add post on external engineers

Author: neckhair

content/posts/make-the-most-out-of-external-workforce.md

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+title: Hired External Engineers? Here’s How to Make The Most of Them
+author: Philippe Haessig
+date: 2025-02-20
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+
+So, you hired external engineers to help with your project — but now you realize
+they didn’t provide as much value as expected. This can of course have many
+reasons, but you can avoid some of them by following these tips.
+
+## Know Your Onboarding Process
+
+In large enterprises, onboarding external consultants can take weeks, and many
+people don’t fully understand the process. Make sure you know every step,
+requirement, and approval needed ahead of time. You don’t want your consultants
+to spend their first weeks coordinating their own onboarding, because the person
+approving their system access is on vacation.
+
+If possible, start the onboarding process before the official project kickoff.
+
+## Invest Time in Onboarding
+
+For external team members to be productive, you need to invest time upfront.
+
+Even if you're busy, taking the time to guide them early on will save you effort
+later. Teach them how to navigate your systems and introduce them to key
+colleagues. They shouldn't be spending their first weeks learning about your
+environment on their own.
+
+## Communicate Effectively
+
+Newcomers will have many questions, so provide clear channels for communication:
+
+- Set office days once or twice a week.
+- Create a dedicated Slack or Teams channel.
+- Hold daily check-ins.
+
+Make sure everyone knows who to contact for specific topics to avoid unnecessary
+delays.
+
+## Provide Clear Expectations, Tasks and Priorities
+
+Having skilled consultants is pointless if they don’t know what to do. Ensure
+they understand their tasks and priorities.
+
+Consider assigning multiple tasks at once (with clear priorities) so they can
+switch if they get blocked. If using a backlog like Jira, make sure tasks are
+well-documented — otherwise, they’ll keep asking you for clarification and spend
+a lot of time structuring their work instead of solving your problems.
+
+## Summary
+
+These may seem obvious, but in complex, fast-paced environments, they’re often
+overlooked. A little preparation goes a long way in making consultants effective
+and ensuring you get the most out of their expertise.