Software Developer Onboarding: Costs, Tips, and Winning Practices
- What is technical staff onboarding?
- What does software developer onboarding include?
- How much does software developer onboarding cost?
- The key challenges for client onboarding a software developer and their mitigation
- Developer onboarding checklist
- Software developer onboarding: FAQ
- Conclusion
Developers are sought after practically in every industry sector since businesses strive to embrace new approaches, methodologies, and workflows. However, hiring and retaining the right talent may turn challenging for companies.
Did you know that up to 25% of new employees leave an organization in the first six months, primarily due to poor onboarding processes? At the same time, straightforward onboarding makes new employees 58% more likely to remain with the company for at least three years. So, how to build a well-structured software developer onboarding program that would motivate IT specialists to stay? Continue reading to find the answers.
What is technical staff onboarding?
Onboarding involves a set of activities and processes welcoming new hires and allowing them to integrate into the company. These practices aim to introduce the organization’s culture, structure, and values to newcomers and establish their roles in the working process
The impression your company makes within the first days and weeks will determine the employee’s motivation, dedication, and efficiency.
Check the following numbers as evidence:
- A solid onboarding process helps companies drive hire retention by 82%;
- The productivity of the employees undergoing proper onboarding grows by over 70%.
Therefore, it is worth investing in a newcomer’s positive experience since it enhances your team’s achievements and drives business results.
What does software developer onboarding include?
A strong onboarding program includes four predominant phases.
Phase 1: Preboarding
This is the stage where a company conducts technical, documentation, and staff preparations to help newcomers gain a general orientation in their working environment. During preboarding, an IT specialist undergoes a range of activities to understand their new roles and duties. A mentor and an HR manager need to ensure a new hire is familiarized with the following:
- A company overview;
- Employee handbook;
- Corporate culture introduction;
- Compliance policy and company requirements;
- A list of helpful resources.
Phase 2: Welcoming new developers
In the second phase, you officially introduce the new employee, establish expectations, and set goals. Here, the new IT specialists first meet the key people and their colleagues in your company.
You should provide support for the IT developer’s integration into a working environment and make sure they understand how they can contribute to positive business outcomes.
Phase 3: Training
Before outlining your demands toward new IT specialists, make sure they have sufficient time and support to grow their competence and skills. Encourage them to ask questions and provide the necessary workshops and seminars. The developers’ motivation and progress significantly depend on their opportunity to clarify current concerns quickly.
Phase 4: Transition to the new role
Getting accustomed to a new working environment, tasks, and responsibilities requires time. Throughout the final onboarding phase, the new developers will adjust to company processes, policies, and culture. They also will build interpersonal relationships and adapt their skillset to the new role. Ultimately, they will progress into full-scale team members.
How much does software developer onboarding cost?
Hiring a software developer requires substantial resources and involves both direct and indirect costs.
- Technical recruiting requires time. The software developer is one of the hardest positions to fill, and it can take more than a month to find the right professional.
- Technical recruiting is expensive. It can cost a company from $28,548 to $35,685 to hire a new software engineer.
- The indirect costs are important.
Your investment in new talent will not bring dividends at once, as a newcomer may need up to 6 months to become fully productive. If the onboarding experience is poor, an engineer may leave even before they become a full-fledged staff member. On the one hand, this leads to wasted investment. On the other hand, employee turnover might negatively affect your workplace culture and spur further brain drain. In this case, your recruiting and onboarding costs will escalate.
The key challenges for client onboarding a software developer and their mitigation
In fact, the onboarding process is expensive, time-consuming, and challenging for companies. Thankfully, companies can employ remote dedicated team services to fulfill their demands. Coreteka offers dedicated team support that includes recruiting, onboarding, legal and accounting services, and employee retention practices.
In one of our articles, we discussed the ways how a dedicated team can prevent IT operational challenges.
We understand the pain points for a client onboarding a software developer and implement proven methodologies to remedy them.
Challenge 1: Handling the preboarding process
Preboarding lays the groundwork for a successful cooperation process. Preboarding starts about a month before the new specialist’s arrival and includes preparing all the required documentation and setting up the software and tools. All the paperwork and related arrangements inflict additional hassle on your team.
Coreteka’s mitigation recipe
- We provide your organization with skilled developers on a contractor basis;
- Our HR managers arrange all the preboarding procedures for you;
- We handle the delivery of appealing compensation packages that also include a recently opened office in Wroclaw, medical insurance, fixed working hours, and extra perks;
- We offer welcoming kits containing personalized letters, gifts, and branded merchandise.
Challenge 2: Talent retention
Bringing in a good IT specialist is only part of the job. Motivating them to stay is a continual effort. You should ensure that your new staff members are encouraged to fulfill their roles in the long run. The process includes thorough support, training programs, performance evaluation, goal-setting, and regular feedback.
Coreteka’s mitigation recipe
- We monitor the performance of your IT engineers to ensure they unleash their full potential;
- Our team establishes training and mentoring programs;
- We conduct regular employee evaluations and provide consistent feedback to make sure they attain their goals and preserve motivation.
Challenge 3: Maintaining security
IT developers often have access to sensitive information that must not be disclosed to third parties. Therefore, you should put efforts into eliminating any information leak risks. A typical non-disclosure agreement may not be enough in this case since employees may unintentionally reveal your commercial secrets in the working process.
Coreteka’s mitigation recipe
- We compose a non-disclosure agreement considering all the IT legal aspects;
- Establish and monitor proper access to confidential information;
- Set up secure password access for IT developers;
- Provide a safe software and hardware environment;
- Ensure sysadmin support.
Challenge 4: Legal and financial supporting
Your company needs to formulate and sign the necessary documents with the new employees and manage their payments. To set up the documentation properly, you must comply with financial accounting and taxation requirements. These tasks are resource-consuming and sophisticated and depend on the specific country’s legislation if you hire talent remotely.
Coreteka’s mitigation recipe
- We provide specialists for complete coverage of all financial and taxation procedures;
- Handle financial documents and reports;
- Moderate tax burden;
- Manage payroll and other payments.
Developer onboarding checklist
Once you are ready to welcome your new IT engineer, go through this quick software developer onboarding checklist that summarizes the essentials of the process.
- Welcome a new IT specialist online;
- Send them the required hardware and establish software;
- Familiarize the engineer with your company and the company culture;
- Train your remote staff member to use communication tools;
- Establish access to all educational materials;
- Make sure your team lead is ready to meet a new colleague;
- Outline the KPIs to evaluate the success of the onboarding process.
Software developer onboarding: FAQ
Software developer onboarding is the process of integrating a new team member into your organization. The onboarding program typically includes getting new employees acquainted with the company procedures and establishing a favorable environment for their professional and personal progress.
The essential phases of a strong onboarding program include preboarding, welcoming new developers, professional training, and a transition to the new role.
Experts view onboarding as a part of hiring as it guides a new recruit toward becoming a successful team member. However, while hiring starts with a talent search, onboarding comes into play once a candidate has already been approved. An onboarding program deals with a recruit’s welcoming, introduction, and ensuring their progress throughout the transition period.
Conclusion
Software developer onboarding is a vital process in acquiring and retaining talented specialists. The consequences of poor newcomer experience may include financial expenses, the loss of a specialist, and overall team demotivation. Therefore, investing in appropriate enrollment procedures is paramount.
Cooperating with a remote dedicated team can boost your onboarding practices and save costs. Coreteka is a company founded by Ukrainians with offices in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Wroclaw, Poland. We can successfully manage recruiting and onboarding new employees and ensure their steady progress. Our expert team will tackle the fundamental onboarding challenges and help your software developers release their full potential. Contact us if you require assistance in managing your remote teams.
