control the development process.
Benefits of Remote Engineers
- Flexibility: Staff Augmentation ensures a faster way to find and hire new employees with less effort. This is useful regarding scaling up/down of your team according to the specific need of expertise.
- Resource-saving: You will not need to contact recruiting agencies, hence it will save plenty of time and other resources which you can use somewhere else on your project.
- High Productivity: A dedicated, unique team focusing on a project by spending their valuable time, knowledge, skills and expertise always ensures high productivity.
- Adaptability and Growth: Flexibility and scalability in the hiring process without committing an in-house team can have less effect on risk factors like an investment. Staff Augmentation ensures a way to grow the business of an organization by allowing them to hire on a project basis.
- Access to Unique Talents: Staff augmentation is the way to look for the talent and expertise needed for your in-house team. Outsourcing opens a door for a wide range of talents to choose from, saving you from the headache of going through your team and shuffling through the CVs, and arranging interviews.
- Save Development Cost: Hiring remotely for your company has many perks that can save a lot of cost for the project. While a team works remotely for your project you don’t need to provide infrastructures, no extra bills for employees, no need to provide equipment required for the project.
Some Tips on Managing a Team of Remote Software Developers
Effective Communication Using Scheduled Stand-up
Regular communication can lead to discussions regarding ideas, decisions, and overall feelings about the organization and the process of work.
Overcoming the Barrier of Time Zone
If the team is working together in spite of time differences, then it will lead towards more collaboration and less miscommunication.
Quick Onboarding with Clear Vision and Focus
Communication is the key in remote management. So before starting, provide expected roles and responsibilities very clearly and establish an understanding of company goals.
Setting up Inspiring Goals
Provide regular objectives to each member of the team. In this way, it will make the process more engaging and exciting for the team to work on.
Effective use of Tools such as Communication Software
All the team members should use software and maybe keep the need as mandatory. Because it is what will keep them connected. For example Zoom or skype for messaging and calling.
Celebrate Accomplishments However small or Big Maybe.
You can’t pat on the particular member of the team who solved a crucial bug that was preventing the development. But you can surely organize a meeting where all of the members can congratulate the person on the good work.
Provide Occasional Feedbacks for the Team
Regular feedback for the team will lead the team members to become familiar with the weaknesses and focus on its remedies.
An Occasional Online Get-Together
When work feels like play, productivity is sure to increase. To schedule a meeting, not a work-related meeting but a general meeting where the team can interact with each other and feel less stress about the work.
End thoughts
Outsourcing services have become the backbone of the IT industry. Some of the most important factors are cost-effective, unique expertise, and better results. Most of the IT jobs are outsourced like development and management of software, telecommunications, cloud computing, data center, etc.
Staff Augmentation is a result-oriented process. However, the management of the team is the key to success. So, when you hire your next augmented staff be sure to assign a specific task, control and manage the team.
Only hiring top skilled software engineers will never solve your problems with product development. The real problems start after hiring the team. There remain numerous speculations such as will the team carry out the tasks properly? What if they can’t carry out the tasks? How can I make the most out of them? The only answer to all these questions is better management of the team. As long as you are managing the team in a better way, you will keep receiving better rewards.