Hire Remote Developers: The IT Trend of 2022

“Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.” – Jacques Ellul

This 20th-century quote by the French philosopher Jacques Ellul holds true even today.. We are living in an era where technology is an integral part of our life. We have been using technology everywhere–from booking tickets to watching movies and from promoting our business to finding jobs.

These days, every company is trying to create cutting-edge technology offerings that can make the life of end users easier. And, the aspirations of these companies are fulfilled by talented developers. Hence, companies across the world are hiring developers.

Interestingly, technology has also significantly changed the way these companies now operate. Advancements in teleconferencing and telework coupled with the ripple effect of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to more and more firms going remote.

Adopting remote work can help a company save significant costs, especially on the hiring front. If you’re wondering how this post is for you, read on to know more about the remote work culture. We’ve also shared some handy tips that may help you if you’re considering going remote.

Why is remote work trending?

Let’s be honest, remote work has changed the way we work. Most importantly, it has helped bring in the much sought-after work-life balance.

Here are some interesting insights shared by FindStack about remote working employees:

• 77% of employees working from home experienced a surge in their productivity. Approximately 74% of them stated that they are less likely to resign if they have an option of remote working.
• In fact, the average salary of a remote working employee is higher by approximately $4000.

Additionally, employees save a good amount of money that is spent on commuting to the office daily. In fact, the option of remote working has opened doors to even overseas opportunities for professionals, which was not possible earlier.

Why should you look at hiring remote developers?

There is a consensus that remote work culture saw the light of the day post-COVID-19 pandemic.  However, you may be surprised to know that the concept of remote work has been around since the 1970s. It was then known as telecommuting.

That said, more and more people are adopting the remote work culture, especially after the COVID-19-induced lockdown. As per statistics shared by FindStack, 

• Around 16% of the organizations have gone fully remote.
• Additionally, since 2009 there has been a spike of 159% in the number of people working from home.

There are multiple reasons behind this. Some of them are:

• Going remote has helped companies cut down their infrastructure costs significantly.
• Due to better work-life balance, employees working in a remote setup avail fewer leaves.
• The option of flexible working hours has led to an increase in employee productivity.
• For companies, especially in the IT sector, going remote has meant they can tap into a global and diverse talent pool.

Additionally, going remote can have a positive impact on the environment as resources like paper, electricity, etc. are used in moderation. Besides, it keeps pollution levels in check as fewer people commute to the office.

Considering these benefits, it can be said that hiring remote developers for your technology solutions would be a great idea. Let’s look at how you can set up a remote-first software development company.

How to set up a remote developer firm?

• Onboard a recruitment and management team

To begin with, you’ll need a recruitment team that can hire talented and culturally fit remote developers. Once the recruiting team is in place, you can begin with filling the managerial profiles, as they will help in hiring developers that will suit your project requirements.

• Streamline your projects

Before bringing in remote developers onboard, it’s vital to streamline your projects. Prepare a list of projects you have in hand with their respective deadlines.

This will help determine how many developers you need to finish these projects.

• Create a blueprint for the development process

There are 5 basic phases in every IT project, viz;

• Initiation
• Definition
• Execution
• Performance evaluation
• Conclusion

Here’s a bifurcation of each stage for better understanding:

Hence, having a blueprint of the development process would give you a head-start and mitigate any contingencies. It’ll also help the remote development team to plan their tasks better.

• Hire the right developers

Once you’re done with creating a blueprint, onboard the developers who not only have the technical skills but are also culturally fit. There are several talent sourcing platforms in the market that can help you find the right developers who are vetted on both soft skills and technical skill.

• How can your organization adapt to remote work?

Adapting remote work culture is actually quite simple. A few tweaks to your existing processes can help you adopt the remote work culture seamlessly.

Here are some handy tips to aid you in managing remote operations. 

• Invest in a team management platform

Start by investing in team management platforms such as ClickUp, Asana, Zoho, etc. These platforms come handy in tracking a project’s progress and give you real-time visibility of your team’s bandwidth.

You can directly assign tasks and deadlines to respective team members on the team management platforms. You also get an option to create to-do lists and task boards and can add task updates. Plus, you can add task updates and create different

• Introduce flexible work timings

Offering flexible work timings is crucial for building a remote-first software developer firm. It allows employees to manage their tasks better without having to worry about their personal chores. However, you must ensure to identify a window of common working hours so that the entire team can sync up for discussing updates.

In case you have developers working across different time zones, you must define an overlap time in your time zone when all of them can be available. For instance, a US-based firm working with software developers in India can have an overlap time as 20:00 hours IST to 00:30 hours IST.

• Create a robust training program

Onboarding and training the new joiners is one of the key parameters to build a successful remote software development company. An onboarding and training program introduces the new joiners to the company’s vision, mission, and core values, and gives them a sense of belonging.

Now, let’s address the bigger question? How would you roll out a robust onboarding and training program that helps the new hires learn the rules, regulations, and policies that apply to their job responsibilities? A good way to do this is to introduce a buddy program.

You can assign fresh recruits to experienced developers who will take them through the onboarding process and address their queries. Once their onboarding process is completed, they can be assigned individual tasks.

• Focus on short-term goals

At times, we tend to prioritize our long-term objectives over our short-term goals. This may jeopardize short-term processes and stretch the product delivery date.

While creating a blueprint for the development process, you must create small milestones. This will help you track your team’s progress and mitigate contingencies at regular intervals.

• Keep realistic deadlines

Keep realistic deadlines. Employees often leave the organization owing to unrealistic targets and deadlines.

Often, project managers expect developers to work round the clock in a remote work setup. This might prove to be counter-productive for the developers as they might burn out and leave your company. Hence, set deadlines considering the task’s complexity and the experience of the developer. Also, encourage developers to take frequent breaks and take care of their physical and mental well-being.

• Communication is key

Communication is the key to effective team management in a remote work setup. And, working remotely comes with its own set of communication challenges. This can be addressed by using communication platforms like Slack, Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

One thing you need to be prepared for is asynchronous communication. Differences in working hours and time zones may lead to delay in responses. However, this must not be treated as negligent behavior. In fact, this is very much a part of remote work.

You can also take training sessions of your team periodically on working and communicating remotely. This will help set the right expectations for your remote team as well as for you. Besides, training sessions would also help them get well-versed in communicating effectively in a remote work setup.

• Promote constant learning

The best way to help your employees and your company grow is to learn new things constantly. And, the best part about working in a remote work set up is you can offer a lot of flexibility and time to your team to learn new skills, which they can utilize to perform better in their tasks.

You can arrange training sessions for your developers to introduce them to the new technologies that can be used in future projects. Do not forget to record these sessions, as they may be helpful when you have new remote developers coming onboard.

Conclusion

Remote work is the new normal. More and more companies are adopting this new model of work whereas employees are eagerly searching for jobs that can allow them to work from anywhere, anytime.

The IT industry is among the fastest in adopting this new mode of working. A majority of the top tech firms are actively looking to hire remote developers.

In this article, we’ve touched upon the many benefits of adopting a remote working environment. Moreover, we’ve also discussed certain pointers that will help you set up your firm with remote developers. Give them a try and see the results for yourself. Till we meet next, stay safe and keep learning.

Author Bio:

Siddharth is an author, blogger, and avid traveler. He has worked extensively in the sales and marketing department with top-notch companies including eZee Technosys, TripAdvisor, and Goibibo. He is also the author of some of the trending blogs in the hospitality and travel industry.