Staff Augmentation Playbook For Successful Onboarding

You’ve hired a new software engineer through staff augmentation, now what? First, it’s important to understand the relationship these workers will have with your organization. These employees are not independent contractors working outside of the organization, nor are they permanent, full-time team members. They exist in the middle, temporary but fully-ingrained even if they’re remote, and as such they need a special approach to onboarding.

Here we breakdown exactly what that looks like.

Legal & Compliance

Due diligence is best done before someone comes on board. Depending on your organization, you may be required to conduct your own background check, which should happen well before someone’s first day. In addition, outline the compliance requirements for the work they’ll be doing. Getting through the red tape early will allow you to seamlessly transition into regular onboarding practices knowing that fine print is taken care of and you’re legally covered. 

Set Clear Expectations

A staff augmentation employee may not be a full-time employee in the traditional sense, but it’s best to treat them like one. At the onset, make sure to give them clear role responsibilities, deliverables and expectations. This should include project goals, timelines, and key performance metrics that will guide their workflow and output, such as code quality scores, feature velocity, or how quickly they resolve issues. 

It’s also important that they assimilate to the overall work environment. To do that, take time to explain the company’s broader mission and culture so they feel at ease in the flow of business, as well as motivated by the “why” behind the work. By fostering this sense of belonging, they’ll feel more connected and execute with purpose, rather than feeling like a siloed worker. 

Tools, Access & Guardrails

One of the most important steps when onboarding a new team member is making sure they have all of the tools they need to do their job. Prior to their start date, make a checklist of the programs, codebases, communication channels, drives, and files they’ll need access to. This should include project management tools, such as Asana, Trello or Jira, so there is a centralized record of progress, tasks, and deadlines, as well as a shared knowledge hub for key documents, guides, and best practices. During this step, you should also evaluate security levels as well, and the amount of access you are comfortable granting them to be effective. 

And it’s not just software to consider, but hardware as well, and whether you are comfortable with them using their own equipment, like a laptop, prefer to provide it or would rather set up a virtual machine they can log into. However, if you do allow them to use their existing gear, you may need to consider installing security software or a VPN. As a final step, set aside time to walk through these different resources, where they are, and how to use them, and if necessary, set up quick tutorials to get them up and running. 

Of course, you’ll also want to explain any standards your organization adheres to. If you have company handbooks, style guides, or specific templates for materials such as project briefs or meeting notes, you should present those at kick-off to reduce friction down the road. 

Training & Tracking 

With expectations and tools in place, it’s helpful to have a training schedule to create structure for their first days or weeks. This could map to meetings they should attend, who joins them, and clear project touchpoints or deadlines that will help them get into a quick rhythm with the broader team. In addition, it’s important to have a program in place for tracking their time, logging hours to make for easy billing and staying on budget. 

Appoint a Team Liaison & Schedule Check-Ins

Similar to a manager, identify a point person to act as their liaison, someone they can go to with questions or for feedback. Having a specific go-to colleague will help them navigate workflows, priorities, and team dynamics, while also building a sense of community. Since most staff augmentation workers are remote, the work itself can be isolating. However, these interpersonal relationships will make them feel part of a team and more comfortable to speak up or seek guidance. 

This person should also act like a manager and schedule regular syncs to discuss progress and concerns, and offer the employee an opportunity to address feedback. Regular check-ins, ideally daily, are best at the start of an engagement and can shift over time as the employee becomes more self-sufficient. However, the best time to address a problem is before something has a chance to become one, and scheduled touchbases can help. Regular check-ins allow both sides to adjust quickly, whether it’s refining task priorities or improving collaboration. In addition, an unexpected benefit of working with these professionals is that they can bring fresh perspectives to improve internal processes, so it’s important to give them an opportunity to contribute outside of their day-to-day activity. 

Practice Inclusion 

Whatever their role may be, facilitate introductions to the broader team and anyone the new employee might interact with - including a possible “buddy”,  or go-to colleague they can align with. This could also include a welcome meeting on their first day, to involving them on regular team calls or Slack or Teams channels to make sure they have visibility into the complete group.

Outside of work-related meet-ups, creating social touchpoints also goes a long way. This could be scheduling virtual coffee breaks or team activities to help build connections, particularly as most staff augmentation workers are off-site and won’t have the benefit of in-office interaction. 

Measure & Plan 

Finally, staff augmentation employees should be held to the same standards as the internal team, so maintain an open dialogue about their performance to ensure you’re getting the most out of their work. And before the contract ends, have an exit strategy in place to seamlessly transfer their knowledge and work back to the internal team. 

Software Developer Staff Augmentation Onboarding Summary 

When onboarding is done right, you create cohesion across a team that could otherwise feel disjointed, resulting in a poor return on your investment. Successful onboarding hinges on structure, communication, and inclusion. Treat onboarding like a partnership, and it will work as a strategic advantage instead of a temporary solution. To learn more about how Amplify Tech Labs manages staff augmentation services, click here to learn more.