By Martin Baltzer Søbjerg, Service Delivery Manager
This article explores how businesses can form specialized teams through managed services, outsourcing recruitment and management to ensure smooth project delivery. Discover how this approach helps companies handle new projects without overstretching internal resources.
New projects and services pressure businesses of time and focus, but seamless resourcing solutions are available. Managed teams are a service delivery model, also known as outsourced teams, in which every element of assembling and managing a specialised team and delivering its project goals is outsourced.
The vendor takes full responsibility for recruitment and onboarding, performance monitoring, scaling services up or down as necessary, addressing training needs and any other team management requirements to ensure successful delivery.
Bringing together and preparing a specialised and high-performing team ready to hit the ground running requires a strategic approach and considerable expertise.
At emagine, we have developed a comprehensive strategy that minimises risk and maximises efficiency. We work in partnership with our clients, allowing them to focus on strategic objectives while we drive their project’s success.
Even before recruitment can begin, there are a number of planning steps to follow to ensure the resulting team is the best for the job.
The starting point is to assess what kind of team is needed, including the essential skills and experience required, and how these will be accommodated through clearly defined team roles and structure. Each position requires a detailed role description before hiring can begin.
As part of this assessment, it’s crucial to identify whether the team needs to be highly specialised, such as consisting entirely of Java backend experts for example, or whether the blend of skills needs to be broader. Whether teams will work together or remotely, or perhaps a combination, also impacts the choice of candidates to ensure an optimal team dynamic.
Setting three to five measurable goals that define the success criteria for the right team is paramount. Being crystal clear on the team’s purpose will help identify what kind of managed team is needed.
Understanding the client’s mission and expectations of the team is vital. This includes establishing whether a backlog of work needs to be tackled immediately and the expected scope of work for the first two to six months. This will help to plan the timeline and best approach to recruitment.
Bringing together and preparing a specialised and high-performing team requires a strategic approach and considerable expertise.
Where there is scope or possibility to do so, hiring in stages with an initial team of two to three can be an efficient way to set up a managed team. Then, onboarding new recruits will be a smoother process because existing team members can share the knowledge already built within the team.
Having carried out all these assessments, the most appropriate candidate screening and interview process can be mapped out, including what tests will be necessary.
A smooth onboarding process is paramount for a managed team to hit the ground running and begin delivering immediately. It should ideally conclude with work ready for team members to tackle.
Team readiness will be quicker to achieve when the Service Manager removes as many obstacles as possible. That could include setting the team up on any hardware, networks, or project assets they need and enrolling them in any developer setups and communications tools they will use.
Having carried out all these assessments, the most appropriate candidate screening and interview process can be mapped out, including what tests will be necessary.
Motivation is vital, and a team without a clear purpose will not be effective. Once a managed team begins to take shape, it is crucial that the team members fully understand their purpose and what they have been hired to achieve by the end of the onboarding process.
In addition to understanding the end goal, onboarding must cover the project’s delivery method. This includes whether the team will use a particular project management framework, such as Scrum or Kanban, and know the day-to-day way of working.
By collecting valuable feedback on an ongoing basis and spotting it, you can resolve potential issues before they escalate through regular team check-ins.
Each team member needs to know what IT systems they will use and how they will communicate. This includes how they receive new tasks or whether they need to define their own. Ensuring that the team is fully briefed and set up with any obstacles ironed out will enable them to deliver from day one of the project.
Once a managed team begins to take shape, it is crucial that the team members fully understand their purpose and what they have been hired to achieve by the end of the onboarding process.
Effective team management is a constant task that ensures team members remain motivated, clear on their purpose, and continuously improve. This, in turn, helps team retention and ensures successful project delivery.
Setting up key metrics to measure performance is essential, but they must bring value to the client, and there is no one-size-fits-all. The most appropriate metrics will vary from project to project.
Even the most efficient teams will encounter challenges along the way.
Fostering a positive team dynamic will help minimise these. This is why it is important to set up a solid governance structure around the team from the beginning. By collecting valuable feedback on an ongoing basis and spotting it, you can resolve potential issues before they escalate through regular team check-ins.
The CIPD highlights that a team’s performance is largely down to the performance of its individual members, which is why regular individual one-on-one sessions are equally important.
Team leaders need to listen to feedback, not only give it. They should act as a coach rather than stepping in to resolve issues that may have arisen. It is better to support team members in determining and resolving their own challenges among themselves.
Potential disagreements within a managed team usually occur near the beginning of a project as team members adjust to working together. Some downtime, such as social events outside of work, can help boost team dynamics and cooperation.
Companies that bring in managed teams stand to benefit in many ways.
When emagine’s consultants work with clients, we take full responsibility for the team and project delivery, which removes any risk of unexpected costs or demands on time. Following a partnership model means that partnering businesses benefit from access to new technology, skills and ways of working through the high-performing team.
In addition, managed teams are flexible and scalable solutions, able to adapt as the business needs grow or reduce.
If you want to know more or are looking for a managed services team, contact our experts today.
