The World is Our Office Now

How to Take Advantage of a Remote Workforce to Integrate World-Class Talent

The walls around the company office fell the day covid-19 lockdowns began. Millions of technology workers—54,000 at Microsoft’s Seattle campus alone—went remote almost overnight. Executives who had once been reticent to allow employees to telecommute suddenly had no choice. An undesirable but unavoidable experiment began.

The results would have surprised all but the most avid supporters of a distributed workforce. Without managers hovering over their shoulders, workers were just as productive, if not more so, than they had been in their cubicles. In fact, the switch to a work-from-home model is projected to boost the productivity of the entire U.S. economy by 5%.

Companies have taken note. A Gartner survey, for example, found that more than four out of five businesses plan to continue remote work, at least some of the time.  PwC picked up the same trend; 78% of CEOs the research outfit questioned agreed that remote collaboration is here to stay.

An Opportunity at a Critical Juncture

Over the past year, teams of all sizes found ways to communicate, collaborate, and build an “office culture” without having to be in the same room. And it happened just in time. Because the technology industry at large—meaning any company with IT teams developing digital solutions—is facing an array of challenges. The pandemic didn’t just change our modes of working, it transformed customer expectations and accelerated digital evolution.

Demand is up for on-demand service. E-commerce, which already seemed ubiquitous, skyrocketed. Bricks-and-mortar operations are more like bricks-and-technology businesses these days, with all the tablet-based menus and touchless checkouts. Innovations that not so long ago seemed like subjects for sci-fi movies—from IoT to augmented reality to AI—are fast becoming essential. 

Although many industries suffered layoffs and downsizing, Covid-19 didn’t put a dent in the IT talent gap. This means companies rushing to expand their digital presence and leverage technology solutions are fighting over a limited supply of software architects, developers, quality assurance specialists, and IT project managers. They’re tasking HR departments with ambitious hiring targets and paying exorbitant sums to recruiters to find people with the skills they need. 

These efforts are time-consuming, expensive, and often destined for failure. But there is an alternative. Rather than focusing solely on full-time, U.S.-based employees, business leaders can take to heart the lessons of Covid-19 and tap into a distributed workforce. They can expand their reach around the world.

The Best Talent Anywhere

Team augmentation can help companies keep pace by offering access to a pre-vetted selection of experienced technology professionals. Adding members to an existing IT team—or even creating a team from scratch—is a simple matter of identifying the needed skill sets and working with a team augmentation partner capable of delivering the resources. 

Using team augmentation slashes the time to fill a position from weeks or months to mere days. No more posting openings online, digging through piles of résumés, and screening numerous candidates. Companies using team augmentation can get out ahead of the competition by building and deploying solutions faster. 

Team augmentation also maximizes flexibility in ways that align well with today’s market. For example, companies often need a certain skill set for a current project but not on a long-term basis. Using FTEs constrains the ability to pivot and adapt. Team augmentation, on the other hand, enables the IT organization to get exactly the talent they need, when they need it, scaling up and down on demand.

Finally, one cannot overlook the cost advantage in avoiding high-priced recruiters, reaching beyond the U.S. market to areas with more affordable labor rates, and engaging contractors on a defined basis. 

If there was a downside to team augmentation in the past, it was that many companies simply didn’t know how to integrate outside resources in a seamless manner. Colleagues may have been reticent to include an off-site developer in brainstorming sessions, sync ups, and day-to-day interactions, let alone social engagements. Sometimes these resources felt more like strangers than true members of the team.

Since Covid-19, few businesses or workers find distance to be such a barrier anymore. At a time when many employees will continue to work fully remote or hybrid schedules, there’s no functional difference between a software architect a few miles outside town and one on the other side of the globe. So why not take advantage of the best talent anywhere?

Getting Started

If you’re now thinking that team augmentation could be part of your tech talent solution but haven’t tried this approach before, where do you begin? A capable team augmentation partner will not only find the right IT professionals but also provide insights and assistance to help you make the most of this staffing option. As you explore prospective providers, you’ll want to:

• Select a company that understands the U.S. market and tech environment. U.S.-based leadership is a good sign that the provider is in touch with trends, executives will ‘get’ where you’re coming from, and service will be available on your timeframes.
• Make sure the talent pool the company uses is a good fit. For example, LiftUp engages primarily Eastern European IT professionals with the English fluency and cultural alignment to work well with American IT teams.
• Ask about the vetting process. A team augmentation partner should be able to give plenty of detail about how they screen IT professionals and determine which individuals have the best mix of technical skills, soft skills, and personality for each client. There is an art to this matchmaking, so learn as much as you can about the provider’s approach and capabilities.
• Consider the time zone in which potential new resources live. Overlap in the regular workday facilitates communication, but there are advantages in enjoying some offset as well. When we integrate IT professionals from Romania into our clients’ operations, for instance, we routinely hear back how much they enjoy having these resources advance projects before their own day starts and then building on that progress.

It’s probably clear by now that we at LiftUp are unabashedly enthusiastic about the potential of a distributed workforce. We also recognize that many organizations are unfamiliar with team augmentation. That's why we welcome your questions. 

Contact me directly to schedule a call to introduce each other, or visit our website at www.LiftUpSolutions.com. We'll supply some useful information to help you determine whether team augmentation, through LiftUp or another provider, can work for you.