lobalization, despite some fears, has not weakened during the pandemic, only strengthened. The need to improve workflows has speeded up the transition from the classic business model to one focused on the future. According to a study by Accenture, success and companies fortune are directly linked to the decisions made by leadership.

The COVID-19 situation showed that many manufacturers, suppliers, and service organizations were unprepared for the new challenges. The bruiser for the automotive firms was the rush to meet innovative technologies. Almost no one in the market was ready to switch to the Internet and implement new solutions.

Knowledge and niche experience is the key to prosperity

With such rapid evolution in this field, the hardest thing for companies to do is to find niche-experienced developers. In the era of unbelievable competition, it's not enough to hire a talented and performing professional to create a top-notch product. People need to go beyond their limits, literally and figuratively, to offer customers more services than others do.

The main reasons why firms are forced to expand the team:

• the fast growth of the industry and the transition to a new work model has led to a dramatic shortage of niche-experienced developers in-house;
• the firms' team cannot cope with the constantly rising volume of work and new technologies;
• a new person can provide a fresh perspective on product development and its progression;
• companies prefer not to lose clients and money while looking for specialists (businesses can suffer losses if it takes too long to find the right person and the whole process slows down).

Many analysts and automotive industry players believe that this area is now being transformed into something very different. Vehicle manufacturers and software devs will have to adapt to the new rules of the game. 

The most popular ways to extend your team

Contact a recruiting agency: With this kind of solution, you save time, although it costs a ton of money. In the U.S., recruiters take a considerable percentage. Their fees are usually 15-25% of a professional's salary for the first year. It is not difficult to calculate how much you'll have to pay to find a solid software engineer, especially for an automotive project. 

Some statistics: According to a study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employee stays in one job for 4.1 years. And regularly, these numbers go down. It means that if something goes wrong and a programmer wants to leave after a year, your firm will have to hire a recruiting agency again and constantly pay it X number of fees after X years.

This way, of course, you don't need to waste energy on interviewing and screening applicants. However, is your budget big enough to bill the agency? You may find a much more innovative use for cash than spending it on recruiters.

Outstaffing: This is the most optimal cooperation model with extended employees. With outstaffing, you don't spend more money than you have to. The only thing you pay the niche-experienced developer is the time he works on the project. Also, you don't have to think about taxes, documents, and other annoying micromanagement. 

Below you can see a piece of the case study from one of our clients. Instead of wasting time on recruiting, the company focused on other business tasks.

When you choose outstaffing, you have no demand to worry about recruiting fees. The third-party firm already does the entire job for you. Another huge plus, your company can at any time extend or reduce the team to meet the needs of the specific product you're working on.

‍Find a freelancer: When a firm wants to hire a developer quickly, they often go to sites like Upwork, Toptal, Arc, etc. There are thousands of devs with all kinds of skills and experience. According to some reports, only in the U.S. there are 5.4 million programmers. Nevertheless, there are also many difficulties, especially with searching for niche-experienced professionals in the automotive field.

First, you have to spend a lot of time on the interview and lose other essential processes because of searching for a candidate. Second, freelance specialists are primarily assigned to short-term and straightforward tasks. Not all applicants will do well with complex jobs, and not all freelancers upgrade their skills meaningfully. Still, you may meet rare people.

Opportunities offered by outstaffing to automotive companies

Deciding to expand the staff is never easy. To understand whether this type of cooperation is suitable for the firm, you need to discover more about the other benefits of outstaffing.

Niche-experienced professionals

If you have a need for a developer with particular knowledge or qualifications, then outstaffing makes it much easier to find such an expert. The advantage of such specialists for automotive is that they have valuable skills and a clear vector for working with complex technologies. Other team members will not have to retrain the employee or bring him up to speed for a long time.

AVA.codes experience: Our devs are familiar with the industry and know about common technologies used in the automotive field. Moreover, niche-experienced professionals are not only interested in the industry from the inside but also the outside. They are really curious about general market trends, the latest news and features, and analyze competitors' software. It helps them provide clients with the best possible service and continually improve the projects.

Focus on core parts of the business

An oft-repeated business problem is that part-time employees and freelancers have little self-management skills. It can be annoying and exhausting. Instead of being busy growing their product, firms have to get such specialists organized, rush them, think through the workflow, and control every step of the way. 

Nothing of the sort happens to specialists in outstaffing.  They are highly self-managed, never blow off deadlines, and do not require constant monitoring. Rather than screen other people's code or engage in mentoring, business owners and CTOs spend their time on other crucial tasks.

When you have not only niche-experienced but also responsible niche-experienced people on your team, this is one of the ways to flourish.

Proper communication and no Chinese whispers

Direct interaction with a developer is another element of a company's successful future. The best results in extending the team are obtained when the CTO or the Head of IT can interact with a professional one-on-one. Good communication allows the new team member to understand the project, the duties, and the development of the product in the right direction.

AVA.codes experience: With freelancers and part-times devs, this kind of synergy is almost impossible to achieve. They have a different attitude in their work because they depend on their clients. Such professionals usually do jobs with a few firms in a row, or are constantly looking for new ones. When you choose outstaffing or hire remote experts, there is no such problem.

Highly educated professionals with an excellent technical background

The experts who have chosen the outstaffing path always have an A-1 technical education. Since they received their bachelor's or master's degrees from top universities, they have a first-rate knowledge basis. Unlike self-taught individuals or those who have only completed a few courses, highly educated devs quickly find practical solutions to various problems and implement technology faster. 

AVA.codes experience: Besides excellent education and technical background, our specialists have many other powers. They have a high level of English so that they can communicate with clients straightforwardly. Also, each niche-experienced developer has his development plan. Programmers are regularly strengthening their skills, exchanging experiences, and growing professionally.

Curiosity and exceptional soft skills

Since outstaffing involves long-term cooperation, niche-experienced devs dig deep and deal with every detail. Their keen interest in what they are doing allows them to outline the way to project improvement and what technologies can be applied. At the same time, excellent soft skills enable professionals to adapt easily and quickly become a part of a team. Confident and communicative pros are not afraid to share their opinion, even with an authoritative person.

There is an excellent example in world practice where poor communication skills and fear hurt business. This story is not from the automotive industry, but it is no less telling.

AVA.codes experience: We always pay attention to employees' soft skills. Such developers always treat a project as their own, are more open, discuss misunderstandings, difficulties, and other issues during the working process. 

‍

Speed, responsibility, and accuracy

By extending your team, you can speed up work on the product. Developing software for the automotive industry is a challenging, time-consuming, and costly process. 

If you manage to get a great professional in your company who works in this niche, it will accelerate the firm's growth. Even cooperation with a single programmer by outstaffing model will help evenly distribute the load within the team and focus on the global tasks. When a developer has enough responsibility and accuracy, it will prevent many mistakes and unnecessary things from being done.

Nowadays, it is not enough to create a good thing or do code. Businesses require a team with different perspectives and experience in similar tasks to succeed. Either firms enlarge their brains thanks to niche-experienced workers and progress, or their development stops, or the project slowly dies.

Do you want to repeat the experience of other successful automotive companies, or are you looking for someone to improve your project? Extend your team with our niche-experienced developers! To book a call, email us at info@thefrontendcompany.com, text on live chat, or call +1 (212) 252-2165. Do your best to let your product thrive with talented and passionate people!