Drive a Successful Remote Staff Augmentation Through Cultural Competence

Have you ever considered how many full-time staff you should bring on as your business expands? It will take lots of time to complete, as well as cost resources.

It is not simple to find the right talent that fulfills your needs. But remote staff augmentation can solve this for you. It gives you access to the best development experts without having to hire them full-time. Read on!

Augmenting remote staff is on the rise. The global IT staff augmentation market is expected to reach $1243.4 billion by 2035. Why? Well, because it is flexible and cost-effective.

However, technical skills are not enough for that. To ensure success, you must consider your remote team’s cultural competence.

Want more information? Continue reading the blog.

What Does Cultural Competence Mean in Remote Augmentation?

It defines how well a person fits into a company culture by assessing their work habits, values, and communication. You must hire someone who shares your organizational approach to decision-making, collaboration, and accountability.

Why so? Well, because it results in better integration, improved collaboration, and faster product delivery.

Cultural fit matters in remote IT staff augmentation. Outsourced teams work with your in-house teams side by side. Thus, cultural alignment is a must. Why? Well, to eliminate misunderstandings, miscommunications, and delays in project completion.

Let’s discuss how to assess the cultural fit for remote augmentation in the next section.

Why Does Cultural Fit Matter in Ensuring Remote Work Success?

The success of a software development project does not depend only on the developers’ technical skills. It also depends on how well teams collaborate. In remote teams, cultural fit plays a huge role as developers integrate with the existing team across locations and time zones.

Is your remote team cultural fit? Let’s have a look at the consequences of ignoring cultural fit when augmenting remote collaboration:

1. Miscommunication and Slowed Down Collaboration

Collaboration is necessary for a project to be completed effectively. Differences in employees’ values, working methods, and views can result in misunderstandings, disagreements, and bad morale. Thus, you must consider cultural fit when outsourcing developers.

2. Higher Turnover and Project Disruptions

Outsourced developers are more likely to depart the organization once the project ends if they feel not included in the corporate culture. Considering cultural fit can help you reduce turnover and ensure project scalability.

3. Drop in Productivity and Low Engagement

If your remote developers feel disconnected from your company’s culture and values, they lack engagement. Without a sense of belonging, their performance drops, timeline slips, and overall efficiency suffers. Thus, you must consider cultural fit before augmenting remote staff.

4. Negative Impact on Your Company’s Culture

When your external teams do not blend with your in-house team, silos form. This not only weakens team spirit but also hurts trust and hampers collaboration. Considering cultural fit can improve the overall company culture.

5. Missed Opportunities for Creativity and Innovation

If your outsourced developers do not feel included, they will also not feel comfortable sharing ideas. Aligning team diversity with the company culture fosters fresh thinking, open communication, and creative problem-solving.

6. Poor Client Satisfaction

Cultural gaps among team members often lead to poor customer service. Why? Because of unclear expectations, inconsistent communication, and missed opportunities. Cultural fit fosters cross-cultural communication and ensures consistency and quality at every stage of the project.

How to Assess Cultural Fit in Remote Collaboration for Your Project?

A cultural fit assessment of your augmented staff goes beyond interviewing them about your company values. Let’s discuss how to assess the cultural fit of your remote development team:

1. Conduct Behavioral Interviews

• Evaluate the candidate’s communication and teamwork skills.
• Check the candidate’s work style to see if it matches your team’s.
• Use personality tests or surveys to assess the candidate's personality.

2. Include Your Team Members in the Interview

• Include your team to participate in the interview to assess the candidate’s cultural fit.
• Let them interview the candidate on their technical expertise, work process, and other aspects.
• Seek input from your team members on the candidate’s work style and attitude.

3. Define Your Company Culture Clearly

• Communicate your company’s culture clearly to the augmented remote candidate.
• Share which values, attitudes, and behaviors work most with your company culture.
• Identify candidates who best match your company’s work culture.

4. Interview Them with Scenario Simulation

• Give them situations they are most likely to face when working in your in-house team.
• Check how they would handle real-life situations within your company environment.
• Consider their responses to determine whether they align with your company culture.

5. Check Their Experience and Previous Work

• Evaluate the candidate’s professional background and technical expertise.
• Examine their previous work to see if it matches your in-house team’s work style.

What are the Challenges of Achieving Cultural Competency in Staff Augmentation?

Achieving cultural fit and managing cultural differences in staff augmentation is not free from challenges. Let’s have a look at some of the major challenges that companies often face:

1. Biases in the Recruitment Process

Assessing cultural fit is inherently subjective. As a result, interviewers may favor remote staff who resemble them, regardless of their technical skills and knowledge.

How to overcome this challenge?

Companies should employ structured interviewing processes to promptly address this issue.

2. Reduced Exposure into the Company Culture

The staff augmentation personnel may not have as much access to the organization’s culture. As a result, they may find it difficult to convey the proper company culture to the outsourced team.

How to overcome this challenge?

Companies should conduct a thorough onboarding process for their augmented remote members and inform them of the company’s culture, values, and mission.

3. Restriced Candidate Pool

Most businesses restrict their search to candidates who share similar working habits and beliefs. Thus, it becomes difficult to find individuals with the required skill sets.

How to overcome this challenge?

Companies should broaden their search to other regions or fields to find cultural fit candidates with the required skill sets. Collaborating with professional staff augmentation services such as Unified Infotech can also help.

4. Limited Time and Resources

It consumes a lot of time and resources to conduct personality tests and behavioral interviews for cultural competence. When faced with strict deadlines, businesses often find it difficult to prioritize these criteria.

How to overcome this challenge?

Companies should automate some steps in the recruitment process, like pre-screening to weed out applicants who don’t meet the criteria.

Ending Note on Cultural Competence for Staff Augmentation

In the domain of remote staff augmentation, assessing cultural fit is as important as evaluating technical skills. It ensures better collaboration, smoother integration, and more productivity. With cultural competency in mind, augmenting remote staff can lead to a more cohesive, productive team. We hope this blog post will give you an insight into this.