Hiring remote developers or Outstaffing witnessed a spectacular 159% growth over the last 12 years. And is even expected to grow another 25-30% more due to the covid-19 spin-off. Despite this spectacular growth and the fact that cities like Bangalore, Pune, Noida, Delhi-NCR, and the recently developing Hyderabad have become hubs for tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, etc. collaborating with remote IT professionals from India may still sounds a little scary to some of us westerners. Some that eventually, they will get less value for what they pay for due to 5 assumptions that still exist about working remotely with Indian IT professionals:

  1. Cultural Differences make it hard to understand each other
  2. Physical Distance makes it hard to collaborate together
  3. Different Languages make it hard to communicate
  4. The Level of Quality an Indian IT professional is able to deliver is less than we are accustomed to
  5. A Indian/remote IT developer or specialist is Less Productive than we are accustomed to

However, after working remotely with Indian IT professionals for over 15 years, we have learned that these assumptions are in fact misconceptions. And discovered there are several structural issues that need close attention enabling every western business to thrive collaborating remotely with Indian IT professionals.

In this blog, we review the second misconception which implies the Physical Distance makes it hard to work remotely with Indian IT professionals. As we will provide a 5-point checklist to tackle the most critical issues, we provide multiple practical tips to ensure effective remote collaboration with Indian IT professionals.

1. BE CLEAR ON YOUR NEEDS

Ensuring effective remote collaboration with Indian IT professionals starts well before you even start with the actual collaboration. While you are creating the job description for the IT professional needed to develop or optimize the desired web application. The job description you create must be as explicit as possible, and duly checked to weed out in advance any outstaffing candidates that do not fit your requirements. Therefore, in order to ensure effective remote collaboration with indian it professionals, it’s important to answer the following questions even before you start your search:

  • What skills am I looking for?
  • How experienced should he or she be?
    • Beginner
    • Intermediate
    • Experienced
  • What personality am I looking for?
    • Leader or executive
    • Outgoing/ spontaneous/ initiating/ creating – or – Introvert/ passive/ executing
    • Team player or independent worker

2. SHORTLIST, INVESTIGATE, SELECT

As soon as you know what your ideal candidate looks like, you can start your search. As your outstaffing partner will probably soon present you with a few shortlisted names, it is important to learn as much as you can about these potential candidates. Which career path they followed until now. What their main skills are. What their experience level is. How they like to work and collaborate. Whether they like to be proactive and take initiative, or passive and obedient, etc.. To save yourself from attracting any incompetent candidates, it is important to check the candidates’ prior working experience and to verify credentials. Here are several issues to address investigating the candidates’ suitability:

  • Expertise and prior working-experience in your industry and the niche they has operated in
  • Similar projects they have completed in this field
  • The candidates’ reputation;
    • Do they have the right personality and the right work ethic?
    • The tenure of the candidate in each organisation: What is their attrition rate?

3. TEST YOUR CANDIDATES!

As you start eliminating candidates to produce a final shortlist, ask your outstaffing partner to apply relevant assignments to verify the candidates’ competences. Here are some points of attention to keep in mind selecting the final candidates: 

  • Make sure you verify whether he or she has a stronghold on the latest technologies
  • Check whether they have the right skills
  • Verify whether they have the desired experience-level
  • Make sure you speak candidates yourself to check whether you are able to communicate effectively with this person

4. ENSURE GOOD COMMUNICATION

When you completed your selection process and you found the ideal remote IT specialist who fits your organization like a glove, the real work begins. When everyone works out of the same office, communication becomes easier and expectations are not lost in translation. But, when working with a remote IT specialist, one cannot be careful enough.

Therefore, it is always a good idea to have regular one-on-one meetings via online collaboration tools such as Sype, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Zoom, Slack, GoToMeeting, etc. Not only to ensure the desired progress, but also to check whether everyone is (still) on the same page. Here are several points to address at this stage ensuring effective remote collaboration with indian it professionals:

  • Discuss the specific tasks and activities you (do and do not) expect from your remote IT specialist as explicitly as possible
  • Agree upon the required output and possible deadlines
  • Organize and manage your workflow, and create a schedule for possible communication
  • Use the SCRUM methodology to ensure that each member of the team is responsible for their work and their deliverables.

5. MONITOR, EVALUATE, AND IMPROVE

Monitoring your remote IT expert to ensure his productivity can be challenging. Although it is possible to judge their productivity based on the tasks they completed, it still does not give you the whole picture. As you cannot see what they are doing physically and watch how they work and progress with your project.

Monitoring the works of your remote IT professional not only helps to guarantee the progress, it also helps to ensure the quality of his doings. Online project management software such as Trello, Shortcut, Monday.com, Wrike, PSOhub, etc., and communication software such as Sype, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Zoom, Slack, GoToMeeting can help to:

  • Plan, organize and log the project, process and each single task
  • Allocate tasks and share information
  • Update and manage the status of each task
  • Review the progress and the amount of time spent on each task
  • Track the times each employee logs in and out
  • Evaluate and assess the billable hours

The data that is collected by this online project management software not only enables you to monitor the progress, but also to timely test the quality delivered. 

Meanwhile, make sure you never stop asking your remote IT specialist what you can do to make his working conditions better or easier. A symbiotic relationship lasts longer and helps everyone involved to grow.

MORE INFORMATION OR STILL UNSURE WHICH IS BEST FOR YOUR NEEDS?

If you are you considering Outstaffing and (temporarily) hiring 1 or multiple remote developers to reduce your IT or development costs by 30% or to speed up the process, WeSquare is your IT partner to make this happen. We have over 15 years of experience in outstaffing and working remotely with Indian IT professionals. Whereas the biggest advantage we can offer is that we have our own office in Hyderabad with a local management and HR, so we can search, screen, hire, facilitate, support and supervise your remote developer(s) locally.

Contact us to take the next step, or if you wish to explore whether Outstaffing and hiring 1 or more remote developers could be interesting for you or your company to scale-up your IT capacity in a cost-efficient manner or to reduce IT or development costs by 30% on average.

Call us at +31 853 012 993 to take the next step, or visit our website either to learn more about what we can do for you.

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