Onboarding is expensive. Daxx software development company suggest that a developer making the average US salary can cost as high as $54,750 to recruit and train. In other words, you don’t want to have to pay for an onboarding process that doesn’t end up working out. You want to be well prepared to ensure that things go smoothly when onboarding an outsourced software developer - initially, as well as down the road.
Here is a simple checklist you can use for the process:
- Pre-employment: Design and write out an explicit terms-of-employment contract for your developer, including their role, hours, and schedule. If they are near or offshore, take into consideration any time zone difference. Make sure your developer is clear on which tools, platforms, programs, and languages he or she will be working with. Update your original project documentation and put the developer on relevant communications so that he or she can begin to get an idea of what is going on before starting. Assign an in-house employee to mentor the new developer that will work with him or her over the course of the onboarding process.
- Employment: Introduce the new software developer to the team, making sure they are clear on the qualifications of each member so that he or she knows who to go to if there are questions, doubts, or problems. Give your developer a tour of the office or workspace. Go over the current state of the project, including short, medium, and long-term objectives and goals. Provide them with any internal systems or documentation they need access to, such as company email, organizational charts, contact lists, passwords, user guides, organizational charts, list of common bugs, software tutorials, or anything that requires instructions.
- First week: As soon as possible, do the introductory training session, allowing them plenty of time to ask questions and make sure to be open to them about asking the questions. It is ideal to allow him or her to participate in daily status calls to help them catch up with the project and get a feel for the team environment. Begin your developer assignments with the smaller ones so that he or she can get a grasp on the project architecture, and then move into more of the heart of the project. Give the new developer the list of success metrics and deliverables and have someone check in with him or her on a daily basis during this time.
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The First month: After the first week, depending on the pace at which the new developer adapts to, you should be able to start including them on correspondences concerning project-wide issues. Try to continue checking in with the developer, but lessen the frequency to once per week. Exchange feedback with your developer and listen to his or her concerns and questions. At the end of the month, you should conduct a formal probationary review, and then reevaluate medium and long-term goals for the project.
>> Learn the Symptoms that Your Technical Recruitment Process Needs Work
The onboarding process can be effortless if you use the best practices. Streamlining the process by putting all information and documentation in a centralized place, as well as investing a little bit of initial time to create eBooks and tutorials, will expedite the process, saving you from unnecessary repetition, and allowing you to document and fix glitches along the way.
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