20 Feb Outstaffing, Temporary Team Scale-up, External Teams: A new way to hire

The ever-changing world of tech doesn’t show any signs of slowing up. With new projects and clients coming and going, so does the demand for new employees. We want to present an alternative to traditional hiring that might just be the answer to all your problems.

The state of the tech world (as of February 2023.)

We are in year 3 since the start of the pandemic, and some changes it brought to the workforce are here to stay. Remote work seems to be one of the top demands for a huge number of employees, which is something that is already quite common in the tech industry.

Recently, we’ve also seen some layoffs from big Tech companies, showing that companies may not be as reliable of an employer as people might think them to be.

Of course, all of this is also linked to the hiring fever of the pandemic that allowed for bigger salaries and scale-ups. For now, though, it seems that candidates still hold some power in their hands.

One thing seems sure: the year 2023. is going to be uncertain. So what can we do to make it easier?

Outstaffing – what is it and do you need it?

Outstaffing, or team scale-up, is a type of hiring system. A third party would provide a dedicated engineer (or any type of IT professional), or even a whole dedicated team to work for your company, on a certain project for a period of time.

This team or an individual then works on the project the whole time covered in the contract, and you, as a hiring client, have control over the team. You will have meetings, calls, and communication with them as if they were your regular employees, all throughout the duration of the project.

When would you need it?

Short on time

The project you started working on last year and were supposed to finish three months ago is putting a lot of stress on you? Team scale-up might just be the solution for you.

There is no use in hiring people with the exact set of skills that you need to finish that project but maybe not for other work you have. Or hiring someone just to fire them when you don’t need them anymore.

Getting an extended team dedicated to only that one project will not only help you finish it on time, but it will also relieve you of wondering what to do with all the extra employees. Because you have none.

Sudden change in the scope of work

If you happen to decide to re-vamp some old project or suddenly need an expert you don’t have, hiring a dedicated professional or a whole team can help get things done according to plan.

Sudden rise in the demand

While suddenly having a lot of clients and projects is great for the future of the company, it can also be very stressful for your current employees as they might struggle with burnout.

In order to prevent your employees from being overworked and projects being delayed, you could think about temporary team scaling and hire an external dedicated team to help take over some of the load.

How does it work?

Phase 1: Recruiting & choosing

The first step would be to share your requirements with a company that can provide you with global talent. Based on those, the company starts looking for the individual or a team that will fulfill your needs. If the company finds a good or a perfect match, they will send their CVs and Portfolios over for you to check.

Once you select a few of the candidates you like, the next step is the interview. You get to talk to the candidate directly, ask questions, and “get a feel” of how they fit in with your team and company.

If you don’t click, the process repeats.
If you do, then you go on to:

Phase 2: On-boarding or a Trial Period 

You can prepare a classic onboarding for the team or individual you chose, or they can jump right in and start a trial period. 

BDIT is quick to adjust, especially with companies from the valley because we worked with so many already.

Phase 3: Working 

If the trial period is a success, the team or the individual continues working for you until the project or the contract is done. And more, if you want!

Types of Team Scale-ups

Team scale-ups can be subgrouped into a couple of sections:

Hiring freelancers

You may decide to go with freelancers you found on some hiring platform, or maybe someone you know. 

The issue with freelancers can be coordination and communication. If you have to work with more than one, and in a different time zone, this might turn out to be more of a problem than a solution.

More than that, you don’t have any guarantees that the person will fit in with your team with ease, no way to know if their work is good, and whether they have too many clients and too little time to work with you. 

While this is certainly an option you can consider, we would recommend to keep on reading, and find out more about additional options you have.

Having a dedicated team

You may decide to go with a whole dedicated team or an individual. 

This is one of the most popular and efficient ways to scale up your team temporarily. We are proud to say that our dedicated teams have shown accountability, hard work, and expertise, over and over, throughout the years. The people we find for companies are not only highly professional and good at their jobs, but they are also very quick to adjust and will work overlapping hours to make sure everyone is aligned.

Pros and Cons

As with everything in life, there are certain pros and cons to external teams.

Pros:

— Lessens the load on the main team

Keep your employees happy and not overworked. A dedicated team can take over any task that your main team may not have the time (or expertise) to do.

— Gives the opportunity to use the best talent around the globe

There are so many talented people all around the world who oftentimes go unnoticed by HR departments. 

We try to not let those great people slip by, and we bring them to you.

— Saves time

Not only will you be able to finish a project in time, but you will also save time on finding the right person, going through onboarding, checking to see if they are a match, etc. 

We all know what hiring truly looks like: you need to define the role, put up an ad, and go through dozens of CVs that may or may not even be suitable! After conducting who-knows-how-many interviews and hopefully finding the right person, there’s almost always the notice period you have to wait for. All of that delays the process and creates further ripples in the project.

Without delays, you not only save time–you save money, as well.

— Time difference

While some might see this as a con (and you’ll read about why), we see this as an opportunity. The time difference may work excellently when the communication between your main team and an external team is clear.

A dedicated team in another time zone can tackle issues and get them done while you sleep. Imagine a solution waiting for you the moment you wake up! It’s not a dream.

Cons:

— Time difference – again

Some people may not want to work in your time zone. And working in different time zones can prove challenging due to a lack of real-time communication or slow revisions.

— Communication management

As previously mentioned, no real-time communication, language barriers, or no agreed communication channels can be very difficult to manage. 

Make sure to choose a team that has already dealt with these issues and knows how to handle them.

— Cultural differences

Cultural differences are a beautiful thing but can also act as barriers sometimes. 

In order to avoid this, you can either hire someone who has a similar culture to yours, or someone who has already worked under these conditions and can adjust quickly and seamlessly.

Conclusion

There will always be room to grow in Tech. You might find yourself struggling to find a perfect candidate (or more) and in need of some quickly.

A temporary team scale-up has proven to work for so many companies, as many people opt to try this hiring method and decide to stick with it in the future.