<h1>The Game-Changing Approach to Employee Retention</h1>You have probably heard&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/what-is-the-true-cost-of-replacing-an-employee/">how costly it is to replace a good employee</a>. Losing someone good at their job is not just about losing the skills and experience they added to the team but also about the time and resources invested that will turn over to spending/cost on filling that gap. For most companies, this means starting the recruiting cycle all over again: sourcing, filtering, and interviewing for longer than you'd want to until you find the right fit for your project.&nbsp;The natural response to this problem is to improve employee retention at your company somehow. However, there's also a different approach that might change your entire perspective on the topic. At&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/">Stateside</a>, we practice that approach to remove turnover rate from the equation and help companies keep their teams adequately staffed.&nbsp;We'll discuss that later, but let's explore retention first.&nbsp;<h2>How to improve employee retention</h2>Let's be honest and recognize that there are a million reasons why your best employee could leave their position, regardless of their loyal personality or countless years in the company. Here are a few ways to improve employee retention.&nbsp;<h3>Create an environment that people can enjoy</h3>The effort each person puts into their work heavily influences the quality of their results. As obvious as it sounds, it is easy to forget that. After all, we are just human, and we will always do our best when something inspires us and drives us to do so. Business leaders must do their best to light this flame in the people that work with them.&nbsp;<ul><li>Your workplace must be a safe environment. This includes everything: emails, chat channels, offices, meeting rooms, and business relations. Nothing matters if people don't feel safe.&nbsp;</li><li>Keep compensation fair and transparent based on skills and results. Compelling benefits and bonuses are always a plus, but what matters most is compensating people fairly, on time, and with no hassles.&nbsp;</li><li>Provide the tools necessary for the job. Expectations and available resources go hand in hand. You can build a house with a hammer, but it's not going to be a great house — and it will take forever to get done.&nbsp;</li><li>Introduce optional virtual and in-person activities. Today, there are almost unlimited options for not-work-related activities where your team can bond and have a good time. Create polls, choose one, and take a chance. But keep them optional. You can't force fun.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Create an environment that people are proud to be a part of</h3>It's always great when people like their jobs, but it's always better when people are&nbsp;proud of their work. Your company's values will reflect on everyone who works there, and as a business leader, you must demonstrate values that your team can get behind.<ul><li>Invest in social outreach. Contributing, giving back, and improving society are paramount for all companies — ethically, legally, and financially. Most people want their work to provide value beyond earning money.</li><li>Respect and encourage diversity and inclusion at all times. There are many dimensions to D&amp;I: gender, beliefs, race, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, age, etc. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2020/01/15/diversity-confirmed-to-boost-innovation-and-financial-results/?sh=2727b8d4c4a6">Research</a> has shown that this drives innovation, creates new revenue opportunities, and drastically improves retention.</li><li>Promote proper work-life balance. Passion is not exclusive. Give people enough headroom to do what they like outside of work. When work tips the balance, always track and pay overtime hours.</li></ul><h3>Create an environment where people can grow</h3>We can't talk about retention without talking about growth. Employees who feel their job is no longer contributing to their professional development will be inclined to take a different route. And they should just as you should strive to prevent that from happening.&nbsp;<ul><li>Schedule regular 1-on-1s. A 15 to 30 minutes call now and then is worth more than you'd think. Keep it honest, set the right expectations, provide constructive feedback, and keep it low-pressure for both of you.</li><li>Open a channel for suggestions and complaints. There will always be someone with something they can get off their minds or chest. If you want unfiltered opinions, consider anonymous submissions. Listen to the suggestions and do your best to act upon them.&nbsp;</li><li>Support professional training and certifications. This is the most win-win advice ever. What's the point of not wanting your employees to improve their skills?</li><li>Praise in public and give feedback to improve in private. There is no correct way to approach recognition and feedback at the workplace, but this is the best rule of thumb we've got. Share learnings, praise regularly, and think carefully about how you deliver your words.</li><li>Remember, feedback goes both ways. Give people a chance to complete the feedback loop and help you grow. This is an opportunity to show awareness and empathy and to make improvements that might have slipped past you.&nbsp;</li></ul><h2>Going beyond retention with staff augmentation</h2>Doing all of the above is a sure way to improve retention and make your company a more attractive place to work. However, that doesn't help because it is incredibly difficult to find good employees in the first place, and there's always a risk of losing them and having to start the recruiting cycle all over again.&nbsp;But what if you could have committed HR, Technical, and Account Management partners that consistently guarantee your team is always staffed with the right talent?That's precisely what we do at&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/">Stateside</a>. We help organizations like yours hire better and faster, so you don't ever have to worry about turnover rates again. This process is called&nbsp;staff augmentation, and it has allowed our clients to accelerate their growth while keeping their projects on time and within budget.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Contact us at&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us/">stateside.agency</a>. &nbsp;Photo by Husna Miskandar

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Improving employee retention make your company a more attractive place to work. Losing someone good at their job is not just about losing the skills and experience they added to the team but also about the time and resources spent on filling that gap.

The Game-Changing Approach to Employee Retention | Stateside

The Game-Changing Approach to Employee Retention

<h1>Leveraging Staff Augmentation to Overcome IT Skills Gaps and Talent Scarcity</h1><h2>Background</h2>Staff augmentation is the process of supplementing an organization's existing workforce with external resources, such as contractors or consultants, to help fill skill gaps or meet demand increases. This practice can be particularly useful for overcoming IT skills gaps and talent scarcity, which are becoming increasingly common.<h2>The Issue</h2>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-09-13-gartner-survey-reveals-talent-shortages-as-biggest-barrier-to-emerging-technologies-adoption">Gartner’s 2021-2023 Emerging Technology Roadmap Survey</a>,&nbsp;IT executives see talent shortage as the main barrier to companies’ adoption of new technologies in six categories:&nbsp;<ol><li>Infrastructure and platforms,&nbsp;</li><li>Networks,&nbsp;</li><li>Security,&nbsp;</li><li>Digital workplace,&nbsp;</li><li>Automation, and&nbsp;</li><li>Storage.&nbsp;</li></ol>Learn more about the roles best suited to Staff Augmentation in our article, “<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/the-right-roles-for-staff-augmentation/">Maximizing Success with Outsourcing and Staff Augmentation: Identifying the Right Roles</a>.”Research vice president at Gartner, Yinuo Geng, explains that the increase in remote work and rapid 2021 hiring “exacerbated IT talent scarcity, especially for sourcing skills that enable cloud and edge, automation, and continuous delivery.”&nbsp; &nbsp;Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), and technology leaders must devise new, adaptable hiring strategies to meet these technology, talent, and workplace realities.&nbsp;<h2>The Solution</h2>One key solution is to build teams through staff augmentation.&nbsp;Staff augmentation can be used to hire talent efficiently and build teams to help you reach your business goals. This approach involves evaluating current staff, determining the required skills, and then working with a staff augmentation agency to fill your company’s talent gaps.&nbsp;This staffing model allows your business to meet current and future challenges without hiring new employees in-house. This means your business thrives no matter how the talent market fluctuates.&nbsp;Given the talent shortage in technology, augmenting your team with additional development team members can be the right strategy to meet deadlines and fill specific skills gaps while saving on costs.&nbsp;<h2>The Research</h2>According to a recent study by&nbsp;<a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ec/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/DI_The-future-of-work-in-technology%20(1).pdf">Deloitte</a>, staff augmentation is becoming an increasingly popular solution for companies looking to fill IT skills gaps. The study found that 55% of companies are currently using staff augmentation, and an additional 20% plan to use it in the near future. The study also found that the most common reasons for using staff augmentation include the need for specialized skills (62%), the ability to scale teams up or down (55%), and the need for specific experience (48%).Another study by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3892317">Gartner</a>, a leading research and advisory firm, found that staff augmentation particularly benefits companies that need to access niche or emerging technologies. The study found that companies that use staff augmentation are more likely to have access to the latest technologies and be able to innovate faster than companies that rely solely on in-house IT teams.<h2>Advantages of a Staff Augmentation Strategy</h2>If you are considering this strategy, first become familiar with some of the model’s advantages.&nbsp;<h3>Advantages of Staff Augmentation&nbsp;</h3><ol><li>You only pay for the talent, not recruiting or staffing: When you engage a staff augmentation agency (or “partner”), you only pay for the specific personnel resources you need–either on a monthly- or hourly fee basis. Unlike working with a recruiting agency, staff augmentation partners do not charge your business for the recruiting or staffing costs.&nbsp;</li><li>Reduces hiring risk: Staff augmentation is flexible; you can try out potential workers to see if they fit your organization or project without incurring significant risks for your business. This removes the risk of having to&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/what-is-the-true-cost-of-replacing-an-employee/">replace an employee</a>, which can be time-consuming and costly.</li><li>Scalability: Having a partner that provides staff augmentation services allows your department to scale faster and more efficiently. Staff augmentation agencies have access to on-bench talent and keep a database of specialized talent to contact quickly when new needs arise.</li><li>Can reduce training time: Hiring pre-vetted professionals that have already passed a technical and cultural assessment means it takes less time for them to learn how your company works. As soon as the employee is onboarded into your organization, they can start work immediately.&nbsp;</li><li>Access to expertise: When you work with a staff augmentation agency, you access not just the technical skills of the developer(s) you work with but also the years of experience that your partner agency brings from helping other organizations meet their technology needs.</li><li>Cut costs: Hiring nearshore–in a neighboring country, as opposed to your own or more distant one–with a staff augmentation partner can reduce recruiting, employee benefits, tax, and training costs while keeping the same or similar advantages of hiring an in-house developer.</li></ol><h2>Conclusion</h2>If your department is experiencing a talent shortage or it is taking more than a month to fill positions, hiring a staff augmentation agency taps you into a world-class talent pool.&nbsp;With lower costs and minimal effort compared to hiring in-house, pursuing a staff augmentation strategy can give your organization a competitive advantage to face market changes and overcome new challenges.<a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us/">Get in touch with us</a> today to find out more about how Stateside can help your business overcome the global issue of IT skill gaps and talent scarcity.&nbsp;Photo by Carl Heyerdahl.

Staff Augmentation to Overcome Talent Scarcity

Staff augmentation is the process of supplementing an organization's existing workforce with external resources, such as contractors or consultants, to help fill skill gaps or meet demand increases. 

Staff Augmentation to Overcome Talent Scarcity - Stateside

Leveraging Staff Augmentation to Overcome IT Skills Gaps and Talent Scarcity

<h1 style="text-align:justify;">GoodFirms Announces Stateside to be the Best Staff Augmentation Company in the USA</h1>To stay competitive in the current business environment, delivering quality solutions that drive exceptional user experiences has become imperative. Attracting audiences to use your services is challenging but keeping that audience engaged with your brand is even harder. With the attention span decreasing yearly, modern businesses now focus on enhancing their user experiences across their digital platforms. For that purpose, it requires harnessing the power of a skilled, qualified, and knowledgeable team of developers.<a href="https://www.goodfirms.co/company/stateside">Stateside</a> can help you improve your organization's capabilities by equipping your company with a highly qualified team of developers who can build impeccable solutions for you and your clients. Whether you need Android developers for a particular project or certified engineers for long-term needs, Stateside is at your service for all your staff augmentation needs. Our designers, developers, and engineers collaborate with your team efficiently to develop innovative solutions to help your business grow and expand.Stateside provides its wide range of staff augmentation services, including sourcing, managing, and retaining efficient digital talent that helps you stay ahead of your competition and set new standards. The below-mentioned reviews prove the fact that Stateside is the best option when it comes to staff augmentation needs.<figure class="image"><img src="https://stateside-website-images-dev.s3.amazonaws.com/image_8cfecbdce5.png"></figure>Stateside is an award-winning staff augmentation service company that equips companies with premium talent in the United States. They can recruit technical staff based on every company's unique demands, like&nbsp;front-end developers, back-end developers, data scientists, DevOps engineers, firmware engineers, project managers, network and security engineers, UI/UX designers, and mobile developers.Moreover,&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/">Stateside</a> is a multinational company with an impeccable reputation among its clients. Therefore, GoodFirms ranks it as one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goodfirms.co/it-services/staff-augmentation">top staff augmentation companies</a> in the USA.<h2 style="text-align:justify;">GoodFirms research methodology:</h2>GoodFirms conducts extensive research using their cognitive algorithm and is driven by the most recent market trends to rank companies based on their services and clients' reviews. GoodFirms' research methodology prioritizes the companies that have proven themselves as the best service providers by delivering excellent solutions within a minimum time frame.This research and listing by GoodFirms help businesses connect with technology partners. As all the renowned service providers delivering different services are all found under one roof at GoodFirms, it becomes easy for businesses to pick the best one suiting their requirements.<h2 style="text-align:justify;">&nbsp;About the author</h2>As a Content Writer at GoodFirms, Anna Stark bridges the gap between service seekers and providers. Anna's dominant role is to figure out company achievements and critical attributes and put them into words. She strongly believes in the charm of words and leverages new approaches that work, including new concepts that enhance the firm's identity.

Stateside can help you improve your organization's capabilities by equipping your company with a highly qualified team of developers who can build impeccable solutions for you and your clients.

GoodFirms Announces Stateside to be the Best Staff Augmentation Company in the USA

<h1>Maximizing Success with Staff Augmentation: Identifying the Right Roles</h1>The practice of outsourcing has become increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes, as it allows them to access specialized skills from external sources rather than having to hire in-house employees for these roles. This enables employees to focus on their core competencies while leveraging the expertise of others, which can be especially useful for companies that have budget restraints, lack the necessary skills, or are looking to save on labor costs. In this article, we will discuss what&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/staff-augmentation-agreement-what-to-expect/">staff augmentation</a> is, the roles best suited to outsourcing, some of the benefits of this approach, and why businesses should consider using it.&nbsp;<h2> The Staff Augmentation Model</h2>One of the most common models for outsourcing is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2022/06/30/3-types-of-product-development-outsourcing-compared/?sh=18cef30cc2c7">staff augmentation model</a>, in which a company brings in external contractors or consultants to work alongside its existing teams. This allows the company to scale its workforce up or down as needed without committing to hiring full-time employees.<h2> Identifying the Right Roles for Staff Augmentation</h2>Certain roles are more successful when using the staff augmentation model. These roles typically involve specialized skills or knowledge that may be difficult to find on-site or for companies looking to reduce costs and time related to employment risks.From our ten years of experience in offering nearshoring services, Stateside has found that outsourcing and the staff augmentation model can be particularly useful for companies looking to access IT professionals with specialized skills and expertise. IT roles such as software developers, quality assurance engineers, system analysts, UX/UI designers, IT architects, DevOps engineers, network engineers, and cybersecurity specialists are often in high demand. They can be difficult to fill with in-house or local staff.<h2> The Benefits of Nearshore Staff Augmentation</h2>There are several benefits to outsourcing, including:<ol><li>Selecting from a wider pool of talent;</li><li>Freeing up internal resources;</li><li>Lowering costs; and</li><li>Being able to customize your team depending on your business needs.</li></ol><h3> Wider Pool of Talent</h3> One of the main benefits of outsourcing IT roles is accessing a wider pool of highly qualified professionals who can bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to your business. IT professionals with niche skills or expertise may not be available in the local job market but can be found through&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/not-another-hiring-in-house-vs-offshoring-blog-post/">nearshore</a> outsourcing or the staff augmentation model.&nbsp; These professionals are typically highly skilled in their areas of expertise and have a track record of delivering results for their clients. This can be especially beneficial for businesses looking to take on complex projects or needing to bring in experts to solve specific challenges.<h3> Freeing up Internal Resources</h3> By bringing in external staff with specific skills, your company can solve existing issues related to this specialized skill and advance faster. This can help to reduce workload and increase efficiency within the organization. For example, suppose your company has a large project that requires specialized skills. In that case, it may be more efficient to bring in external professionals with those skills rather than trying to train your existing employees.<h3> Lower Costs</h3> Outsourcing and the staff augmentation model can be&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/what-is-the-true-cost-of-replacing-an-employee/">more cost-effective</a> than hiring full-time employees. Companies can bring in IT professionals on a project-by-project basis rather than having to pay for their salary, benefits, and other overhead costs on an ongoing basis.<h3> Customizing your IT Team</h3> Another big benefit of staff augmentation is that it allows businesses to scale their workforce up or down as needed, based on the demands of their projects. This can be particularly useful for startups and small businesses that may not have the resources to hire full-time employees for every role. It is also useful for&nbsp;high-growth companies that must keep developing their digital platforms while managing resources.&nbsp; By outsourcing technical tasks to staff augmentation professionals, businesses can take on projects they might otherwise not be able to tackle due to a lack of internal expertise.<h2> Conclusion</h2>Overall, outsourcing and the staff augmentation model can be valuable tools for companies who want to access specialized IT skills and expertise on a temporary or project-based basis. Companies can use these approaches to scale up or down their IT workforce as needed and access a wider pool of talent without committing to full-time hires. At Stateside, we can help your business by providing nearshore staff augmentation services. We help you hire, retain, and manage the highest caliber of talent so that you can accelerate your tech projects and achieve your IT goals, all while working in the same language, time zone, and culture.&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us/">Contact us today to find out more.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;Photo by Fab Lentz &nbsp;

The practice of outsourcing has become increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes, as it allows them to access specialized skills from external sources rather than having to hire in-house employees for these roles.

Maximizing Success with Outsourcing and Staff Augmentation | Stateside

Maximizing Success with Outsourcing and Staff Augmentation: Identifying the Right Roles

<h1>3 Ways Stateside Staff Augmentation Can Benefit Your Business</h1>As an innovative nearshore staff augmentation company, we here at&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us/">Stateside</a> are proud of&nbsp;the benefits we deliver to our clients.These benefits include:<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>Recruiting the best people,</li><li>Lowering staff turnover (and therefore costs) for our clients, and</li><li>Establish a robust onboarding process so our new team members can integrate seamlessly into our clients’ organizations.&nbsp;</li></ol><h2>Recruiting the Best People</h2>At Stateside, our unique value proposition is our unwavering ability to bring the best possible candidate to our clients. According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-100-hiring-statistics-2022-rinku-thakkar/">Guidance Talent</a>,&nbsp; 76% of hiring managers' greatest challenge is attracting the right candidate for a job. Sourcing candidates is also tedious, with filling a single position consuming up to ⅓ of the hiring manager’s workweek.As the author, Jim Collins, writes,&nbsp;"Great vision without great people is irrelevant."We find great people for every position we fill, maximizing the return on investment for the businesses we work with.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our thorough recruiting process generally consists of an initial interview, a technical challenge, a technical interview, and one or two client interviews, depending on our client’s needs. We invest time in selecting the highest caliber of candidates with the best attitude and skill sets, who we know will thrive in the unique culture of each company they serve.&nbsp;For most companies,&nbsp; it takes an average of&nbsp; 42 days to fill a position. Our recruiting team can fill technical positions in 15 to 30 days, depending on the capabilities needed.<h2>Lower Staff Turnover</h2>The hidden costs of hiring the wrong candidate and replacing them can range from<a href="https://www.peoplekeep.com/blog/employee-retention-the-real-cost-of-losing-an-employee">&nbsp;six to nine months</a> of that employee’s salary. It also negatively impacts the company's efficiency and culture, with&nbsp;<a href="https://theundercoverrecruiter.com/cost-bad-hire-avoid/">research</a> showing that hiring the wrong person can reduce employee morale and productivity by 32% and 36%, respectively.Resources spent on recruiting, onboarding, and training are wasted if the company subsequently has to replace that worker.&nbsp; According to&nbsp;<a href="https://devskiller.com/attrition-rate-in-tech/">Devskill</a>, the technology industry’s high turnover rate (13.2%) exceeds that of any other industry (10.5% average).&nbsp;&nbsp;Our rigorous recruiting, hiring, and onboarding processes mean that workers are less likely to leave the job they’re hired for. We currently average employee tenure of around two years.Stateside’s CEO and founder, Alvaro Chacon, understands the need to minimize staff turnover, explaining the following:"Job seekers apply to several jobs simultaneously and then let the workplaces "compete" to offer the most competitive package.&nbsp; We have seen candidates accepting job offers from us but then getting multiple new offers during the onboarding period as they join our company."We understand that the job market is aggressive and that in the technology sector, job seekers and current team members are consistently receiving multiple offers trying to entice them to move to "greener pastures.""If the candidate is an active and talented job seeker, we assume they will receive multiple offers and understand that they will gravitate toward the ones that entice them most.&nbsp;"We address these challenges by understanding what drives each candidate in the different stages of the recruiting process.“For most candidates, salary is just one of the multiple elements driving job satisfaction. Other factors we consider are:<ul><li>Autonomy,&nbsp;</li><li>Flexibility,&nbsp;</li><li>Career Path,&nbsp;</li><li>Emotional Safety,&nbsp;</li><li>Benefits,&nbsp;</li><li>Belonging to a Team, and</li><li>Work-life Balance.&nbsp;</li></ul>“During our initial interviews, listening to what the candidate wants and practicing empathy allows us to understand the factors that are most important to them. This helps us determine whether we can offer a work environment that will enable them to thrive.”This approach can help to lower staff turnover, which saves our clients the hassle and cost of replacing talent. I recently wrote a post about&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/what-is-the-true-cost-of-replacing-an-employee/">the true cost of replacing an employee</a>. Check it out for more details.<h2>Robust&nbsp;Onboarding Process</h2>We understand that it is equally essential that the candidate is a good fit for the company and that the company and culture are a good fit for the candidate. We believe a fair and effective recruiting process comes from empathizing with the candidate, understanding what drives them, and ensuring we are a good match for each other.Companies with a well-designed onboarding process experience&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-100-hiring-statistics-2022-rinku-thakkar/">50% greater new-hire retention</a>.After a candidate accepts our offer and the offer letter is signed, we promptly prepare them to join our clients’ company by clearly explaining the onboarding process and introducing them to the team.The first day at a new workplace can be one of the most anxiety-inducing days in someone's career, so making them feel welcome is our top priority. The goal is for the new team member to immediately feel a sense of belonging, which can lead to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346453975_Sense_of_Belonging_and_Job_Satisfaction_on_Employee_Performance">higher job satisfaction</a> in new employees.<h2>Conclusion</h2>Ultimately, the value of our team members lies in their expertise in creating a great tech product for our customers. For this benefit to be delivered effectively and efficiently, we ensure that we source the best people and cultivate an environment that enables them to thrive.Our tech team members are carefully selected and trained to take pride in their work while we facilitate their seamless integration into our client's in-house teams.Like many business services, recruiting tech employees requires patience, skilled recruiters, and a fine-tuned process.We are confident in the value of the services we provide; the benefits that our clients gain from working with us are at the core of everything we do. For more information, go to our&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/faq/">FAQ page</a>, contact us to&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us/">schedule a discovery call</a>, or continue reading from our&nbsp;<a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/">blog</a>.&nbsp;Photo by Terry Vlisidis

3 Ways Stateside Staff Augmentation Benefits Your Business

We explore three ways that adding Stateside staff to your team can benefit your business, including access to suitable candidates, low staff turnover, and robust onboarding. Learn how Stateside staff augmentation can help your business succeed.

3 Ways Stateside Staff Augmentation Can Benefit Your Business

<h1>What is the True Cost of Replacing an Employee?</h1>If you are in a position where you manage people, I'm sure you have been in a situation where an employee has become so unmanageable that you had to make the decision to replace them. Or perhaps you have been in a situation where an employee has received an offer they couldn't refuse from another company.Employee replacement is not without a cost, and that cost can be very high. For this reason, it is imperative for companies to do their best to recruit and retain individuals whose interests align with their own.There are many reasons for organizations to care about keeping turnover to an absolute minimum. According to a Gallup study, employee turnover costs US businesses a trillion dollars annually.When measuring in monetary terms, the direct cost of replacing an employee can range from one-half to double their annual salary. But the price goes well beyond the dollar amount.Here at Stateside, we understand the true cost of employee replacement for your business. For this reason, not only do we make sure that we hire the right talent for your organization, but we also pay special attention to the retention rate and how we can help maximize it.So, what is the cost of replacing an employee?There are several aspects to consider when calculating the true cost of replacement:1. Recruitment Costs for a Full-time HireThe costs associated with finding the right person to hire can quickly add up.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If you are using a recruitment agency, a simple number to consider is the agency fee. This can typically be around 20% of the yearly salary of the new employee. If you have an internal hiring team, you have to consider the man-hours that your internal recruiter puts into the candidate search - writing job descriptions, screening resumes, scheduling and attending interviews, and doing background and reference checks, to name a few.Other direct costs include advertising the position, candidate assessment tools, and job board fees.2. Onboarding Costs of a New FTEOnboarding a new employee costs time and money. A successful onboarding process usually takes 90 days and will involve 40+ hours of internal work from start to finish. All these hours need to be considered when calculating the cost of hiring and replacing an employee.Other direct onboarding costs include investments in additional equipment such as computers, cell phones, and workstations.3. "Mis-Hires"&nbsp;When organizations rush to hire an employee or don't have proper screening processes in place, they can end up hiring a candidate that is not a good fit for the role or for their organization.Hiring the wrong person can be more damaging to productivity than not hiring at all. And it's expensive. In this instance, there are direct salary costs with little to no business contribution at all.4. The Impact on Employee Engagement&nbsp;When someone leaves a company, it can affect their co-workers and employee engagement in a negative way. This is more difficult to measure with concrete numbers but it's important to consider the impact that this factor will have on your team's productivity.5. The Detriment to your Employer BrandThis is an intangible cost, but a high staff turnover rate reflects poorly on your company's brand. Nobody wants to work for a company that nobody seems to want to work for.6. Loss of Organizational KnowledgeThere is inevitably a loss of organizational knowledge when an employee leaves a company. Even if they give sufficient notice of their departure, it is not possible to transfer all of the expertise and familiarity that comes with spending time at an organization. A big chunk of knowledge is lost in an instant when an employee leaves.So, how can we reduce employee turnover?Here are a few steps that can help an organization reduce employee turnover.1. Offer Competitive Salary and BenefitsOffering a competitive salary and benefits can help reduce employee turnover. Organizations must view a new hire as an investment for growth and improvement, not as a financial burden.2. Prioritize Company CultureCulture drives how employees interact and engage with their teams, their managers, and their clients. In a study of 5,000 respondents by Glassdoor, 77% of people said that they would take a company’s culture into account before applying for a job there, and over half consider it more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction. &nbsp;3. Invest in Employee DevelopmentEmployee development does not just concern the advancement of an individual's skillset for a particular task. Instead, employee development should involve an ongoing assessment of each employee's specific needs to allow for personalized continuous learning that empowers individuals to progress on their career path.4. Listen to EmployeesEmployees who know they are heard are more engaged and productive. Higher employee engagement leads to increased job satisfaction, which in turn lowers the turnover rate.Employee retention efforts should be at the forefront of your business strategy. You want to keep your best talent, make your organization an attractive place to work, and keep employee morale high while cutting down on the unnecessary costs, wasted time, and productivity losses associated with replacing an employee.Photo by Priscilla Du Preez

Employee replacement is not without a cost; and that cost can be very high. For this reason, it is imperative for companies to do their best to recruit and retain individuals whose interests align with their own.

What is the True Cost of Replacing an Employee? - Stateside

What is the True Cost of Replacing an Employee?

<h1>Staff Augmentation For Success</h1><h1>Part 2 of 2: Setting Your Team Up to Succeed</h1>In the first part of this series I discussed the importance of knowing the critical role you play in the staff augmentation process, especially when it comes to choosing the right staff augmentation agency. Hopefully you learned that you hold the keys to reaping the benefits of the staff augmentation model and can make an informed hiring strategy. By opting for staff augmentation, you will minimize dealing with freelancers who are often short term hires and ultimately less engaged.In this article I discuss the need to build the right team and how to make sure your team has everything it needs to succeed.<img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/img1_staff_aug_p2_e8f89ed23f.jpg" alt="img1-staff_aug-p2.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_img1_staff_aug_p2_e8f89ed23f.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_img1_staff_aug_p2_e8f89ed23f.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"><h2>Choose The Right Talent</h2>When you start working with a staff augmentation agency, they will present you with what you hope are ideal candidates–developers who have worked on other similar projects and have the right skills. Most staff augmentation agencies will already have interviewed your candidates for you, but the fact is that you know what you need better than anyone. Even if the candidate looks great on paper and is a long-time employee of the agency, it is still a good practice to conduct one or more additional interviews yourself before you bring them onto your team.Doing your own interviews gives the candidate an opportunity to know you better, too. Especially if it’s your first time working with a particular staff augmentation agency, do your due diligence and confirm their knowledge before you hire them.On the other hand, don’t just look for the right technical know-how unless you expect this to be just a short term engagement. If you expect this person to be on your team for a longer period then also consider soft skills and cultural fit. In general, you want someone who is proactive, friendly, professional, a good communicator, disciplined, and detail-oriented. Depending on your business you may have additional soft-skills that are important to you. As I mentioned in my last&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/10iKPRPjTP9zu3aC5HMOGBbnm9cPS6RGnre88cGGcyJw/edit">article</a>, take time to clarify these for yourself, your hiring team, and, depending on the skills, for the new hires.Finally, good talent might have multiple clients eager to hire them, and you’ll probably want them to stay for the long term, so don’t forget to sell your project to them. Explain why it’s exciting and how they will benefit from your project, maybe by working with an amazing team on an interesting project where they will improve their skills and follow best practices.<img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/img2_staff_aug_p2_e1485991fe.jpg" alt="img2-staff_aug-p2.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_img2_staff_aug_p2_e1485991fe.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_img2_staff_aug_p2_e1485991fe.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"><h2>Give Your Team What They Need To Succeed</h2>Once you have chosen the agency and the candidates that you want on your team, the next step is ensuring your new team has everything they need to succeed. This is harder than it might first appear. A good staff augmentation agency will provide significant support and oversight during onboarding and throughout, but you’ll still need to take some steps you would with any new employee.The first thing you need to do is make sure your new team members feel welcome and have a clear idea of what lies ahead. Introduce them to the existing team or, even better, let them introduce themselves and explain their role.Then have the other team members do the same. Include them in daily standups and other team meetings from day one so they learn who is who and how things are going to work. Encourage them to ask questions in meetings, emails, or in chats and to start contributing as soon as they see an opportunity.It is good practice to assign the new team members a buddy with whom they can immediately start to build a rapport and can go to with doubts or questions. The buddy does not have to be able to answer all the questions, but should be able to direct them to the person who can. The buddy should commit to assuring that the new addition has a clear path to solving any issues that they come up against. In well established teams, most of this should be documented as part of an onboarding package that new team members receive to help them get started more quickly.It’s your responsibility to confirm that your new staff clearly understand their role and what is expected of them. It’s also your responsibility to provide new team members with all the documentation, training, tools, networks, services, systems, and source code that they need to start work. You do not need to do this personally, but you should be sure someone has been clearly assigned that responsibility and that everyone knows the timeline.Ideally, the new team members will know who they can approach to get progress updates – and raise flags if they do not get what they need in a timely manner.Once the team member has been onboarded, your established project management processes should kick in. You should make sure your team follows the industry best practices for managing any remote team members, whether contractors or in-house. Remember that communication is key–break your project into small, clear, manageable tasks that can be assigned and tracked individually. This will help you more effectively monitor the progress of your project and the efficiency of your team members.<h2>Final Thoughts</h2>Staff augmentation offers clear advantages over other forms of outsourcing when you need to extend your team but do not want to add full time employees. Take some time to find a staff augmentation agency that will help you get the most out of outsourcing. Also, select these new team members as if you were hiring them directly.Most importantly, choosing the right talent counts for nothing if you do not give them the support and tools they need to succeed.

Why you need to build the right team and how to make sure your team has everything it needs to succeed.

Staff Augmentation For Success: Setting Your Team Up For Success

Staff Augmentation For Success - Part 2 of 2: Setting Your Team Up to Succeed

<h1>Staff Augmentation For Success</h1><h1>Part 1 of 2: You Drive the Outcome</h1>Staff augmentation is a type of outsourcing in which you extend your company’s internal team temporarily or for extended periods, by essentially “borrowing” specialized employees from other companies. Many of these other companies are dedicated staff augmentation agencies whose business model is hiring great people, working with other businesses, and placing this selected talent on their clients teams.This approach has many benefits for the clients compared to, say, hiring new full time employees or freelancers. You free yourself by handing over most administrative hiring details to the staff augmentation agency. You can also have more confidence that the person you are hiring is good at what they do because they are vetted. The candidates you receive from the staff augmentation agency will usually have already gone through a rigorous hiring process. You don’t need to worry about insurance, benefits, or any other strings attached to hiring a new employee in-house. And, finally, your turnover will be less than if you hired freelancers.Even so, the staff augmentation approach is not without its hazards. In this two-part series, I’ll offer some tips to help you be more successful when growing your teams using staff augmentation services. I focus on software development teams specifically, but most tips are applicable to any industry.All my advice hinges on one fact: you are the most important element in the staff augmentation model. You share equal responsibility with the developers and staff augmentation partners for making this model work. Once you know your part, you’ll have the foundation to build the right team and give them everything they need to succeed.&nbsp;Too many companies seem to suffer from the delusion that if they just hire the right people then everything will fall into place. The truth is, your teams will only produce good results if they know exactly what results are expected. And all expectations start with you. You need to be clear about what you are looking for and to communicate when those expectations change. This is as true for the staff augmentation model as it is for working with freelancers and building your team in-house.In addition to finding engineers who have mastered the technology, you need to ensure that the team also has good quality control and project management. Do not try to cut corners. And, finally, be sure that they have clear instructions and an appropriate set of tools for coordinating their work with the rest of the team.<img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/img1_staff_aug_p1_353aec3414.jpg" alt="img1-staff_aug-p1.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_img1_staff_aug_p1_353aec3414.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_img1_staff_aug_p1_353aec3414.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"><h2>Choose The Right Staff Augmentation Firm</h2>Not all staff augmentation firms are alike. Choosing the right one is more important than you might at first realize. You need to do your due diligence when choosing a staff augmentation agency. The benefits of the staff augmentation model are clear, but it will only bear fruit if you choose a provider that takes an active interest in the success of their clients.Some agencies take a larger role in onboarding their talent to your team. They will ensure the new recruits have the necessary hardware and software to get started, and will pay close attention to ensure that you are giving your new recruit what they most need to succeed: clear instructions and access to the systems they will be working with.Some will be more diligent than others about verifying your project management processes are suitably mature (i.e., efficient, refined, tested) and will maximize the likelihood of success. Be prepared to share some of your internal project management tools and processes with them. They will want to know that you have a clear plan and follow good practices when writing and tracking tasks. If you don't have a clear vision of what you want from your new staff then the agency will have no way to measure their success. A good agency will raise concern if a clear vision is not in place.Some will be more active in ensuring your experience with their talent is positive. Expect your staff augmentation agency to request regular short meetings to get feedback on the people they have on your team. Do not be surprised to receive feedback from them too on your internal processes and any red flags that might be preventing you from getting the most out of your team(s).The fact is, many companies that use staff augmentation services do so because they are likely to see less turnover and more engagement from the people they add to their teams. The natural first step then is to look for a firm that takes pride in its staff, has solid recruiting procedures, demonstrates a compelling retention plan, and provides support during the onboarding of any new additions to your team. All these factors will improve your chances for a successful engagement. Don’t hesitate to ask them about some of the points I’ve raised here and make sure they have policies that put your success first.Finally, any staff augmentation agency that takes itself seriously will not charge you anything if you are not happy with your new team member(s) within the first few weeks. This shows you the agency is confident in its processes and staff.Look out for my second article where I detail how to choose the right people and prepare them for success.

Staff augmentation is a type of outsourcing in which you extend your company’s internal team temporarily or for extended periods, by essentially “borrowing” specialized employees from other companies

Staff Augmentation For Success: Driving The Outcome

Staff Augmentation For Success - Part 1 of 2: You Drive the Outcome

<h1 style="margin-left:0px;">Not another ‘hiring in-house vs offshoring’ blog post</h1>Let’s talk about an even better option than hiring in-house or offshoring to expand your team: nearshoring, a type of outsourcing involving <a href="https://stateside.agency/blog/3-types-of-product-development-outsourcing-compared/">hiring from a nearby country</a>. Here are 5 reasons why nearshoring is the “happy middle” that your US-based tech business needs:<h2>1. Budget</h2>It is no surprise that wages in the US are among the highest globally, making in-house, local hiring much more expensive than offshoring. Offshoring costs are limited to the hourly rate of the developer, which removes administrative costs and labor from the hiring/firing equation and can make offshoring more cost-effective. However, in-house hiring is more attractive for employees seeking long-term jobs since the employer usually takes on responsibilities such as legal documentation, insurance, paid time off, and equipment. This is where nearshoring comes in. Staff augmentation agencies help you from both sides: the hourly rates are almost as low as offshoring, while also covering most, if not all of, the same employer responsibilities for the candidates as they would for in-house.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">2. Recruitment efficiency</h2>Having a staff augmentation agency as a partner allows you to constantly request talent acquisition without the costs of full-time or in-house tech recruiters. Aside from recruitment, these agencies are constantly optimizing their processes to achieve seamless integration when building outsourced digital teams. To achieve that level of integration for both companies and the talent, these agencies offer a secure hiring structure, a supported onboarding process, and an evolving retention strategy. With these factors off your plate, you can focus on your business.<img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/stateside_blog_offshoring_img_f75cda3638.jpg" alt="stateside_blog-offshoring-img.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_stateside_blog_offshoring_img_f75cda3638.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_stateside_blog_offshoring_img_f75cda3638.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">3. Diversity</h2>Working with people from other countries can bring a diversity of skills, perspectives, and cultural insights into your business. But hiring foreign talent with offshore, in-house, or freelance models can take considerable time, know-how, and resources to properly handle migratory and other geographical factors. One benefit nearshoring offers is access to multicultural and international tech talent that has been filtered to comply with your hiring needs. Some of these filters include: proper internet access, English language assessment, experience working remotely, cultural affinity, migratory or visa status (i.e., availability to travel into and out of the US if needed), compliance with the labor laws of the other countries, and proof that salary payments can go through between countries.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">4. Work schedule</h2>The time zone differences with offshoring can create challenges with holding engineers accountable and available simultaneously. This inherent difficulty might lead to thinking that in-house hiring is the only option to ensure all your team is working on the same schedule. With nearshoring, it’s easy to have your whole team one ping away, especially for last-minute changes or meetings. Due to geographical proximity, nearshoring offers a 60% to 100% working schedule overlap, similar to how it would feel if your team worked in the same building, at the same time, but on another floor.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">5. Remote era</h2>2020 saw a huge leap for businesses to venture into the remote work model. The tech industry benefited greatly from this shift, especially in terms of budget and productivity. Remote work has become the industry’s new normal. Even before this change, some staff augmentation agencies had adapted to this mode, making it easy for them to help companies retain employees by building remote teams.These are 5 reasons why nearshoring can be highly powerful for your business. The internet will keep evolving and so will companies’ online needs–staff augmentation agencies make adapting easy. If you’re curious to expand your team with this model, here are 5 additional advantages of partnering with us, Stateside, for staff augmentation:<ul><li>Nearly a decade of experience working remotely with proven success.</li><li>Fully available tech-recruitment experts allocated across the Americas.</li><li>An HR team is fully engaged to be in compliance with the labor laws of all countries.</li><li>Personalized tech and additional filters based on your talent needs.</li><li>We have vendors throughout the Americas ready to deliver any required hardware to the teams.</li></ul>Learn more and stay tuned at <a href="http://stateside.agency/">stateside.agency</a>.Photos by Brooke Cagle and Annie Spratt

The best option to expand your team: Nearshoring, a type of outsourcing involving hiring from a nearby country.

Nearshoring: The Happy Medium Between Hiring In-House And Offshoring

Not another ‘hiring in-house vs offshoring’ blog post

<h1 style="margin-left:0px;">Remote Work is the New Norm, Here’s How to Do it Well</h1>As many of us experienced, at the beginning of the pandemic employers and employees weren’t prepared to go fully remote. But after the initial shock, and thanks to technology, remote work not only became feasible, but also benefited companies and their teams. Turns out remote work wasn’t so scary after all.And the changes are not only related to the work from home option. Today, more employers are embracing flexible schedules for their remote teams leading to an overall feeling of satisfaction.A <a href="https://findstack.com/remote-work-statistics/">recent post</a> by Jack Steward for the site, findstack.com, compiles several major research groups’ 2022 remote work statistics. Taken as a whole, these metrics paint a picture of our new work-from-home norm and offer insights into what’s to come for remote work.To briefly summarize Steward’s findings, 16% of companies in the world are 100% remote while 77% of remote workers claim that they are more productive through a working from home methodology. The main reason why people choose to work remotely is because it allows them to have a better work-life balance. I’ll give some pointers below on how you can find this balance.Moreover, the average annual income of remote workers is $4,000 higher than other workers. This is perhaps one reason why 74% of employees say that having the option to work remotely would make them less likely to leave a company.While 85% of managers believe that teams with remote workers is becoming the new norm, it’s important to note that 44% of companies don’t allow remote work. My conversations with colleagues and recent articles confirm that many employers are calling people back into the office as the pandemic subsides. There are also challenges with this new way of working. Some of the most common reported are: not being able to unplug after work (22%), feeling lonely (19%), and communication (17%).According to an <a href="https://resources.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work/2020">Owl Labs report</a>, 16% of companies in the world are 100% remote. While that is still a relatively low percentage, it reminds us that companies can and do operate 100% remotely with no office or headquarters whatsoever. We know, too, that remote work is <a href="https://www.northone.com/blog/small-business/remote-work-statistics">steadily trending up</a>, indicating that this tendency will continue in the coming years. The chart below, adapted from the findstack.com post, underscores the growth of remote work.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Remote Work Growth Trends</h2><figure class="image"><img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/stateside_blog_wfh_img_1_c28b8ba9c8.jpg" alt="stateside_blog-wfh-img-1.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_stateside_blog_wfh_img_1_c28b8ba9c8.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_stateside_blog_wfh_img_1_c28b8ba9c8.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure>While 85% of managers believe that teams with remote workers is becoming the new norm, it’s important to note that 44% of companies don’t allow remote work. My conversations with colleagues and recent articles also confirm that many employers are calling people back into the office as the pandemic subsides.Working from home has many advantages, but, in my experience, it also brings challenges. Some of the most common reported in the sources mentioned above are: not being able to unplug after work (22%), feeling lonely (19%), and communication (17%).I mention these findings and statistics to show that as remote work is increasingly becoming the norm, it’s more important than ever that we learn how to work well from home (or wherever your new “office” may be). Here are my personal tips and some of the best I’ve found through <a href="https://hbr.org/">my own exploration of expert advice</a> to help you increase your efficiency when working from home.<figure class="image"><img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/stateside_blog_wfh_img_2_2e19fa2c98.jpg" alt="stateside_blog-wfh-img-2.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_stateside_blog_wfh_img_2_2e19fa2c98.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_stateside_blog_wfh_img_2_2e19fa2c98.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Set up a dedicated work area</h2>If you’re going to spend a lot of time at home, make sure you have a designated space where you can focus.. This might mean setting up a desk in a spare bedroom or using a corner of the kitchen table as your workspace. Choose what best works for you.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Maintain a regular schedule</h2>Studies show that working remotely is most effective when you keep a regular schedule, especially outside of the office. A good routine structures your day and helps you stay motivated. I recommend starting your day as you would if you worked in an office: Get up early, get dressed in work-appropriate clothes, and turn on do-not-disturb to avoid online distractions once you sit down to work. Whether you just started working at home or you’ve been doing it for months, if you’re struggling with productivity, take a few weeks to find the best rhythm for your day. Then make a schedule and stick to it.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Take breaks</h2>It might seem counterintuitive, but if you find yourself getting overwhelmed at work during the day, take a break. Short rest periods allow you to recharge and refocus. I like to take walks outside, listen to music, or something else entirely unrelated to work.In addition to breaks throughout the day, give yourself permission to have downtime. For example, if you have to work extra hours on a project, take some extra free time later that day or that week(end) to compensate.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Stay organized</h2>It can be easy to lose focus when working remotely. To stay focused, make sure you have everything you need to do your job. Keep your workspace clean and clutter free so you can easily see what needs to be done next. The same rules apply for your digital workspace: set up your computer with the right tools so you can quickly access files and documents.And if it helps, write out an agenda for the day and put it in view to help you stay on track.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Manage your time wisely</h2>Prioritize your tasks and set aside time each day to work on projects that will benefit your business and professional development. This means planning out your week ahead, scheduling meetings, and reviewing your goals each week. If you find yourself distracted by other tasks, try using a timer to limit how much time you spend on each activity.It’s also important to set realistic expectations for what you can accomplish on a daily basis. When we cut out the time spent commuting, packing lunch, or picking out the right office-appropriate outfit, it can feel like we have tons of extra time in our day and should be able to get a lot more done. While working from home does often increase productivity, we can still only do so much in a day.<figure class="image"><img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/stateside_blog_wfh_img_3_15e5e57d97.jpg" alt="stateside_blog-wfh-img-3.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_stateside_blog_wfh_img_3_15e5e57d97.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_stateside_blog_wfh_img_3_15e5e57d97.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Create Your own Healthy Work Culture</h2>To avoid some of the pitfalls of working from home, it’s key to create a healthy remote work culture. Harvard Business Review recommends meeting up with colleagues and peers to talk shop when possible so you don’t become isolated.Set healthy boundaries around when you will and won’t be offline, remembering to communicate when you are or are not available to your colleagues and bosses.Lastly, stay positive and be clear about what your motivations are so that you can keep your at-home work culture positive and healthy. This will lead you to a better performance overall. It is very important for you to focus on what you’ve accomplished at the end of each day to keep yourself motivated. Take a moment to write down what you did, share it with a friend or colleague, or whatever else you need to mark the accomplishment. Be sure to celebrate your wins!To sum up, as technology advances and an increasing number of companies realize the benefits of allowing employees to work away from the office it seems undeniable that remote work is here to stay. Try these tips to make your experience working remotely more efficient, positive, and conducive to your professional development.Photos by Bojitha Wimalasiri, Surface and Bojitha Wimalasiri

Remote work has not only became feasible, but also benefited companies and their teams. Turns out remote work wasn’t so scary after all. Remote Work is the New Norm, and here’s How to Do it Well

Remote Work And How to Do It Well

Remote Work is the New Norm, Here’s How to Do it Well

<h1>Hertz Frequencies &amp; the Silva Method</h1><h2>Frequencies for Focus</h2>I’m picky about the music I listen to while working as a full stack developer for Stateside. Rather than a particular genre, mood, or artist, I&nbsp; tune the digital dials to music with a specific frequency, 528 Hz to be exact. As a quick primer–named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, hertz is the unit of measurement for the number of sound waves per second or the sound frequency. A song with higher hertz has more sound waves per second than one with a lower frequency. Compared to the 440 Hz frequency of most songs, 528 hertz create resonances in our physical body and mind that allow us to get in tune with ourselves.&nbsp; I notice the impact these resonances have on my job performance–I’m more focused, relaxed, and effective as a result. The calming effect is no surprise; outside of work, I also listen to 528 Hz frequency music during meditation.&nbsp;&nbsp;I’m one of a growing number of people who take advantage of these effects. Today, listening to instrumentals or sounds in certain frequency ranges is common. The goal of frequency-specific music is to provide a tool for improved concentration and efficiency at work or while studying. Research shows that different hertz can also help the mind enter a relaxed state. And when we’re relaxed, we absorb and retain information better, have sharper focus, and use our time more effectively.&nbsp;&nbsp;Using Hertz frequencies to shift mental states relates to what’s known as “the Silva Method.” Named for its creator, José Silva, the method claims that altering our brain waves from beta to alpha (between 7 and 14 Hz) can improve our IQs, help us heal, and even promote the development of supersensory capacities, e.g., clairvoyance. In the 1940s, Silva began experimenting with ways to improve his children’s school performance. He instructed them to close their eyes, to relax, and from there they began to read and review the material, and thanks to this his children learned faster than they would have if they were in a less relaxed state of mind, called Beta. Noticing the method’s positive effect on his children, Silva marketed the method publicly in the 1960s and began working with people who wanted to use the method for their personal benefit.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Silva Method suggests several mental exercises focused on entering hypnosis or semi-hypnotic states: relaxation, closing your eyes, listening to background frequency, and gamma waves. Through these exercises, your mind enters “Alpha” (from alpha waves), helping you to concentrate, learn, and work better.&nbsp;Though the exact science of Silva’s method is still up for debate, what’s not is just how important nervous system regulation is to cognition, health, emotions, and overall quality of life. Ultimately, frequency modulation is a valuable tool for regulating the nervous system and our body’s stress response. Today, we can get many of the Silva Method’s benefits by listening to specific frequencies. If you’re interested in trying it out, here are some alpha waves in action:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrSFLyp9yM8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrSFLyp9yM8</a>.<figure class="image"><img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/stateside_blog_frequencies_img_acf390d62d.jpg" alt="stateside_blog-frequencies-img.jpg" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_stateside_blog_frequencies_img_acf390d62d.jpg 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_stateside_blog_frequencies_img_acf390d62d.jpg 500w," sizes="100vw"></figure>As with so many jobs, programming can be very stressful. I listen to this type of music most of the day. I change the frequencies and adjust what I listen to depending on what I'm doing or what effect I’d like to achieve. Listening to this type of music on low in the background reduces my stress without even having to actively engage with the music.But let’s be real, it’s not just work that’s stressful, it’s life these days.&nbsp; I first started listening to this type of music not for work, but for meditation during the pandemic. Although I&nbsp; like to exercise, and this helped me unwind,I also wanted to relax with yoga and stretching. For me, listening to this music soothed some of the loneliness and stress we were all experiencing. I now recommend using the frequencies during yoga, relaxation or meditation, and breathwork.I live by the philosophy that everything is interrelated;using frequencies is just one part of a holistic system to help our minds and bodies.&nbsp;If you’re curious, check out a sample of the frequency channels I listen to here:&nbsp; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Tt3LoygCQ.">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Tt3LoygCQ.</a>&nbsp;Photos from Hans Jenny cymatics experiments.

Hertz Frequencies & the Silva Method - Frequencies for Focus

Hertz Frequencies And The Silva Method Frequencies For Focus

Hertz Frequencies & the Silva Method

<h1 style="margin-left:0px;">What You need to know about Cryptocurrency</h1>From Bitcoin to The Metaverse* *This article is based on my own research and experience. I adhere to and implore you to follow the axiom: DYOR (Do Your Own Research). Avoid scams; be wary of people who invent and publish theories to persuade unsuspecting investors to put money in bad (not profitable) crypto assets. Make your own decisions based on your own research.To understand the current state of cryptocurrency assets and how the movement became so huge, we need to look back to 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, the “original cryptocurrency.” Nakamoto’s vision for the first blockchain currency promised a revolution against the banks and financial institutions who controlled and took commissions on any payment they processed.&nbsp;Since Nakamoto’s invention, the decentralized blockchain technology behind Bitcoin gave rise to another 20,000 cryptocurrencies. Likewise, a vast blockchain industry has emerged comprising cryptocurrency wallets (hot and cold), cryptocurrency exchanges, NFT (non-fungible token) markets, virtual land aggregators, decentralized autonomous organizations, and value and reserve funds. In the last two years, the business world has changed in response to the rise of crypto. Companies increasingly offer to pay employees in crypto assets. Paying salaries in crypto lets the employee receive their salary anywhere in the world, whenever they want, without bank approval or processing.&nbsp;A maximum of 21 million Bitcoins can be issued, and we are already at roughly 19 million. As opposed to traditional currencies, Bitcoin is a finite asset, and therefore inherently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/inflationary-and-deflationary-cryptocurrencies-whats-the-difference/">deflationary</a>: each coin’s relative value will increase as the overall availability of coins decreases. In consumer terms, as the number of Bitcoins goes down, Bitcoin owners could theoretically buy more with each coin than when they initially purchased them.&nbsp;In 2011, Bitcoin cost $1, it rose to $1,000 in 2013, then $20,000 in 2017, and, in early 2022, reached $70,000.<img src="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/crypto_blog_grey_2_61fe0d187e.png" alt="crypto blog -grey - 2.png" srcset="https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_crypto_blog_grey_2_61fe0d187e.png 245w,https://stateside-website-images-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/small_crypto_blog_grey_2_61fe0d187e.png 500w," sizes="100vw">Yet Bitcoin has its limits. Bitcoin is ultimately a payment system and, as a digital currency, operates as a store of monetary value. Recognizing these limits, in 2013, Vitalik Buterin expanded the possibilities of blockchain technologies when he conceived Ethereum. Launched two years later, in 2015, Ethereum offered a proprietary, decentralized blockchain, its own token, and a programming language.Ethereum sparked the next generation of cryptocurrencies and expanded crypto from just a simple payment system. Now, developers have the tools to create entire blockchain programs, known as “smart contracts,” which are automatically executed when trying to interact with the blockchain. Similar to any paper contract, blockchain, “smart” contracts can be used to take out a mortgage or loan, or to trade stocks or bonds. They operate through digital rules, i.e., pieces of code that automatically execute actions if the smart contract meets certain parameters.Following the development of Ethereum, in 2018 the price of crypto began to surge. At this point, multimillion-dollar companies started seeing and seizing the opportunities of crypto. Developers, investors, and companies now wondered: Is it possible, even necessary to replace the traditional financial system with a decentralized version? And they saw blockchain as the way to bring about a new system of DeFi (Decentralized Finance).DeFi offers advantages over centralized financial systems. DeFi is more efficient, eliminating intermediaries and making processing financial transactions more fluid. Crucially, DeFi costs less: The commissions typical centralized finance organizations take are often much higher than in DeFi applications. With the lower costs and fewer intermediaries, industry leaders–<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-endorses-defi-cryptocurrencies-150945035.html">Elon Musk</a>, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/09/29/binance-ceo-says-he-fully-expects-defi-to-cannibalize-his-crypto-exchange/">Changpeng Zhao</a>, and <a href="https://www.newswise.com/articles/rutgers-expert-explains-defi">Merav Ozair, Ph.D.</a>, to name a few–now view DeFi as a more open and democratic financial system.But DeFi is not just for billionaires. DeFi’s openness means anyone with internet access can use DeFi applications without opening a bank account, providing financial tools to the roughly two billion people globally without ties to banks. For the first time in the history of modern finance, people can contract loans and insurance, invest and make derivatives, crowdfund, and even bet without having a bank account. If you’re curious to make the leap yourself, but find yourself tied up with banks, rest assured, it’s never too late to “<a href="https://mission.org/mission-daily/unbank-yourself-with-alex-mashinsky/">Unbank Yourself</a>.”For example, let’s say you want to raise funds for a charitable cause. In today’s centralized system, you have to use a third-party crowdfunding platform to collect funds from donors. Additionally, all parties–you (the fundraiser), the donors, and the charitable organization — need bank accounts (or credit cards tied to bank accounts) to move any money. When you reach the funding goal, you then extract them from the platform, transfer them to a bank account, and deliver them to the charity. On the other hand, the DeFi (crypto) system eliminates all intermediaries, the banks as well as the SWIFT system, the third-party platforms, and payment gateways. The fundraising happens directly with the smart contract. Upon reaching the funding goal, the contract would automatically send the money as crypto assets from the person raising money to the charitable foundation.Similarly, loans become easier and more direct in DeFi systems. Processing any loan with a traditional financial institution requires completing and signing what can feel like countless forms. Then you need to wait for approval, hoping to be one of the people the lender chooses as “suitable” for the loan. By contrast, in DeFi, as long as users offer adequate collateral to the lender, anyone with an internet connection can get a loan in seconds. Though both traditional and DeFI loans use collateral and are an exchange between two parties, DeFi loans differ in two ways: they are anonymous and do not involve physical property as collateral. Any crypto token can be exchanged as collateral for borrowed cryptocurrency. Smart contracts then facilitate transferring or depositing the currency equal to the loan amount.Today we see the possibilities of crypto being explored on the “metaverse,” a platform aimed at connecting people to a virtual reality paralleling the “real world.” In the metaverse, you can shop, buy a virtual apartment, or get together with friends. Observers and experts estimate that the metaverse will ultimately generate twice as many jobs as the total number created today, all of which can be remote.

What You need to know about Cryptocurrency - From Bitcoin to The Metaverse

What You Need To Know About Cryptocurrency

What You need to know about Cryptocurrency

<h1 style="margin-left:0px;">3 Types Of Product Development Outsourcing Compared</h1>High-growth companies need to keep developing their digital platforms while also managing resources. So what do you do when the budget gets tight, team members reach the limits of their skill and the available talent pool is too expensive? In my experience, companies at this juncture should consider outsourcing, but first, need to ask:1. Is outsourcing right for my business?2. What type of outsourcing will fit our current and future needs?3. How do we start integrating outsourcing into our hiring strategy?To help you answer these questions, I’ve explained here the three types of outsourcing. With this knowledge, you can effectively strategize why, when and what you should or should not outsource.Outsourcing 101I divide outsourcing into three categories:<ol><li>Local: Hiring through a staff augmentation agency in your home country. (I use the United States as the model here as it’s what I know best.)</li><li>Nearshore: Hiring in countries that are in similar time zones or share a border with your company’s headquarters.</li><li>Offshore: Hiring in countries geographically distant from your company’s base.</li></ol>The key differences between the types of outsourcing are geographic proximity, time zones and cultural similarities. Offshoring and nearshoring involve staffing from countries other than where your business has its headquarters or where the internal team works or lives. I separate nearshoring from offshoring because, while both are forms of “offshoring,” they have distinct benefits and challenges.All outsourcing differs from hiring freelancers because a freelancer works for themselves, while an “outsourced” employee works for the company, staff augmentation agency or both. You can technically outsource freelancers, but I’ll only be discussing outsourcing through an agency.Hiring LocalOne of the biggest benefits of hiring through a U.S. agency, in my experience, is cultural affinity. Hiring with a local agency provides the highest likelihood that your team and the outsourced staff will align in areas such as language, social norms and etiquette. While cultural affinity is unique to every business, generally a U.S. company can expect staff hired through a U.S. agency to speak English, for example, and have similar understandings of U.S. laws and the workplace.Hiring in the U.S. also brings logistic and bureaucratic benefits: U.S. employees will be legally liable, it’s easier to meet them in person, and they are likely to work in your same time zone. This detail can be a huge advantage in workflow and communication.The downside of outsourcing locally? Cost. Typical hourly rates for U.S. developers range from $150 to $250. The hiring process also tends to be slow, in part because it can be hard to find a solid agency or talent pool.OffshoreCost is the main benefit of hiring offshore: hourly rates in parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, for example, tend to be between $15 to $45, a fraction of a U.S. developer’s rate. But as appealing as it is to save money, offshoring can come with non-financial costs. After all, it was Bill Gates who said, “a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.”If hiring offshore, keep in mind potential communication challenges. It’s probably no surprise that getting messages across effectively can prove difficult when teams work in very different time zones. You might not get an answer in real time unless you put energy into finding overlaps in your working hours or you ask one team to work irregular hours. Members of offshore teams may also speak other languages than many of your in-house employees or your clients. Lastly, the distance simply makes it very hard to meet in person. I’ve seen that accountability can suffer, especially deadlines, simply because you and your development team are in different countries.NearshoreFor my business and clients, nearshoring is the goldilocks outsourcing solution. In the U.S., nearshoring typically entails hiring from countries within the Americas. The hourly rates I’ve seen for developers in Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia, for instance, range from $45 to $90. As with U.S. (“local”) outsourced teams, if the nearshore agency has operations in the U.S., all developers you hire through them should be fully insured and all agreements covered under U.S. laws.Communication is easier with nearshore teams than offshore since many Central and South American countries are in similar time zones as the U.S. Likewise, it’s relatively easy to travel between the U.S. and this region. You can not only meet your outsourced teams in person, but also—and this is my favorite perk—network and explore these close, yet international, destinations. As is to be expected, the culture, language, norms and talent pools vary from country to country, even city to city within a country. It’s important to do your homework and find the right fit for your business.The Bottom LineOutsourcing works well when you need to scale or fill skills gaps, but can’t, or don’t want to, expand your in-house team. You can use all three outsourcing methods, but keep in mind each type has different requirements and processes. Pick one to start with, then adapt as your staffing needs change.

Your company should consider outsourcing once the budget gets tight, team members reach the limits of their skill and the available talent pool is too expensive.

3 Types Of Product Development Outsourcing Compared

<h1 style="margin-left:0px;">Staff Augmentation Agreement: What to Expect</h1> The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to accelerate their digital presence. Businesses had to quickly adapt to serve customers digitally, while also transitioning their internal communications to virtual environments. With these changes, companies increasingly needed to hire talent who could develop and maintain all these new digital parts of the business. In times like these, staff augmentation agencies provide a vital resource for companies to rapidly fill their IT talent gaps.According to<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/189788/global-outsourcing-market-size/"> Statistica</a>, pre-pandemic, the international outsourcing market represented $92.5 billion. During the pandemic, the IT staff augmentation industry ballooned to $132.9 billion. While international spending on outsourcing recruitment also increased–from $15 billion in 2019 to $18 billion in 2020–these numbers pale in comparison to staff augmentation.If you decide, or have decided, to partner with <a href="https://stateside.agency/">Stateside</a> (or another agency) for your staffing needs, it’s crucial to consider the legal agreements between your company and the staffing agency. You need to ensure your data and company are protected in case of a dispute.<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Key Components of a Staff Augmentation Agreement:</h2>Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA): An NDA creates a confidential relationship between two parties and prevents them from sharing information with outsiders.Non-Compete Clause: This clause states that an employee or client must not enter into competition–generally meaning not doing business with, or becoming employed by a company in direct competition with the contracting business–after the employment period is over. Staff augmentation contracts usually specify a time period in which the contracted party, whether employee or company, is barred from working with a competitor.Scope of Work: The scope clause is among the most important contract terms. It should clearly explain the obligations and duties each party is contractually bound to fulfill. Writing it requires attention to every detail about the services your developer and the vendor will provide. Even if you and the vendor had prior conversations about what services will be performed, it is essential to spell out the responsibilities in the legal agreement. Should the need arise, these details help a judge, arbitrator, mediator, or other person resolving a dispute discern whether a given party fulfilled their obligations.Compensation Agreement and Payment Terms: The staff augmentation contract lists how much payment the vendor will receive and when. As with all contract terms, the more detailed it is, the clearer it will be for the parties and anyone interpreting the contract in case of a dispute.Modifications or Change Orders: Often, the need arises to modify, or amend, the terms of the contract. A clause that states how modifications may occur will help avoid, and if need be, resolve any disputes about whether subsequent discussions between parties changed the contract terms. The best practice is requiring that any modifications be made by written agreement between the parties. Usually, a change of order is no more than a 1- or 2-page document and gives the flexibility to address changes to the original agreement, helping minimize paperwork.Termination Clause: It’s important to include a termination clause because, as we know, sometimes relationships don’t go as planned. This is a standard clause that sets the duration for a commercial agreement and the rights of one or more parties to terminate the agreement early. This can also include standardized language addressing contract renewal, and post-termination obligations.Ownership of Work Product: This is a provision stating clearly who owns the intellectual property rights in the work product. Keep in mind that in many circumstances the intellectual property rights at issue are so complex they require an entirely separate agreement or addendum to the agreement.ConclusionVendor contracts may not be top of mind when you are creating, growing your business, or researching a solution, yet these contracts ensure uninterrupted workflow in your operation. Being conscious of these essential elements in vendor contracts builds a strong foundation for your business to operate smoothly.And whether you are hiring one developer or a full team under the staff augmentation model, it’s important to find a trusted legal counsel who understands your company’s values and brand. Your legal council will be your ally, communicating your terms and conditions in third-party business relationships.Lastly, sending a contract shows an organization cares about having a detailed record of a relationship and is a sign of their commitment to that relationship. Everything from wording to negotiations gives each party an idea of how the other functions. Demonstrating the solidity of a company’s brand and values starts with a carefully laid out contract.

Key Components of a Staff Augmentation Agreement: Consider the legal agreements between your company and the staffing agency

What To Expect From A Staff Augmentation Agreement

Staff Augmentation Agreement: What to Expect

<h1>Building Your Digital Platform: Who To Hire And When</h1>One of the biggest challenges I see companies face when building digital platforms is uncertainty over hiring. In my experience, issues with hiring often arise when companies view development unilaterally and hire developers too soon. Hiring developers early is a little like bringing in a general contractor to construct before an architect even draws up blueprints. A more effective approach? Consider development in phases and hire accordingly.To help you adopt this approach and assess your hiring needs, I’ve outlined a three-phase development process based roughly on a typical startup. I’ve used this model in my company to navigate and, most importantly, optimize the development process for our clients. I’m giving you my top advice on the goals at each phase and how to hire the talent needed to level up in your development phase.<h2>Phase One: From Idea To Proof Of Concept</h2>In phase one, you may have an idea of your startup and business model, but it’s still mostly in your head or jotted down here and there. You don’t have a clear vision yet. You are not sure exactly how your platform will look or what its features will be.<h4>Your Goal:</h4>Create a prototype. You need a great prototype to prove your business model, gather feedback from potential users, secure early funding and move to phase two.<h4>Hiring Needs:</h4>You generally do not need a developer now. While some developers can help prototype, you won’t be maximizing their talents. My advice: Hire a prototyping specialist, such as a UX/UI specialist or graphic designer with experience using software such as Figma, Invision or Typeform. You’ll always save time and money hiring someone to do a job within their realm of expertise.<h2>Phase Two: Minimum Viable Product (MVP) And Bootstrapping</h2>You have proved your business model by this phase, received positive feedback on your proof of concept and maybe even secured funding! During this phase, you'll need to assess your budget, align your goals with your budget and create a technology road map.<h4>Your Goal:</h4>Start building.<h4>Hiring Needs:</h4>At this point, a good developer is a must—possibly even a development team. Your budget and goals will determine whether you hire for the short or long term. A company in phase two should also make sure their staffing plan includes an expert (or experts) who can implement a quality control process. Lastly, explore code repositories with version control, which ensures the company owns the code and can access it at any time.<h4>Additional Considerations:</h4>If your budget is tight, but you want to get a product out, then hire for a short-term solution. You can bring in freelance developers or a small development team for project-based work. Most freelancers you hire should know WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Bubble.is and/or Squarespace. But remember, building with a third-party platform means you could face issues later with scalability, portability and security. Plan ahead!Keep in mind that while freelancers are more cost-effective upfront and often great coders, you brought them in for the near term, which might keep your platform from future scaling. Unlike internal, long-term hires, freelancers generally don’t interpret your business needs, project-manage, solve business problems or consider marketing and SEO.If you have the funds, consider hiring for the long term and building your internal team. You can create an in-house staff, or depending on your budget and initial team’s technical expertise, you might want to outsource some tasks to help expedite and reduce costs. Along with developers, a fractional CTO and product manager can aid your progress in this phase.Whether hiring for the short or long term, you still need to plan and budget for additional future development. The solution that worked in phase one may not be right for future phases. Know that it’s common to rebuild your codebase from scratch when you scale. Stay adaptable; your digital platform will only help your business grow if it keeps functioning and meets users' needs as technology changes. My rule: $1 invested in planning saves $10 in building your product and $100 once the product is built.<h2>Phase Three: Startup With A Solid Online Presence</h2>You’ve now secured angel, seed and/or other investment, your platform works and you have a solid online presence. The good news is you already laid the groundwork for phase three development needs in phases one and two. Your work now is to keep the machine running and ensure you have the right team to do it.<h4>Your Goal:</h4>Build a team set for the long term.<h4>Hiring Needs:</h4>The main objective now is to consolidate a permanent team similar to the one for your MVP. In this phase, I recommend hiring a full-time product manager and a strong technical lead or architect. They’ll help establish a technology road map, make a clear workflow and release process, set up quality assurance and control measures and create redundancies. And, crucially, the right team will make sure you own your code, and they’ll host it in a reputable repository with version control. Your budget now should also include hiring marketing and SEO experts. Lastly, you might consider hiring external consultants—freelance or an agency—who can help make your costs more efficient.Remember: Development is incremental. Be aware of what phase you're in. And save time and money while reaching your goals by hiring the right people for the job. Learn more about <a href="https://www.designrush.com/agency/mobile-app-design-development/trends/how-to-choose-mobile-app-development-company">how to choose a mobile app development company</a>

Building Your Digital Platform: Who To Hire And When | Stateside Article Image

Consider development in phases and hire accordingly in order to successfully build your digital platform

Keys To Build Your Digital Platform

Building Your Digital Platform: Who To Hire And When

<h1>10 Key Steps To Building A Supercharged Business Website Or App</h1>Article published in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2022/01/04/10-key-steps-to-building-a-supercharged-business-website-or-app/?sh=1904bfda56f3">Forbes</a> on January 4th, 2022As the CEO of a large-scale website production company, I constantly get the same questions:How much does building a website cost?How long will it take to build my web presence?What are the advantages of working with an agency? Why not hire a freelancer?I always answer: The best solution is the one that aligns with your business strategy.For some clients, it’s best to launch a site quickly at a low cost and scale later. For others, it makes sense to invest more at the start, building a bulletproof platform that’s both scalable and flexible. In other words, the best solution depends on your short- and long-term goals and your budget.Here are the steps I recommend going through as you and your team plan how to build your digital platform:<h4>1. Clarify your platform’s objectives.</h4>What is the role of your website or app in your overall business model?Who is your audience? Are they mobile-first? What media do they consume — videos, articles, audio or a combination?What does success look like? What is the website or app’s main goal?How will you drive traffic to the website?<h4>2. Build your content.</h4>Make an inventory of the content you currently have (i.e., copy, images, video, etc.).Map out the process for creating the content you know you’ll need in the future for you to reach your stated objectives.Brainstorm any ideas for new content — images, videos, podcasts or articles — you want to produce.Determine the time and cost for creating new content, and set aside a budget.<h4>3. Organize your content based on your objectives.</h4>Review your content with an expert or a person you trust in your field. Take advantage of having an outside eye and do a preliminary organization.Do the same exercise with your developer. Note the differences between the perspective of a technology professional and someone in business.Work with your product management team (which might be yourself) to reconcile both points of view.<h4>4. 'Build' your website on paper.</h4>Conceive of the site map with your developer — a text document, some slides or a pen and paper will do.Organize your content into this map and use this as the starting point for the site’s design and development.<h4>5. Always remember the 1/10/100 rule.</h4>The 1/10/100 rule is essential when budgeting for revisions with your designer:1: Fixing a mistake during the planning phase will cost $1.10: Fixing that same mistake during the development phase will cost $10.100: Fixing it when the website is already built will cost $100.Plan ahead to avoid costly changes down the line.<h4>6. Finalize the home page design before starting any development work.</h4>Agree on how your brand will be represented on this website.Determine logo, buttons, CTA, images, etc. for the homepage.<h4>7. Choose a development partner you trust.</h4>I recommend using agile methodologies. This approach allows you to iterate during the development process and make changes on the go. Keep in mind, though, that a set price for a project will likely limit your ability to make changes.Be sure your development partner has a quality analysis (QA) department so they can test across different platforms and operating systems before launching.Remember that in this business, like many others, you get what you pay for.<h4>8. Budget for 25% contingency.</h4>Assume the project will go at least 25% over budget.There will be some changes and improvements you will not think of from the planning phase.<h4>9. Create a monthly budget for maintenance and enhancements.</h4>Adapting to technology updates and enhancements will be necessary if you want to succeed; plan for constantly optimizing the flow of your platform.<h4>10. Use analytics to measure and improve your website.</h4>Review analytics and stats weekly or at least once a month.Try A/B testing if you can afford it and constantly tweak, test and review changes based on users' behavior and trends.One final note: Pay attention to partners and agencies that try to rush. It's important to clarify objectives, establish the timeframe and propose a budget. At my company, we believe that investing time, energy and money during the website planning phase undoubtedly pays off down the road. An agency or partner that pushes to get a project off the ground without going through the proper process and planning is likely focused on one-off projects, not ensuring your site helps you reach your business goals.

10 Key Steps To Building A Supercharged Website Or App | Stateside Article Image

Learn the most important steps to build a supercharged Website Or App

10 Steps To Build A Business Website or App

10 Key Steps To Building A Supercharged Website Or App

When I was in design school, in a history of art class, we analyzed the structure of some baroque masterpieces. I was amazed to find out that there was a rational base behind everything that helped the artist compose the elements in the canvas, keeping proportions, ratios, rhythm, and directions. A silent geometry is always working in the background.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://stateside-strapi-images.s3.amazonaws.com/meninas_7f53267af4.png" alt="Article Image - Las Meninas Art"><div class="raw-html-embed"><a style="text-decoration: none; color: #0F03FB; font-size: 14px;" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas">Las Meninas</a> by Diego Velazquez.
</div>In one way or another, compositional structures have always been present in the art and design world. One of their well-known forms used in modern media are grids, the foundation of layout design.Columns, baseline grids, modular grids, they are the invisible force behind all the elements, organizing, keeping the cohesive relation between each other and the layout itself.Still, grids have served the purpose of conceiving the design. We started using them in digital layouts like websites, applications, and software for different platforms and devices. They were limited to the designer software. They needed to be translated to the engineers with spaces, paddings, and margin specifications.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://stateside-strapi-images.s3.amazonaws.com/grid_bd071bcf21.png" alt="Article Image - More Grids"><div class="raw-html-embed"><a style="text-decoration: none; color: #0F03FB; font-size: 14px;" href="https://stateside.agency/">Stateside website</a> layout design.
</div>That translation always created this gap between design and implementation. The coded output of a designed layout was never pixel perfect or was hard to recreate with veracity. In some way, the problem lies in how layouts are built on design and code and how their foundations differ.It is important to note that digital layouts have become more complex. They aren’t static anymore. Like in print media, today they need to adapt to different viewport sizes. We don’t know if the content will be viewed on a mobile device or a smart TV. We simply don’t have that control anymore.Another factor is that more people are involved in creating digital media, UX designers, art directors, UI designers, back-end and front-end developers, ios and android engineers, the list goes on.If we want to be efficient and create unforgettable experiences, we all need to talk in the same language. We need to build our layouts in the same way, with the same design foundations.Nowadays, most browsers have implemented the CSS grid property. It has become a standard in layout design for websites. CSS grids are closing the gap I mentioned before because designers can create their grids, and they can be exactly replicated with code using a simple CSS property. This makes the design foundation the same for everybody.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://stateside-strapi-images.s3.amazonaws.com/css1_49574093bc.png" alt="">Designers create layout snapshots of specific viewport sizes. They set the layout rules with the grids and the developers can better interpret and understand those rules and implement them in their thoughts. Nothing is lost in translation, and it is simpler to decipher the layout rules for a developer by just seeing how the elements are sitting on the grid. This has become even more crucial in these responsive design times, where absolute measurements don’t exist anymore.With that mindset, we stop saying that a component measures 600px width on a desktop and will be 320px. That always left so many questions to the developers. How does the component behave between those widths? What are the spacing rules?It is easier to understand that a component width is eight columns on desktop and that it will change to 12 columns on mobile devices. That better explains the whole context and how the component is related to the layout. You can also establish that the gutter on a desktop is 30px. On a mobile device that would change to 15px. The grid sets the global spacing rules and the behavior of the layout and all the elements are just sitting on this structure. It can be easily changed and adjusted if needed.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://stateside-strapi-images.s3.amazonaws.com/css2_ad484472ac.png" alt="Article Image - More Code">Finally designers and engineers can speak the same language and build layouts with the same design principles. I think this will get us closer in the way we build, and we can aim for a more efficient way to work with the output for better-made and designed layouts. We have nothing to lose. Stateside can see this future of better, more integrated design where all elements are working together with peak efficiency. That’s why we’ve worked hard to put together a team of designers, engineers, and programmers with the skills to take your web layout and design to a level that sets you ahead of the competition.You have the dream, we’ll build the team that can make it happen. <a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us/">Contact Stateside today</a>.

How grids can get us closer | Stateside Article Image

Let's see how grids can improve your sites

How grids can get us closer

Your web design is responsible for making the first impression on your prospects or site visitors. Great design can make you, and poor design can break you.Take the following stats into consideration:75% of people form their opinion of a website based on its aesthetics, according to Digital Appeal.And it takes users only 0.05 seconds to form an idea of a website, according to a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01449290500330448">study by Taylor and Francis Online</a>So user experience often begins upon first glance at the website, and in today’s modern landscape, everything moves at lightning speed.And what customers deem to be acceptable is continuously evolving. The bar is getting higher every day.Customers are simply accustomed to beautiful design and engaging copy. They’re expecting to be dazzled by your brand.So for your website to be successful and convert visitors into customers in today’s digital environment, a compelling copy must be paired with responsive and engaging website design.As brands scramble to keep pace by adjusting their business models to accommodate these increasingly high expectations, the gatekeeper of first impressions—the design of your website— must also keep up with the times.<h2>What Is Different About Modern Web Design?</h2>It’s all about user experience. Period.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/site.images/Stateside2020/img/blogs/modern-web-design-pic-2.jpg" alt="Article Image - Website Development">What customers want, customers “need” to get.And when the modern consumer visits your website, what they’ll want - and expect - is an aesthetically pleasing experience, credibility, and user-friendliness.Now let’s examine each of these expectations.<ol><li>An Aesthetically Pleasing Experience</li></ol>You never have a second chance to make a first impression. And in fact, 94% of first impressions are related to your site’s web design, according to <a href="https://www.webfx.com/">Webfx.</a>In today’s competitive market, you may only have one chance to convert a first-time visitor to your website into a paying customer. And web design that is visually pleasing and engaging is more likely to convert visitors into loyal customers.Basic aesthetic details, like layout, whitespace, bold contrasting colors, and engaging graphic elements, play a significant role in modern web design.<ol><li>Credibility</li></ol>Modern web design must communicate professionalism and credibility. And 75% of website credibility is determined by web design, according to , according to <a href="https://www.webfx.com/">Webfx.</a>Also, according to marketing guru Neil Patel, “Surface credibility—a visitor’s subjective opinion of your website (e.g. I like the design, this looks trustworthy, great content, this page is confusing, etc.) is all that matters when you’re asking them to convert”.Web design that appears poorly constructed or is difficult to navigate will negatively impact your credibility. And without trust, even the best business model won’t be able to convert visitors into customers.<ol><li>User-Friendliness</li></ol>Today’s consumer is impatient and growing increasingly so every day.&nbsp;For a modern web design to be effective, web designers must take this to heart. And it’s not just time that matters to today’s consumers. Overall user-friendliness and ease of use are also important.Consider the following statistics:In 2006, 47% of people expected a web page to load in two seconds or less, according to <a href="https://www.forrester.com/bold">Forrester</a>.In 2018, 53% of people of mobile users will leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load, according to Google.And according to Steve Krug, author of the book Don’t Make Me Think:<blockquote>“The fact that the people who built the site didn’t care enough to make things obvious—and easy—can erode our confidence in the site and the organization behind it.”</blockquote>For a modern web design to be deemed user-friendly, the following should be true for the user:<ul><li>Within the first few seconds, it’s easy to understand the value proposition.</li><li>Finding the right information flows naturally.</li></ul>Content is so clear and compelling that the user might keep scrolling even after finding what they were looking for.At Stateside, our passion is translating ideas into digital experiences. <a href="https://stateside.agency/recent-work/provivi">We did just that with one of our clients, Provivi,</a> we delivered a modern multi-language website with a completely new UX designed especially for their wide range of stakeholders: Farmers, Investors, Academia, and Lawmakers.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/site.images/Stateside2020/img/blogs/modern-web-design-pic-3.jpg" alt="Article Image - Mobile &amp; Desktop">Whether your business is just getting off the ground or needing a redesign to accommodate a growing business, we can help with our professional website design services.Our certified engineers, developers, and designers can collaborate with your existing staff or serve as your on-demand development team.We are 100% committed to providing you a website that is:<ul><li>Tailored to fit your unique needs</li><li>Responsive and mobile-friendly</li><li>Professional and secure</li><li>Designed with SEO best practices</li><li>Scalable</li><li>Optimized for data management</li></ul>Our teams are flexible and highly skilled to build any site, from landing pages to eCommerce or membership sites; Stateside is your solution for beautiful, conversion-focused, and modern web design.Take the first step toward harnessing the power of modern web design with Stateside. <a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us">Contact us</a> today.

The 3 most important expectations for modern web design | Stateside Article Image

Your web design is responsible for making the first impression for your visitors. Learn the 3 most important expectations users have for a web design.

The 3 most important expectations for modern web design

"Robots aren't here to take away our jobs, they're here to give us a promotion."<a href="https://www.gartner.com/analyst/55907/Manjunath-Bhat">- Manjunath Bhat, Research Director at Gartner&nbsp;</a>Judging by a recent list of top emerging jobs, you need to read this article if you can't easily answer this question: What are Artificial Intelligence and data science?On LinkedIn's recently published <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/talent-acquisition/jobs-on-the-rise-us#digital">Annual Emerging Jobs Report </a>for 2021, they list the leaders in emerging job opportunities in 11 different countries worldwide.And these 3 topped the list:<ol><li>Artificial Intelligence Specialist</li><li>Specialized Engineers</li><li>Data Scientist</li></ol><img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/site.images/Stateside2020/img/blogs/ai_02.jpg" alt="Article Image - Top 3 leaders in emerging job opportunities">Remember these: They will all shape the future in ways you cannot even begin to imagine.<h1>What's the Hype with AI, Anyway? Why Now?</h1>Businesses often think AI and data science are only concepts "out there" that would be great to understand and maybe even implement when they can come up for air. But for many, however, that time never seems to come.AI and data science are simply impacting every industry. And right now, most of the workforce lacks this kind of expertise.It is doubtful that we'll see business as usual for employees who perform routine tasks and make non-critical decisions. Some jobs will certainly be eliminated.But this isn't a reason to panic, according to Tom Davenport, Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College and co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics.He urges organizations to shift from a mindset where employees become displaced by AI to one where employees are instead supported, complemented, and augmented by AI."Employers must be convinced that the combination of humans and computers are better than either working alone." -Tom Davenport.Davenport also advises employees to reimagine how they can perform their jobs more effectively with the power of AI.And he challenges employers to do the same and says in his book Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines, "each time I hear of a company laying off employees because of hyper automation, I think of it as a failure of leadership."The new normal that emerges almost every day will require the global workforce to adapt and learn new skills. This will be critically important in remaining qualified for an existing career or pursuing a new one.Three main factors causing AI to be the "it" technology of the moment include lower costs, more data, and organizations getting some experience under their belts with the algorithms that make AI possible.<h1>What Is AI?</h1>Today, the term AI has become such a catch-all that it is crucial to revisit the real definition.The technical definition, according to <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/artificial-intelligence">Gartner</a>, is:<blockquote>“AI applies advanced analysis and logic-based techniques, including machine learning, to interpret events, support and automate decisions, and take actions.”</blockquote>In other words, AI is when machines learn from experience, make adjustments for new input, and perform human-like thought processes and tasks.Early work paved the way for today's AI.The first mechanical calculating machine was developed almost four centuries ago. And the first programmable machine came along 200 years later.In 1965, the first natural language program—almost like a chatbot—was created. Now, it seems that every day there is a new development.Today's AI deals with more data and more computing power. Massive amounts of both. AI in 2020 enables machines to replicate higher-order logic that traditionally only took place in the human brain. Processes like perception, cognition, prediction, strategic planning can now be done "artificially" when properly programmed.And it goes one step further—this is the scary part. With machine learning, computers can perform that same high-level thinking without being programmed. Essentially, the data does the programming.<h1>What is Machine Learning?</h1>Without being "taught" by the programmer, machines "learn" from the data and their own experience to solve a problem.<ul><li>The machine combs through that massive amount of data we talked about earlier to figure out which data sets are necessary and which can be put aside.</li><li>The machine then selects the most meaningful data and designs an appropriate algorithm to produce an iterative model that is repeatedly refined and optimized.</li><li>The more data you feed to the machine, the more accurate the model becomes.</li></ul><img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/site.images/Stateside2020/img/blogs/ai_03.jpg" alt="Article Image - Ilustrative Desktop Image"><h1>What Is the Difference Between Data Engineering and Data Science?</h1>The point where data engineering ends, and data science begins is not always very clear. And the two terms are often mistakenly used interchangeably.The skills required for and the final product of both disciplines might seem very similar. However, when it comes to focusing, this is where the two diverge:<ul><li>Data engineering focuses on designing architecture and building infrastructure for producing data.</li><li>Data science focuses on advanced mathematics that statistically analyzes that data to identify trends and relationships within the data.</li></ul>Data engineering is essential because the organization with the best data in any industry is the winner. However, insights from the data must be extracted and organized in a meaningful way. This is the job of the data scientist.And the answers to an infinite number of problems are inside the data. Data scientists extract those answers to address the needs of the business, the needs of the final user, and beyond.Since the two specialties are quite different, it is difficult to find anyone with both skill sets, hence the term "unicorn." Organizations must build a team where these two disciplines complement one another to work toward achieving business goals.<h1>A Better Way to Think About AI and Data Science</h1>It is better to think about automation as an inevitable change that will occur. These things are not going away, so there is no time like the present to begin.Companies continue to increase spending on research, development, and deployment of AI and data science. And the competitive advantage is significant for those organizations that are willing to innovate and take risks. All this to be among the first to roll out AI solutions in new segments of their industry.At Stateside, our passion is translating ideas into digital experiences. We helped implement an AI-powered virtual assistant for our client, <a href="https://stateside.agency/team-augmentation/legalshield">LegalShield </a>. <a href="https://stateside.agency/team-augmentation/legalshield">This AI chat has helped Legalshield improve its efficiency </a>, and its clients can get fast and accurate answers without having to make a call.Whether your business is just getting off the ground or needing a redesign to accommodate a growing business, we can help with our professional website and mobile app development services.Our certified engineers, developers, and designers can collaborate with your existing staff or serve as your on-demand development team.Take the first step toward harnessing the power of modern technologies with Stateside. <a href="https://stateside.agency/contact-us">Contact us</a> today.

What is AI, Really? | Stateside Article Image

Learn about the importance of  Artificial Intelligence in today's market  and how companies are leveraging Data Engineering and Data Science

What is AI, Really?

<h1>Web accessibility</h1>There are millions of applications and web pages that are consumed daily for multiple services, sometimes for more than one at the same time. As users, customers, developers and designers we have become accustomed to certain standards when it comes to perceiving an application, but rarely do we stop to think whether it is accessible for everyone.<blockquote>“Is my proposal accessible? Is my site ADA Compliant?.”</blockquote>When considering a project proposal, these are the most frequently asked questions, often out of obligation, not out of real concern. To try to explain whether a website and / or application is accessible, you need to cover General Accessibility terms before starting to further develop the topic.You need to be aware of these issues, as it is a universal matter present in all areas known, in order to have different perspectives on the systems that we have built.<h2>What is accessibility?</h2>There are many definitions in different books, different websites, as well as personal definitions. In the end, they all have the main idea in common.<blockquote>“The possibility of having access to a service/information, regardless of any possible difference”.</blockquote>Requesting a ride, paying for public services, purchasing articles online, reading national or international news, just to mention a few. All without any impediment, without any barrier.<h2>What is disability?</h2>Disability is understood as any situation in which someone has a barrier that limits their participation in some kind of field or action, due to the existence of a deficiency.Types of Disabilities:<ul><li>Physical Disability</li><li>Sensory Disability</li><li>Intellectual Disability</li><li>Psychic Disability</li><li>Visceral Disability</li><li>Multiple Disability</li></ul>With these terms defined, and in order to anticipate what will be reviewed in this article, we can now begin to discuss accessibility.Can a person with a disability order food with the same ease than a person without a disability?The answer is simple, it depends. The disabled have many limitations and barriers in everyday activities that for us are simple, such as walking, reading … using a phone, moving a mouse…At the beginning of the article we may have not thought about many things regarding accessibility, but at this point, with greater seriousness and awareness, might be wondering: Is my site actually accessible?<h2>Web Accessibility</h2>With the definition of accessibility given above, we can define web accessibility in the following way:<blockquote>“The Possibility of consuming web content without exclusion.”</blockquote>It could also be defined as the Design, Guidelines, standards, methodologies, that will allow a person with disabilities to consume or to access web content without exclusion.<img class="image_resized" style="width:100%;" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/site.images/Stateside2020/img/blogs/web-accesibility-2.jpg" alt="Article´s Image - Remote Team Work"><h2>Is web accessibility important?</h2>Web applications are already linked with the entire environment that surrounds us, education, politics, government, economy, etc. People with disabilities have the same right as us to be able to access all of this information without any exclusion or segregation of any kind.The right to information is a human right, a key component of the right to freedom of thought and expression, generating web applications that are not accessible is a direct violation of this right.Then, we begin to ask…<h2>How to make my web site/application accessible</h2>Many times we will be asked to design/develop a web site with hundreds of features with tons of dynamic content… and that is accessible. Or to implement accessibility on a website that has years of seniority.<blockquote>“Make my site to be ADA Compliant”</blockquote>Usually is coined the previous term without even really understanding what that means. It is understood by ADA-compliant, any website that is trying to be accessible to people with disabilities, this term does not mean that is to the exclusion of other standards or guidelines as of WCAG.To make our project accessible we must follow some standards/laws and methodologies of accessibility. These can be found on the web:<a href="">“The American with Disabilities Act”</a> (ADA), <a href="">“The Section 508”</a> and <a href="">“The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines”</a> (WCGA).But how do we differentiate all this information at the time you execute it? What should I use? Which is better?It all depends on the nature of your project, and the laws to which it may be bound to. However, all of them have the same bases. Many times we already use these practices in our everyday work, the difference is now we will implement them with accessibility in mind.<h2>What do I need to make my website accessible?</h2>What do we do when we need to make a web page? We look for a team of developers with the knowledge to complete the project with satisfaction. The same thing happens when we need to implement web accessibility (in the best of the cases) during the planning of a project it is necessary to have the knowledge of a developer to promote and advise on issues of accessibility in the design and development. This is the most efficient way.In the case of an existing project, the presence of a developer with this knowledge is vital. Not having been planned or correctly implemented from the start can lead to substantial changes to the code base of the web page.But as it is well know, there aren’t many developers with the knowledge strictly-tuned and/or certified in accessibility, so that the best option is to look for counsel of outside entities that are in charge of performing these tasks, or, as a starting point use one of the many online tools to validate the accessibility.Example of Tools:<ul><li><a href="">IBM Tools by IBM</a></li><li><a href="">A11ygato by Orange</a></li><li><a href="">Access Alchemy by Level Access</a></li><li><a href="">Accessibility Enabler by HikeOrders</a></li><li><a href="">Accessibility Insights by Microsoft</a></li></ul>

Web Accessibility: Always a must! | Stateside Article Image

Learn what it means to make a website or an application accessible and why is important for your business.

How to make my website or application accessible

Web Accessibility: Always a must!

Big data analysis is the skills and the ability needed to manage and study large amounts of data in order to determine patterns, trends, secure competitive advantages and improve customers satisfaction.By large amounts of data we can refer to volume, velocity and variety, which are the cornerstones of Big Data.Volume represents large amounts of data, for example a survey; Velocity means how fast the data is created, for example Twitter messages or Facebook comments; and Variety means the complexity of the data, for example audio, video, and text messages in Whatsapp.In addition, we use the term Veracity, which is related to the quality of the data being analyzed for example, in the medical field when large studies are done to obtain results on medicines.How can a QA engineer assure and add value to the analysis of all this information?Big data often finds important challenges that improve the risk of the outcome and the decisions that are taken. From the exponential growth of data to the security of the information, the spectrum is overwhelming and leads to not taking any chances and continuing working as usual.As QA engineers this challenge can be too much ton handle, however by defining a proper strategy, the risks and stakes will be addressed properly and will assure an exceptional outcome and deliver customer's satisfaction.On one hand, the most powerful tool in the hands of a QA Engineer to achieve Big Data’s goal is the use of metrics. Being able to determine a powerful metric, and all its components will improve business processes, detect any important issues on time and most importantly guarantee customer’s satisfaction. After obtaining all the required information, the second most important skill needed from the QA is the ability to analyze and deliver the results obtained in a user friendly manner, first by delivering what is expected for the customer and secondly by assuring high quality, reliability and security of the information.QA as known doesn’t apply testing cycles, nor creates bugs or defects, we are not expected to behave as usual, rather compile a lot of information, analyze it and deliver results that have been filtered to mitigate the most important challenges that cause uncertainty to the customer.Pairing the technical skills with the customer’s mindset will help the QA Engineer to define the metrics needed to obtain results that not only will create value, but will put a smile on the customer’s face and most importantly, put them ahead of the competition.A good book praises itself, so this is the best chance for a QA Engineer to get its creativity out, understand what is needed and deliver via metrics valuable information.You’ve got your work cut out for you but tools will eventually come to help and automate the processes, leading to the optimization of processes and delivering better and faster results.We should be on the look for these tools and start working with them.This is just the tip of the iceberg but when it comes to tools available, PySpark seems to be one we should be looking at.It’s often expected that a QA engineer should have technical skills and mindsets of a developer, but with these new technologies the expectations will turn into requirements, as the figure of automated processes and programming tools will lead and deliver the results faster than we could expect.For Big Data, as of this moment, Python is the way to go, and preparation and skills will be needed to apply automated tools and deliver high quality outcomes to assure customer’s satisfaction.The best fuel we can use to explore these opportunities is our thirst for challenges and our call to assure quality on the highest level in everything that is done.References:<ul><li><a href="">What is big data</a></li><li><a href="">How to assure quality of big data and analytics solutions</a></li></ul>

Big Data: In the Spotlight of QA | Article Image

How to ensure the quality of big data and analytics solutions

The role of QA engineers in Big Data

Big Data: In the Spotlight of QA

Stateside stories

Stateside’s Blog. News and Information about nearshore staff augmentation, software development, technology, digital experiences, marketing.