The Complete Guide To Hiring And Working With Remote Developers

The modern-day workforce and setup are very dynamic. They are far from following conventions. Driven by the constant need to deliver better to their customers, outperform their expectations, and stay ahead of the curve, companies are keen on going the extra mile.

This is great news but what takes a backseat is productivity and the morale of employees. Optimum productivity and motivation always cannot be achieved and key results aren’t always attainable and there are several not-so-good-days employees face every month.

However, to keep concerns like these at bay, companies have also come up with effective solutions. Frameworks like Agile, DevOps and concepts like enterprise mobility are the norms today. With these mechanisms, companies across the world are able to get the best out of their workforce and simultaneously offer them space and pace they need.

That’s why today remote workers play a key role in the contemporary workforce. They are a paradigm shift in the way things work as they are not confined to space in a workplace, hardly work out of company assets but are inevitable parts of projects and the functioning of an organization.

And during times of crises like global outbreaks and pandemics, remote working has become the only modus operandi available at hand for all the companies out there. In such cases, it becomes beneficial to know how to hire and work with a team of remote employees so productivity is always kept at consistent levels and delivery deadlines are reached.

This becomes all the more crucial in software development, where stringent timelines are to be followed and scrum and sprint sessions have to be met. So, if you’re a software development company or a startup development company looking to hire a team of remote developers, this is the only guide you would need.

We will look at several aspects of hiring and working with remote developers starting from whether you need one.

Gear up.

Having a remote team sounds cool and it’s a great piece to add to your company’s profile on social media handles. But if you’re doing this just to show you are following the trend, this could backfire. Unlike in-house developers, it’s very hard to recruit one and work with a remote workforce. Tons of factors have to be considered and regulations have to be paid attention to.

That’s why it is at this stage that you should decide if you really need a team of remote developers. Ask yourself these questions.

Not all projects come with the same requirements and demands. While some require a template approach, there are projects that demand the latest tech trends and implementations for the best results. In the latter case, you will need to assess if your team has the required expertise and experience to work on a project you’ve received.

If you feel a little training and brushing up would help, you don’t need a remote team. If you feel the demand-supply gap of the required skill is massive, it’s ideal to go for a remote development team or staff.

Another aspect to look into is the development cost. Depending on the country and the workforce required to finish a task, the development cost could vary. But at the end of the day, your work should fetch you profits. But if you’re ending up spending too much on your development team, leaving you inadequate space to make profits, consider hiring remote developers.

This works in another angle that for smaller projects that don’t require the experience and domain knowledge of your in-house developers, you could prefer remote teams. This is a crucial question small and medium scale businesses need to ask themselves as they work on stringent budgets.

What’s standing between your idea and its success is the time you take to develop it. With everyone exposed to information online, having ideas is not a problem anymore. As you read, there’s another person somewhere sharing your idea of an app. But how do you become successful? If you manage to get your app out before anyone else. And this is time-to-market in the simplest forms.

If your current workflow or team takes too long to develop your product or consistently develops an unstable product, you require a fresh pair of hands who could roll your product out faster. Consider a remote team then!

Now, you have a clear picture of whether you need a remote team or not. For those of you who did not require, we just saved you from a debacle and those of you who need remote developers, here’s why having them is a great addition to your business and workflow.

The remote sector is working around the clock. Depending on the country your remote team works out of, you could be sure of this fact that your product is getting constantly developed. Because they are not confined to a formal workspace and they work out of places they prefer, productivity also tends to be higher. Time on commute, breaks and other recreations are less and they are able to focus more on working on your product.

Unlike a full-time employee, remote hiring also involves a per-project basis, where you fill a temporary spot with expertise you or your project demands. In such cases, remote working offers the advantage that you could find the best talent from diverse places at very reasonable expenses. In developing countries, there is no dearth of talent. Even otherwise, there are several skilled professionals in the sector looking for gigs and developer job opportunities.

Your in-house workforce faces a limitation in the fact that it has comprehensive knowledge about just one market – the one you’re operating in. But that’s not the case with your product. Your app or website won’t be used by people in your specific geographical location or demographics. It’s going to be universal and somebody at the other end of the world might be using it at one point.

That’s why it is always recommended to bring in global exposure in your app and having a remote developer makes all the difference. With their knowledge on other diverse markets and segments, their contribution and inputs could open you new avenues in development you overlooked.

Remote developers are also very engaging and committed to their work. They show commitment levels equal to that of your in-house employee and they make use of all the available tools and techniques to always be available as an in-house staff would do. Though this is a great advantage, it also boils down to the talent you hire to your team.

That’s why the next point is crucial.

The advantages we mentioned are pretty sweet but for several organizations, this remains a dream. This is because of their approach they take when they hire remote developers. There is always a line between expectation and reality and it is at this stage that you should draw the line.

When you’re looking to hire a remote developer, consider the following factors and best practices.

Defining your goal with your remote developer is as important as finding out if you need one. Only when you have a clear understanding of what the role of your remote developer or employee would be that you could convey that to them and expect them to adhere to.

That’s why we recommend jotting down clearly the details of your requirement starting from the project he or she would be associated with to other details such as the following –

• The job role
• The work timings and timings for meetings and calls
• The payscale
• A list of clearly defined duties and responsibilities
• Details of the reporting manager
• The skill sets required
• A clear route map of the project to see if they could follow and achieve and more

Defining this allows candidates to have a good comprehension of what is expected out of them. When this happens, only those who feel qualified and confident would apply, leaving you more time to communicate only with eligible candidates.

This is where you either find the perfect recruit or don’t. When you’re looking for a remote developer, it’s always good to have a detailed screening process. Since recruitment is a lengthy process, you cannot afford to hire a wrong candidate, regret it and waste further time in finding a replacement. That’s bad for the project that awaits a competent developer.

That’s why your screening process should be stringent enough to nail the recruitment at the first instance.

Start your screening process with basic profiling. Assess if the candidate applied meets all the eligibility criteria you have laid out.

If yes, reach out to them for the first round of interaction. This could be a telephonic or a video call, where you verify casually if the details submitted are genuine and there’s no visible loophole. If things are fine, send out an assessment that will test the technical capabilities of the person.

This will give you an idea if the candidate would fall within your budget and do justice or is wasting your time. Next, you send a project-specific assessment to evaluate how valuable the resource would be to the project the developer would be ultimately assigned to.

Once all these boxes are ticked, have a culture round to see if they fit in to the operational culture of your organization. This ties to the next point we have identified.

When we say culture, it’s the seamless flow of work and communication implemented in your business. This is the way employees interact with each other both during their breaks and during meetings, commitment levels, going the extra mile if a project demands, communication at the times of crises and unavailability and more.

Finding a technically sound candidate is comparatively easier than finding a culturally fitting one. There are a few remote employees who ghost out without notice, don’t fit into your company culture, find it daunting and more. The perfect recruit is the one who could tackle all these seamlessly and make the presence felt even if not available physically.

Hiring a remote developer is only 50% of the task. The remaining challenge is to work with them and get things done consistently. While several companies succeed at the initial stages, most stumble at this stage. That’s why these pointers are essential.

• Managing a remote developer is not tricky or complicated. It’s just having clear communication. When you work with a remote developer, always have a fixed time for meetings, sync ups, calls and other collaborations. This will allow you and your remote developer to prioritize other things accordingly. For instance, random calls could deter your employee’s time because of time zones, personal commitments and more. A fixed time will streamline a lot of things.
• Have the best tools in the business to make collaboration seamless. From having the right scrum tools and video conferencing tools to collaboration and development tools, offer whatever is required to ensure consistent productivity and engagement.
• Clearly define your work process and tasks so there is no need to call or waste time on back and forth emails. Set your expectations right and be as clear as possible. This is because you cannot talk to your remote developer in person like you could do for your in-house developers if you need something sorted out.
• Give your remote developers the liberty and ownership yet hold them accountable.
• Keep sending them consistent feedback about their job so they optimize their skill and talent and tailor them to your project’s needs. Also, appreciate them publicly if they have done a good job to make them feel recognized and feel part of your business regardless of their physical absence.

So, this was the extensive information on how you could hire and work with a remote developer or a team of developers. We are sure you would have found it useful. If you think you feel more confident working with a remote developer, go ahead and take that decision now.

And if you’re still not convinced, reach out to us and talk to us about your requirements. We are a leading mobile app development company and have an experienced team of developers on standby and we would love to take up your projects. Reach out to us to know how we could go about our collaboration.