Once you decide on augmenting your team, identify the skill gaps in your organization, choose the right provider, and sign the augmentation contract, it’s time to onboard your new staff. Let’s look at some best practices concerning the smooth integration of augmented staff with your existing in-house team and a successful introduction to the project.
Why Does Augmented Staff Need Appropriate Onboarding?
Transitioning a team, whether in-house or augmented, to work effectively together is crucial for project success. Having a well-structured onboarding process becomes even more essential when it comes to augmented staff. In this section, we'll explore why onboarding is critical to your augmented staff management strategy.
Mitigating risks and legal compliance
Bringing augmented staff on board without a proper onboarding process can expose your organization to various risks, including legal and regulatory issues. Ensuring that all contractual agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and compliance requirements are met from the outset is imperative.
At iRonin.IT, such onboarding takes place during the process of establishing cooperation and is efficiently coordinated by our Project Manager (PM). Clients can rest assured that they need not be concerned about any regulatory risks along the way.
An appropriate onboarding process provides a framework for effectively addressing legal and compliance matters. It ensures that all necessary contracts and documents are signed, clarifying both parties' roles, responsibilities, and rights. This mitigates potential risks associated with contractual disputes or regulatory violations down the line, offering a solid foundation for a successful working relationship.
Ensuring consistency and quality
Maintaining consistency and quality in your project's deliverables is paramount. When augmented staff join your team, they should be aligned with your project's objectives, standards, and quality expectations.
A well-structured onboarding process ensures that augmented staff are thoroughly briefed on your project's requirements, quality standards, and best practices from day one. It helps them understand your project's unique dynamics, culture, and expectations, enabling them to contribute effectively. This consistency enhances the quality of work and streamlines collaboration among team members.
Nurturing long-term relationships
While augmented staff may be temporary additions to your team, fostering positive and lasting relationships is beneficial. Collaborating seamlessly and building trust between your in-house and extended teams can lead to successful project outcomes and potential future collaborations.
Proper onboarding sets the stage for nurturing long-term relationships with augmented staff. It creates a positive first impression, making them feel valued and integrated into your team. This initial rapport can lead to a more motivated and engaged workforce, which is essential for achieving project goals and ensuring that the temporary transition is smooth and productive.
9 Rules To Ensure Smooth Integration Between Your Team and Augmented Staff
1. Set and communicate clear expectations
Nothing kills the project faster than unclear expectations. You should communicate to the team what you want from new additions. These are a few questions you should first answer:
- What specific skills are crucial for your project?
- What processes do you need to outsource?
- What goals do you have in mind for the augmented staff?
- How many hours per week do you want them to work?
- What is the duration of the engagement?
- Which tools and technologies will be utilized during the process?
- How will the workflow look?
- What milestones are they expected to achieve, and when?
- What project information should be protected and how?
2. Integrate tech talent into your culture and workflows
Given that your augmented staff will be collaborating with your existing IT team, treating them as fully-fledged team members is crucial.
Start by introducing new people to your in-house team on the first day, even when they work remotely. Schedule a meeting where they can get to know each other better (also personally), and a few smaller meetings with chosen persons in the first weeks, if needed.
During a dedicated team gathering, present a new staff member with your culture, requirements, and workflows. You can also give them a handbook containing all the necessary information if you have one. Engage them in tasks related to your product or service and decision-making processes to fully leverage the value of team augmentation.
3. Respect the differences
Staff augmentation allows for maintaining a remote development team. Your new team members may come from different organizational and national cultures.
Get to know those differences so the communication may be smoother, and you may avoid many issues along the way. You can also use cultural similarities to your advantage – for example, companies from the USA might find it easier to work with developers from Europe than from Asia.
4. Provide communication channels, tools, and access
Facilitating communication between the augmented staff and your in-house team of developers will enable them to commence their responsibilities immediately.
Set communication channels, such as Slack or Teams, and the rules for using them. Provide them with the required tools and technologies, granting access to workflows, milestone information, and deadlines.
5. Prepare confidentiality terms
Include confidentiality clauses in your contract and have the right policies that will allow you to keep confidential information top secret during and after the project.
Moreover, having the right policies in place is equally crucial. Ensure that your organization has well-defined policies that align with the contract and reinforce the commitment to confidentiality. These policies should encompass procedures for handling and storing confidential information securely.
6. Select a contact person
Each member of the augmented team should have a selected person they may contact in case of any issues. This person could also act as a “buddy” who introduces a new team addition to the culture and workflows in the company. A contact person may be the team leader of the project manager – either a member of the in-house or augmented team.
7. Structure your onboarding process
Use a project management tool like Trello to structure the onboarding process, which may be faster and more efficient (especially when you are under a time constraint). Enlist all the points they must cover on their first day and later. Provide all the necessary links to resources in one place.
8. Monitor performance and provide feedback on productivity
Your whole team should operate smoothly daily but also reach goals. Schedule an agenda of status meetings that will let you oversee the project's progress. Check performance regularly and give constructive feedback to the team and its members. Set rules that will allow you to react to issues that may occur along the way.
9. Document the process and share the knowledge
Since augmented staff allows you to scale your project up and down, it’s vital that knowledge is stored in the organization and can be transferred according to current needs. Make sure you document everything in a safe place so it can be easily accessed later on.
Choose the Right Staff Augmentation Partner
Staff and resource augmentation is a powerful model for those who want to remain flexible and optimize the project execution. It’s vital to have a managed service provider to help you handle the onboarding process.
Are you in need of an in-house team expansion? At iRonin.IT, we have been offering IT team augmentation with many different technologies for a long time and can lend you a helping hand as a staff augmentation provider. Just contact us, and let’s talk about the skills you need to complete a project, and we will guide you throughout the process.
