Category: Advice for Employers

Advice, tips and best practice for managers and team leaders. Get the most out of your team with ClearHub.

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The New Normal: Balancing Office Returns with Remote Flexibility

The Pandemic Shift and Current Trends

During the pandemic, workplaces around the globe were compelled to go remote, launching an unplanned trial of widespread work-from-home practices. This grand experiment in remote working led to several revelations: for many, productivity remained stable or even increased, and the majority of workers found they preferred the new flexibility that remote work provided.

Now, as we navigate post-pandemic times, the push to bring employees back to office desks is in full swing. However, there’s a noticeable disconnect. Many employees are not eager to give up the work-from-home benefits they’ve come to appreciate. It’s not just about staying in pyjamas all day; it’s about redefining what makes a productive work environment. Workers have begun to challenge the old belief that physical presence in an office equates to professional success.

The predicament for businesses is clear. They need to balance the creative energy and team dynamics that a shared workspace offers with the clear preference of their workforce for a more adaptable approach to where and how work gets done. The challenge is to maintain team cohesion and collaboration without ignoring employee preferences for a more flexible work life.

What’s needed is a tailored approach. It’s time for businesses to really listen and understand that what works for one employee may not for another. Adopting flexible work arrangements means building a culture based on trust and responsiveness, qualities that are essential for keeping employees engaged and attracting new talent. ClearHub recognizes these emerging workplace trends and offers a nuanced solution that supports both company needs for specific skill sets and the workforce’s desire for flexible engagements.

ClearHub: A Strategic Solution for Companies and Workers

ClearHub enters the scene as a beacon of adaptability in these changing tides. Specialising in Atlassian and DevOps contractors, ClearHub offers businesses the agility to scale teams with precision, addressing the specific gaps in skills and experience needed for projects. For workers, ClearHub provides an avenue to engage in meaningful, challenging projects with the flexibility they now cherish.

For Businesses

ClearHub’s value proposition to businesses lies in its expertise in offering tested and supported Atlassian and DevOps contractors. Companies looking to maintain operational efficiency while meeting the desires of a workforce yearning for flexibility can benefit from ClearHub’s specialised staffing services. With a track record of working with large-scale corporate and FinTech organisations, ClearHub ensures a global reach and an extensive network of talent pools.

The key pain points that ClearHub addresses for businesses include the need for rapid scaling of teams, filling specific skill gaps without the long-term commitment of full-time employees (FTEs), and eliminating the hassle of recruitment processes.

For Workers

Workers seeking opportunities that offer remote flexibility without sacrificing career progression can find solace with ClearHub. The technical assessment and vetting processes by Eficode DevOps consultants ensure that candidates are matched with roles that fit their skill set and professional aspirations.

Finding the Middle Ground

As businesses re-embrace in-office work, they should not overlook the advantages of remote work that have become evident. Blending the two can yield a hybrid model where the collaboration benefits of in-office interaction are maintained, and the personal benefits of remote work are not discarded.

Companies facing the challenge of integrating back into office life, and workers looking for opportunities that respect their desire for flexibility, are invited to discover the ClearHub advantage. By booking a call with ClearHub, both parties can explore a partnership that aligns business needs with the workforce’s evolving expectations. Don’t let the transition back to the office be a step backward in your company’s progression or in maintaining your workforce’s satisfaction.

Book a call with ClearHub today and step into a balanced future where business goals and worker needs are harmoniously aligned.

 

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Questions to Ask When Interviewing Jira Contractors

handshake

For organisations using Atlassian’s Jira project management tool, enlisting expert Jira contractors is often essential for maximising productivity and return on investment. Any tool under the Atlassian umbrella can benefit by having the input and expertise of a specialist in tow, but integrating Jira across an organisation is easier said than done. However, with the help of well-trained, capable Jira experts, organisations can keep workflows and CI/CD pipelines intact while reaping all the benefits of this inclusive, innovative project management platform.

Seasoned Jira specialists can administer the software proficiently, while also optimising it for custom business needs through tailored configurations, workflows, automation and more. Regardless of the complexity of an organisation’s incumbent setup, an experienced Jira contractor can diligently and methodically deploy the tool and its associated features to ensure optimal efficiency and maximum benefit for every firm. 

However, finding the right Jira contractors with specific knowledge bases can be challenging amid a limited talent pool. The job market is incredibly tough, particularly in software and web development, which is why the Jira recruitment experts at ClearHub have compiled this short guide. To ensure candidate expertise aligns with your requirements for Jira administration, development, or consultancy roles, ask these key questions during interviews to maximise your chances of securing the best talent for your organisation.

Technical Jira Skills and Experience

Understanding candidates’ hands-on experience with Jira and its various products is crucial for evaluating competency. Entrusting a contractor with only rudimentary, basic-level Jira experience into a managerial role with heavy responsibilities and implications could be disastrous for both the organisation and the candidate. 

Useful questions to gauge their technical capabilities include:

      • What versions of Jira have you worked with most extensively?
      • Which Jira apps, plugins or add-ons are you well-versed in configuring? (e.g. Workflow Toolbox (JWT), PowerScripts, eazyBI, ScriptRunner, and others)
      • Describe your experience administering permissions and user access in Jira.
      • How have you implemented Jira Service Management for IT teams?
      • What processes did you follow for data migrations between Jira platforms?
      • What particular challenges have you come across during migrations, and how where they resolved?
      • Walk me through your typical Jira issue or workflow customisation approach.
      • What methodologies do you recommend for testing Jira changes?

Listen for specific examples displaying deep, proven expertise across core Jira administration tasks and products based on your current or future needs.

Jira in the Software Lifecycle

For contractors filling developer or engineering roles, assess how they leverage Jira functionality as part of continuous software delivery processes.

Consider these questions:

      • How have you integrated Jira with Git repositories, CI/CD pipelines, testing tools etc.?
      • What experience do you have using Jira to plan sprints?
      • Describe your processes for tracking issues or bugs from development to deployment.
      • How did you report progress and metrics from Jira to stakeholders?

Freelance developers may be familiar with the Atlassian Jira setup and interface but may have deployed similar solutions (such as Agile, Confluence or Bitbucket) akin to the above examples. If they are aware of how to leverage a Jira development setup even with no professional experience, it may be worth considering a pre-employment exercise and task to assess their familiarity and problem-solving capabilities. 

Adapting Jira to Business Contexts

Many organisations sector-wide leverage Jira and other Atlassian tools beyond software development for business workflows. Jira, like many other tools in the Atlassian stack, offers features that complement a wide range of in-house teams, many of which may mandate a contractor’s impartial input to execute correctly.

Assess contractors’ business analysis abilities through prompts like:

      • Have you configured Jira for departments outside engineering or development? (sales, marketing, HR, legal etc.)
      • Describe a time you built custom Jira processes to support a client’s unique approach.
      • Describe a time you had to overcome resistance.
      • How did you evaluate existing systems or processes before tailoring Jira?
      • What strategies do you use for training non-technical staff on Jira adoption?

Contractors who can demonstrate a strategic approach to deploying Jira across a business landscape will be best placed to ensure multiple departments witness the advantages of the tool and provide business-wide value.

Working Style and Approach

Technical experience with Jira is essential, but when interviewing Jira contractors, it’s crucial to assess their interpersonal and communication skills. Even if they’re not employed on a full-time basis with the organisation, they should be able to collaborate smoothly and confidently with employees. This will offer a much more positive experience than working with one who is hesitant and comes across as unapproachable.

Useful questions to gauge a candidate’s suitability here include:

      • How do you balance working independently with taking direction from clients?
      • What processes do you use to understand stakeholder requirements?
      • Describe a situation where you had to explain complex technical concepts simply.
      • How do you stay updated on new Jira versions, features, and trends?

Of course, tailor these hypothetical prompts to prioritise the skills and demands most crucial for your specific needs – whatever Atlassian tool(s) you deploy. 

The Trusted Jira Contractor Solution

For fast, reliable access to pre-screened Jira and Atlassian talent able to drive impact from day one, choose ClearHub. As a leading technical recruitment agency with vast experience in helping our clients fill Jira and Atlassian vacancies promptly, our vast network of global contractors enables us to swiftly provide best-fit resources for any Atlassian project or role.

ClearHub’s dedicated team facilitates the entire hiring process from initial scoping through to successful onboarding and offboarding. We rigorously screen all candidates through technical evaluations, reference checks and cultural fit assessments tailored to each client’s environment. Our transparent, communication-focused approach means you only receive profiles from contractors whose skills and expertise we’ve carefully vetted and verified.

Whatever your Jira needs, simply outline your requirements and timeframes to our recruitment specialists, and then let us take care of the heavy lifting for you. With our input, guidance, and advice, we’ll position best-in-class Jira applicants and talent who we believe will be firmly positioned to add value to your organisation. Contact us today to find out more or arrange a no-obligation chat with one of our experts.

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How to Attract and Retain Top-Quality Atlassian Contractors

atlassian contractor working at desk

As the world’s leading provider of team collaboration and project management software, Atlassian’s tools like Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket (among others) have become integral to the workflows of countless organisations worldwide. Atlassian Server and Data Centre products are inherently built to scale alongside an organisation and, due to their intricacies, have paved the way for a niche but highly rewarding and fulfilling job market.

Their prevalence and importance within modern tech stacks mean that experienced Atlassian specialists have become highly sought-after to help organisations successfully navigate digital transformation challenges and achieve growth milestones. However, the rather secular talent pool of qualified Atlassian contractors also makes recruiting and retaining the best talent an ongoing challenge for companies. 

When a business’s workflows depend on optimising Atlassian’s project tracking, documentation, and DevOps offerings, it often necessitates hiring subject matter experts who can add value and make an impact immediately. One of the quickest and most effective solutions to this is to engage qualified and vetted Atlassian contractors and freelancers through a specialist recruitment agency. 

This guide explores the key steps to take when commissioning Atlassian and Jira experts through portals like ClearHub, the agency with a proven track record of placing top-tier talent into contract and permanent roles.

Defining Must-Have Atlassian Skills and Expertise

Atlassian encompasses a wide range of applications catering to software developers, IT teams, and business users alike. When posting an Atlassian contractor vacancy – courtesy of a user-friendly portal such as ClearHub – start by outlining your core requirements around the following criteria:

  • Specific Atlassian tools required, such as Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, Bitbucket etc.
  • Minimum years of hands-on experience administering/developing with the above tools or similar
  • Understanding of add-ons or extensions e.g. Scriptrunner, Structure, Gliffy
  • Exposure to instances in cloud vs. self-hosted environments
  • Familiarity with integrating Atlassian tools with CI/CD pipelines and workflows
  • Knowledge of migrating data or instances between Atlassian versions or cloud platforms

Whether you need a specific DevOps engineer to monitor performance or a dedicated Atlassian administrator to oversee custom integrations, including permissions and workflows, seeking help from specialised Atlassian contractors makes cloud migrations scalable and seamless.

Verifying Atlassian Expertise During Screening

A person’s competence with Atlassian products should involve a mixture of hard technical and soft skills. During the preliminary stages of a contractor background screening, it’s prudent to assess and validate candidates based on:

  • Tool administration competencies via technical testing
  • Communication skills through interviews and assessments
  • Cultural alignment with your business through situational questioning
  • Portfolio of past Atlassian projects completed
  • Testimonials and referrals from clients or managers

This level of pre-employment validation enables the fast and productive placement of talent into the right Atlassian and Jira job vacancies online, with contractors able to make a solid, frictionless start. 

As is the case with any Atlassian job opening, technical skills alone shouldn’t be the sole indicator of a good contractor assignment. The intrinsic and personal qualities of candidates should also be assessed when hiring Atlassian contractors. Carefully examine how the candidate answers questions and what they don’t say, as well as the answers they give. Monitoring responses – or lack thereof – indicates how well a prospective contractor may embrace your company’s values and culture. Specialist contractors likely already prove capable of adapting between clients, but those newer to the field may be more naive, so bear this in mind. 

ClearHub’s background screening processes aim to take the administrative burden away from time-restricted organisations. As a result of our due diligence, we have cultivated a carefully formulated talent pool of reputable Atlassian experts waiting for their next freelance, temporary, or permanent assignment. We can make considered candidate recommendations based on your criteria and job requirements, and who we firmly believe will be a good technical and cultural fit. 

Retaining Great Talent Through Effective Scoping

Even if a candidate ticks all the capability and culture boxes, they may fail to live up to expectations if your organisation fails to give specific or clear project scoping. Vague or ambiguous project scoping often leads to breakdowns in communication and misaligned objectives and expectations.

Before assigning your Atlassian contractor their first task, outline all their responsibilities, objectives, and timeframes through a comprehensive Statement of Work including:

  • Exact Atlassian instance details – Cloud/Data Centre, tool versions etc.
  • Supporting systems connected e.g. CI tools, repositories, directories
  • Specific tasks needing completion – migrations, custom workflows etc.
  • Measurable deliverables and outcomes paired to tasks
  • Expected timescales or milestones for essential tasks
  • Communication protocols for updates and reporting

This early alignment means contractors know what to work on immediately and will minimise friction. Simultaneously, clarity around responsibilities and objectives gives purpose-driven talent reason to stay invested in the long term.

Respect your specialists’ expertise too; inefficient and disruptive micromanagement limits their results and productivity. Highlighting that you trust them will enhance retention, as will empowering them to work autonomously and seek assistance when needed.

Trust ClearHub to Attract Premium Atlassian Talent

Great Atlassian recruitment starts with great candidate networks and supplier relationships. With decades of experience placing thousands of technical contractors into a broad spectrum of roles, ClearHub leverages unrivalled access to specialist Atlassian talent across software development, infrastructure engineering, and everything in between.

Our global talent pool combines market-leading contractors and niche specialists to fill urgent vacancies through efficient and time-saving Atlassian recruitment processes, allowing you to focus your resources on important business matters. All Atlassian candidates are pre-verified against your criteria before submission, with our dedicated account management team communicating with you regularly about placements and opportunities. Our transparent and collaborative approach is why we are the trusted Atlassian recruitment agency for hundreds of businesses worldwide.

To find your next high-quality Atlassian candidate(s) who can integrate seamlessly with your business immediately, contact our expert team today to get started.

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How To Hire The Right DevOps Engineer For Your Team

DevOps infinity

The demand for skilled technical DevOps engineers, managers, and contractors has grown exponentially in recent years. As more organisations undertake digital transformation initiatives, the need for effective DevOps grows more crucial.

However, hiring the right DevOps talent that aligns perfectly with your organisation’s processes, infrastructure, and team culture can prove challenging. 

The Ongoing Challenges of DevOps Recruitment and Placement

When recruiting DevOps talent, especially for contract-based roles, it pays to work with specialist technical recruitment agencies like ClearHub. Our dedicated experts make it their mission to understand your specific needs and match you with offshore or local DevOps talent that can integrate into your workflows seamlessly, and provide your organisation with the right level of support.

An ever-present issue within DevOps recruitment strategies is the niche talent pool and high demand for specialist vacancies needing to be filled. Whether you have already established incumbent DevOps processes or are at the start of your journey, finding the right hire is essential. The cost of a bad hire can be felt long after the position is filled, so this is best avoided as much as possible.

This guide will explore some key considerations when looking to hire DevOps contractors to ensure you find an engineer that complements your tech stack and enhances delivery capabilities.

How to Secure the Right DevOps Talent for Your Organisation

Define the Core Skills and Expertise Needed

Before posting a DevOps vacancy or speaking to recruiters, outline the must-have expertise and competencies expected from candidates. 

When you need to bring in a DevOps engineer or software developer, establish the minimum experience level and evidence of projects completed. Measure them up to your current organisation’s tasks to assuage their similarities and address any evident gaps. 

As the name suggests, DevOps engineer recruitment involves finding someone with diverse skills that span across development and operations. The vacancy or vacancies that need supplementing will depend on your organisation’s stage in your DevOps journey, whether you’re transitioning to a new model, adopting cloud technologies, or scaling your infrastructure. 

Ultimately, with contract-based work, DevOps engineers should be able to get to work straight away. But you want to avoid hiring a DevOps contractor too junior for a role that requires more senior management expertise. Therefore, consider the wider knowledge needed in CI/CD pipelines, automation, containerisation, microservices and more based on your infrastructure. 

Doing all of this in the early stages will help recruiters shortlist the most suitable DevOps engineers for your review.

Assess Cultural Fit and Soft Skills

Technical skills alone don’t guarantee a successful hire, nor should they. Hard technical skills can be taught, whereas personality traits and characteristics are often irreplaceable.

Assess contract DevOps engineers’ communication abilities, collaboration skills, problem-solving, self-motivation and other soft skills during the interview process. Encourage them to talk openly with several members of the team. Different perspectives can help you formulate a complete picture of a candidate’s ethos and vibe, and provide reassurance that they are acting in a manner that suits your culture. Candidates have a tendency to act more ‘professional’ in job interviews, so bear this in mind.

Early cultural alignment also reduces integration issues and bottlenecks long term. Explain your workflows, management style and team interactions to evaluate candidate suitability, and listen carefully to their responses. Quite often you can learn whether a candidate is a good fit based on what they don’t say, rather than what they do.

DevOps contractors that slot seamlessly into existing processes adapt faster and work more efficiently from day one, which can help if you are intent on fostering a more collaborative, transparent culture between development and operations.

Validate Past Experience and Referrals

Scrutinise candidates’ previous contracting experience working with similar software stacks and tools to yours. Multi-cloud platform expertise, including in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, is especially sought-after. Applicants may also have familiarity with other software stacks like Atlassian and can provide supporting evidence of projects or operational tasks completed, even if your incumbent stack is from a different provider.

Vendor referrals also build confidence when hiring. Specialist agencies like ClearHub have a carefully compiled network of potential DevOps candidates who have undergone extensive verification. When partnering with us, we can make tailored recommendations to save you time while shortlisting.

Discuss Delivery Workflows

Even stellar DevOps consultants and engineers can only thrive if properly integrated into your established workflows. 

During interviews, discuss:

  • Typical delivery timeframes
  • Release processes
  • Production monitoring
  • On-call responsibilities
  • Integration with other teams like developers, QA testers etc.

This sets clear expectations around how you operate before your new hire starts. Strong collaboration ultimately accelerates delivery in complex stacks.

Find Quality DevOps Engineers With Help from ClearHub

Identifying well-qualified DevOps talent that aligns seamlessly with your workflows, culture and tech stack takes time, and there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. However, the right hire pays long-term dividends across software engineering, systems administration and IT operations. 

With the right consultant, engineer, or manager working alongside you, you can improve your software delivery processes, develop innovative new DevOps strategies, integrate new tools, enhance your training and support, and so on.

ClearHub’s specialist software engineering and development recruiters simplify your search process through rigorous vetting and matching with contracted or permanent DevOps talent tailored to your needs. Our team is comprised of Atlassian and DevOps recruitment experts with proven experience filling roles of all seniority levels, and we can promptly match you with top-tier DevOps talent to support current projects and future growth ambitions. 

All candidates are given suitability tests before being submitted for available roles, and our team will be available 24/7 should there be any unexpected issues. Get in touch with our team today to discuss your hiring requirements.

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Background Checks for Contractors: All You Need to Know

filling in a background screening form for contractor

Regardless of a role’s complexity and the critical skills gap that needs filling, bringing on board skilled technical contractors can provide immense value to a company.

Hiring high-quality contractors can provide both a reliable short-term stopgap to keep operations running while full-time replacements are sought, or even as a long-term recruitment strategy for businesses in the tech space.

The Importance of Contractor Background Screening

However, the process of hiring contractors is not without inherent elements of risk. In any contractor agreement, you are entrusting individuals outside of your organisation with significant responsibilities. They will often require access to sensitive company, personal, or intellectual property data, depending on their role. 

For instance, hiring Atlassian contractors to oversee a full-scale project management system deployment and cloud migration may compromise your company’s data and damage its reputation if a contractor is found to have an undisclosed criminal record conviction.

Thorough background screening checks are essential to verify contractors as being trustworthy, risk-free, and reliable. Confirming that an individual is who they claim to be and can be trusted to perform the required work in that contractor job vacancy will go a long way in safeguarding data and reputation. The right background checks provide peace of mind and ensure that contractors meet all legal, financial, and ethical requirements.

Depending on where the contractor’s role will be based, some country-specific background checks may be needed. Background screening processes in the UK are slightly different to those in the US, for example, but the premise is the same. In this short guide, the contractor recruitment experts at ClearHub have outlined the key types of background checks that employers should consider before engaging contractors. 

Criminal Record Checks Protect Against Unethical Behaviour

One of the top priorities is screening for potential criminal history that could impact a contractor’s ability to work ethically and legally.

In the UK, a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check provides details of a person’s criminal record. Some employers may know these types of checks as their former moniker – Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks. However, a DBS check is the same thing as a CRB check.

Different levels of DBS checks are available to employers:

  • Basic – Details unspent criminal convictions
  • Standard – Details spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands, and warnings
  • Enhanced – Includes the same as Standard plus any additional relevant information held by the applicant’s local police constabulary.

Some companies working in highly regulated industries are obligated to request certain levels of DBS checks. The extent of check required will also typically depend on the nature of the role, for example, those working closely with children or vulnerable adults will be expected to complete an Enhanced DBS check application.

In the US, citizens may be prompted to present a ‘certificate of good conduct’ or a ‘lack of criminal record.’ US residents can obtain proof of their clean criminal history via the following options:

  • Local police check
  • FBI records check
  • Fingerprints
  • Authentication of Police or FBI certificates that indicate a lack of criminal record.

The responsible recruiters at ClearHub understand the importance of criminal record screening and will liaise with you about the required checks for the contractors you are looking to hire.

Confirming Contractors’ Identity and Right to Work

It’s a legal requirement to confirm that every worker – whether full-time or freelance – is eligible to work. Before sharing sensitive information or granting system access, employers should always confirm that their contractor is who they claim to be.

Identity checks verify the contractors’ names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers (if in the US) and other personal details by validating identity documents. This is automated now with plenty of enterprise-grade technology available that can detect forgeries and fraudulent ID documents. However, human oversight is still critical.

UK contractors must pass right-to-work screening checks, which validate their eligibility to work in the UK. This is a legal requirement as stipulated by the Home Office to ensure that they are employing workers legally and lawfully.

Financial and Regulatory Checks Mitigate Business Risks

Depending on the hiring organisation’s country of operation, some roles will only be available to individuals who can pass certain financial checks. 

Often, regulatory bodies and legislation stipulate that authorised workers – even those on a contract basis – can only work if they can demonstrate financial suitability and minimal risk. 

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires regulated firms to adhere to strict codes of practice and procurement when recruiting individuals. 

Not only would identity checks and right-to-work checks be conducted, but UK and US contractors may be subject to:

  • Credit history checks – to confirm any history of poor credit
  • Financial Service Register checks – to validate whether they are authorised to perform certain FCA-regulated duties
  • History of bankruptcy or insolvency 
  • County Court Judgements (CCJs) and Sanction Searches
  • AML (anti-money laundering) checks 

The types of businesses that ClearHub works closely with can require relevant compliance and financial checks depending on the contractor’s role. 

Main Takeaways

Multinational organisations – particularly tech companies – often engage contractors from all over the world. This can make navigating native background checks, processes, and requirements quite complex. However, working with a reputable background screening agency is usually the most effective and time-saving solution.

At ClearHub, we do not provide background screening checks ourselves. However, we have extensive experience navigating contractors’ requirements across industries and locations. 

For many years, we have matched top talent with exciting new roles across a wide range of disciplines using the Atlassian tech stack and various technical capabilities. We have filled numerous vacancies in the UK and overseas ensuring that all candidates and applicants meet the eligibility criteria and obtain the relevant screening checks before work commences. 

Working with us ensures that your organisation can solely focus on the things that matter – powering your business and operations with the right talent possessing the right skills. Learn more about how we can help fill your next contractor role by requesting a consultation with us today.

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What is Atlassian ACP?

ACP stands for “Atlassian Certification Program”.
An Atlassian contractor or working professional who has participated in the ACP is recognised as an Atlassian Certified Professional – or an ACP (we know, it’s confusing!). The best of the best go on to become ACEs (Atlassian Certified Experts) or, if it’s a company like ours, an Atlassian Solution Partner (our parent company, Clearvision, is a Double Platinum Atlassian Solution Partner).

An Atlassian contractor with an ACP has validated expertise and proven knowledge.

This gives them credibility and trust. But it’s not open to just anybody; only professionals with a minimum of two years of experience (sometimes three) as an admin of Atlassian products can apply.

The ACP scheme gives participants Badges and Certificates on the successful completion of modules.

As well as experienced Atlassian contractors and administrators, it’s also open to existing Atlassian Solution Partners and companies who want to improve their skills in-house. It allows businesses to cross-skill, retrain, and develop their teams.

The exams and training courses cost money to take – so it takes commitment and serious study to become certified.

We fast track Atlassian contractors who hold ACP accreditation through the vetting process, because we understand that it’s a serious undertaking. Only the best are willing to get their Badges and Certificates – and only the best of the best go on to achieve Atlassian Certified Expert status.

What Atlassian ACP exams and courses are there?

Managing Jira Projects

  • ACP-420

    Jira Administration for Cloud

  • ACP-120

    Jira Administration for Data Center and Server

  • ACP-100

    Project Administration in Jira Server

  • ACP-610 (New for 2022)

    Atlassian Certified Expert

For most applicants, Atlassian University courses are required. They give you hands-on experience with the Atlassian stack, not just theory and instructions. After getting the skills for real, study begins – followed by a certification exam.

If you have the relevant hands-on experience already, and just want to get certified – you can apply to sit the exams; but this isn’t always the best path, especially if your knowledge is very specific, and doesn’t use the full scope of the tool in question.

The general path to certification might look like this:

  1. Choose your exam
  2. Prepare: check your current knowledge against the relevant Exam Topics
  3. Take Atlassian courses that fill in your knowledge gaps
  4. When you’re ready, sign up, pay for, and sit your exam
  5. Pass – hooray!
  6. ACP status lasts for 18 months. To maintain your ACP, you can:
    1. Retake the exam
    2. Earn Badges to top up your knowledge

What are ACP exams like?

Well, they’re not easy – even if you know your stuff. They draw heavily from challenging real-world scenarios, and require hands-on experience and knowledge.

Exams are delivered in a timed online format which will be familiar to anyone who has done a driving theory test, or Google Academy examinations.

The majority of questions are multiple choice. Some have multiple answers. You aren’t penalised for giving a wrong answer – you only rack up points for what you get right. So, even if you don’t know what the answer is, you should still have a go!

Why should you hire ACP contractors?

The short answer is – because they have recognised knowledge of the platform you’ve hired them to work in. Atlassian ACP contractors are diligent, dedicated, and have up-to-date knowledge. It’s proof that they have kept going as students of their craft.

It’s a strong trust signal.

That’s why we fast track ACP certified Atlassian contractors through our vetting process at CleatHub. It validates our assessments, and is a clear indicator of candidate suitability for any given project.

So, if you’re looking for contractors with the right stuff – then we have the world’s largest network of ACP Atlassian contractors at our disposal…

Hire ACP Certified Contractors, with ClearHub

When it comes to finding Atlassian contractors, there’s no other recruiter that can do what we do. Trust the experts at ClearHub to find your ideal ACP certified Atlassian contractor.

Get started now – speak to us today.

UK contact: Aaron Rowsell

Global Contractor Manager

Email: arowsell@clearhub.tech 

Call: +44 2381 157 811

US contact: David Runyon

Recruitment Consultant

Email: drunyon@clearhub.tech

Call +1 858 304 1215

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Remote Work: How to Hire International Talent

Atlas of North America

The remote work revolution proved to be a triumph.

So much so, that when bosses emailed staff with “get back to the office” after Covid restrictions ended, swathes of home workers decided to quit instead. It’s part of what drove the so-called Great Resignation.

Remote working has a ton of benefits, but getting it right takes experience and discipline – not to mention tools. But these days, just about every company capable of going remote has at least some experience of it from lockdown. And some are taking it to the next level, by hiring outside of their country.

The benefits to hiring international talent, and taking them on as remote workers, are massive; but this definitely won’t be true for every organisation. When it comes to tech industries, and fields like the ones we work in (development and coding, through customised Atlassian tools), remote hires make the most sense.

Let’s show you why – and how – you should hire contractors outside of your country, or even a full-time remote workforce.

 

Related: Is there a skills shortage, or are you just looking in the wrong places?

Why should businesses hire away from home?

Like we said, hiring remote workers outside of your country might not work for everyone. But the advantages are just too good to ignore – and if you have the right processes in place, you’ll have a roadmap to success.

Hiring international remote workers gives you access to an infinitely larger talent pool, diverse knowledge and experiences, a global market presence – and can even save you money.

A bigger talent pool

Your local economy is probably fighting over an ever-decreasing number of skilled professionals right now. There’s a lot of demand for tech skills, and practically nobody has them at the moment. By looking for international remote workers, you can turn a pool of tens of candidates into a pool of THOUSANDS. If you’re struggling to find the right skills in your own region right now, then widen the net – go international.

The knowledge advantage

With that said, it’s always good to hire from your local talent pool, and help build a thriving economy. But if you do this exclusively, you’re in danger of building a team with tunnel vision, and “groupthink” tendencies. Building tools and services for everyone cannot happen if those doing the work only represent a tiny fraction of society.

So, burst your bubble.

If your competitors only hire locally, they’re missing out on diverse thought, experience, and creative problem-solving. They’re blinkered, and focused on solving the problems of a shrinking minority.

If you mix up your teams and hire international, diverse talent – you’ll have a significant knowledge advantage over your competition.

Cheaper

Global pay rates vary – and hiring international employees can boost your profit margin.

Take the United States, where the average dev salary is $110,140. In Argentina, the same job, with the same skill set, pays on average $39,898. That’s a saving of 64% per year on salary. Currency exchange rates can also benefit employers, if they pay in the local currency – and even if you offer significantly over the market rate for international talent, you’ll still be paying less.

Cover more global hours, and gain a global presence

Hiring international remote workers gives you a global presence, and a chance to spread into new territories. This might require some investment in infrastructure – like ensuring compliance with data residency, for example – but with local expertise, global expansion is far quicker to scale when you have an international workforce.

Plus, you can essentially have your teams working around the clock, in different time zones. An international remote worker picks up where your local staff leave off at the end of their day. It’s an amazing way to scale at speed, with a tight, lean workforce.

So far – this probably all sounds great, right?!

Well, it is. But there are, of course, complexities. It’s not always smooth sailing, especially if you’re planning on doing the talent search alone.

What can go wrong?

As with everything in business, things can go wrong. There are no guarantees that your hire will be the right fit, have the necessary skills, or perform as you expect – but we’ll show you how ClearHub gets hiring right the first time, after we cover some common pitfalls.

Compliance

Hiring a remote full-time employee from a different country could require you to register your business there. Companies can fall foul of compliance and regulatory laws if they fail to do so. Data residency can also be an issue – but migrating to the Cloud can solve this.

Communication

You need to be able to communicate mutually, and do so over the spread of time zones. This can be a challenge, especially if trust is an issue. Language proficiencies on both sides must be presented honestly in the first instance.

Commitment

This comes back to trust. Bringing a new hire up to speed always incurs some kind of cost, usually time. That investment can disappear if the new hire decides to quit shortly after joining. Commitment in remote international employees is hard to gauge, but we have a guide to working with remote teams to help you.

How to hire international remote workers – the ClearHub way

When it comes to international recruitment of Atlassian contractors, we get it right for our clients. That’s because we stick to our core values and principles, no matter which international region we’re looking to hire from.

The result? A 100% hit rate on our first candidate selection.

How do we manage that? For starters, ClearHub has the following features:

  • The biggest international network of Atlassian contractors
  • All candidates are pre-qualified, skills tested and vetted
  • Talent is tailored to each client’s needs

As for the rest, it’s no secret. In fact, we’re completely transparent about the process at ClearHub. Learn more about our full process, and how we get it right the first time:

 

 

Hire the best remote Atlassian talent, around the world

Trust the experts at ClearHub to help you hire remote international workers, with world-class Atlassian knowledge.

Cut your talent search down to days, not months. Get the skills you need for success. Reap the rewards of an international knowledge base.

Speak to us today.

UK contact: Aaron Rowsell

Global Contractor Manager

Email: arowsell@clearhub.tech 

Call: +44 2381 157 811​

US contact: David Runyon

Recruitment Consultant

Email: drunyon@clearhub.tech

Call +1 858 304 1215

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How ClearHub Finds the Right Atlassian Contractor

Finding the right candidate or contractor for an Atlassian project is a lot harder than just matching a set of skills to a job description. It requires analysing the job description, knowing the hard skills and the soft skills of the job – and picking up on the subtle nuances of what our customer is trying to tell us they really need.

ClearHub sources Atlassian contractors for some of the world’s largest organisations, as well as SMBs and startups. Our success rate is a whopping 90% on the first candidate – thanks to a diligent process, and decades of experience on both sides of the recruitment fence.

Join our ​​Technical Resourcer, Nick Williamson, as he takes a deep-dive into our process. Find out why companies who hire through ClearHub get the right person for the job – and not just the right skills.

Reviewing the Project

Hi, I’m Nick – Technical Resourcer at ClearHub. Let me run you through how I get the ideal candidates for our customers, from the top of the process.

The very first step is to get a job description with as much detail as possible. After that, I’ll carry out a discovery call, with the customer’s assigned Account Manager.

At this point, I ask myself a few questions:

  • Does the job description line up with what the customer is saying?
  • What’s the real problem they are trying to fix?
  • What was mentioned or talked about multiple times in conversation?

To get the answers, I’ll have a discussion with the Account Manager (who was on the call with the customer), to piece things together. We’ll get a feel for what the customer was focused on in the call – and go beyond the paperwork.

There have been times when a skill or task was only mentioned once in the job description, or was put down as a “nice to have” – but it was actually crucial to the project.

As an example, a client had jotted “can train staff on Jira” at the bottom of a job description. It turned out that training employees to use Jira was the first thing one of our contractors was tasked to do – and by having the discovery call, we were able to get the right person to fulfil that role.

Understanding the project, and the true needs of the customer, are the first (and arguably most important) steps to landing the perfect contractor. And once we know exactly what skills and persona we’re looking for, it’s time to go to our network.

Luckily for us, we’ve got access to one of the biggest tech talent pools in the world – our famous ClearHub Network.

The Network

Now that we truly understand the customer’s needs, we consult the network.

The talent pool we’ve created is rather unique, because of the niche market we operate in. We built this network ourselves, extensively, and over time. It’s mostly made up of skilled Atlassian professionals who have, at one time or another, been a consultant at an Atlassian partner.

It’s also common to find former in-house employees of organisations, who have taken their in-demand skills into contracting or freelancing.

Going out to our network is very different from the way a generic IT recruitment agency does it.

Some agencies will take on a job, quickly realise they do not have the talent within their database, and go to market instead. What this means is that they take the job description you have provided, and post on multiple job websites to get candidates.

We don’t do that.

Our network is built on relationships. Because we’re Atlassian specialists, the best of the best come to us. We nurture relationships with them, get to know their strengths and abilities, and assign roles based on who they are and what they do better than anyone else.

This means that our candidates don’t just have the technical skills and experience needed for the role – but the soft skills, too.

From our discussions, we ask ourselves:

  • Does the customer want someone who can get on with tasks?
  • Or do they want someone who can give advice to teams and stakeholders?

We’ll build a profile of what we are looking for in our ideal candidate, and start selecting our top picks – weighing up their strengths and weaknesses in different areas. 

Next, we reach out to our selected candidates, to find out their availability and gauge their interest in a new project. We create a longlist of candidates, who are interested and available, and then start the process of refining it down to a shortlist. 

Sometimes, it’s an extremely quick process. If we know the contractor well and they’re currently available to work, or are about to end a contract in a couple of weeks, then we can get them onto the next job almost immediately.

Our current record is a 48 hour turnaround, from job order to placement. And transition of contractors between roles can happen overnight. 

But more often, we’ll go through a longer process.

Vetting and Assessment 

We’ll always check to see if the candidates in the shortlist have been suitability assessed and vetted by a consultant recently, to ensure they’re proficient.

This is discovered through a technical test, conducted by an Atlassian Certified Professional. It’s a review of the candidate’s ability – not just with Atlassian tools, but any DevOps tools, or agile methodologies they may be familiar with.

If they’ve already been vetted recently, I go through the report to assess the candidate’s strengths, and possibly where they are lacking. For instance, maybe they have excellent technical ability, but aren’t very articulate in their explanations.

Using this information, we create a final shortlist, and have further in-depth discussions with each candidate on it.

This call usually lasts around 30-45 minutes. Its main purpose is to give the candidate as much information as we can about the project, to discuss challenges they have faced in the past – and find how they overcame them.

Throughout this whole process, we’re also silently assessing their reliability:

  • Do they respond to emails quickly?
  • Do they answer the phone, or call back?
  • Are they professional and presentable when on a call?

If a candidate has not had an assessment recently, we’ll organise one with a consultant, analyse the report, and go through the same process.

Submission

This part is where I need to pull the trigger – and put a candidate in front of the customer.

It’s a big moment. Our selection sets the bar for how the customer judges our ability to deliver on their requirements: if we’ve interpreted them correctly in their view, and if they will have confidence in us moving forward.

All the steps up until this point were taken to mitigate any challenges the customer may have with our selection – and it was for us, too. We need to be able to put our faith in the candidate, to present and interview well. 

But people are people. And sometimes, they do strange things like:

  • Not turn up for the scheduled interview with the customer
  • Ghost us or the customer completely
  • Take a video interview in a loud coffee shop
  • Send a totally different person to the interview pretending to be them
  • Start a video call without a top on

We’ve even had a customer not show up for an interview.

Thankfully, these cases are extremely rare – but people can still surprise you!

Ultimately, it’s up to the customer to decide if we’ve done a good job, and found the right person for them.

With a 90% hit rate on our first selection, we think it’s safe to say we are.

If you think ClearHub can help you with your talent search let us know.

The best contractors come to ClearHub. You should, too.

Find the right person for your Atlassian project – with ClearHub.

Our team pairs businesses with Atlassian, Cloud, DevOps and ITSM experts. Everyone in the ClearHub network is vetted, skills-checked and ready to go from day one. We support all our clients and their chosen experts while they’re on the job, too; so you’ll never have to worry about choosing the right candidate again.

UK contact: Aaron Rowsell

Global Contractor Manager

Email: arowsell@clearhub.tech 

Call: +44 2381 157 811​

US contact: David Runyon

Recruitment Consultant

Email: drunyon@clearhub.tech

Call +1 858 304 1215

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The Cost of a Bad Hire? TRIPLE their Salary!!!!

Recruitment, especially in tech, is seriously hard work. Even just for one new team member.

Listing a job, sifting through applicants, interviewing them, re-interviewing the best, negotiating an offer… It’s a lot. Imagine going through all of that, finally hiring a candidate, and waiting for their start date to arrive – only to discover that they’re totally wrong for the job, and completely at odds with your company values.

Their productivity is lower than baseline. They make wildly inappropriate comments. They won’t do anything “beneath” them. They can’t finish a task to spec or deadline. They’re supposed to lead but their team is constantly guiding them.

Members of the team around the new hire are starting to feel unmotivated and undervalued.

Some people are asking questions about how they got the job in the first place.

The whole atmosphere is changed; sour and dark, no chatter or collaboration – just workstation after workstation of headphones and bad moods.

That, dear reader, is a bad hire.

You might think that this is a rare, or even a worst-case scenario. Sadly, it’s extremely common: 85% of organisations have made bad hires at least once. It’s depressing, for sure – but did you know how expensive it is for businesses?

Whatever the salary offered – treble it, and that’s how much it will cost your company.

How a bad hire can end up costing your company 3x the posted salary

It sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Surely this is just a “big company” problem, and not the case for SMBs? The truth is, a bad hire can infect your company deeply, not just at the point of entry. Here’s where all that money goes.

Recruitment

Good recruitment is not cheap – whether you use an agency or do it in-house. But even doing it half-heartedly is expensive; the lower-end estimate is about £2,500 per hire, and the UK cost per hire average is £3,000.

A bad hire means spending this recruitment cost all over again.

Productivity

If the new hire isn’t all they said they were on paper, then they won’t have the skills to contribute to productivity. You’re paying, but they’re not delivering.

Instead, other team members might pick up the slack, even if they have to stay on late, in an attempt to be welcoming to the new person on their team and to “just make it work”. That’s doubled up work – but far worse is that your good, solid team players are getting burned out.

Teams start to fracture

A bad hire doesn’t necessarily mean a bad person – but often there is a problem with cultural fit. We’re not suggesting that Friday beers is a culture, and that if your new hire doesn’t drink, then they’re a bad fit culturally; that’s just personal choice.

A bad cultural fit is one that doesn’t really care about what you’re trying to achieve, or is at odds with your values as a company. This can seed unhappiness in teams, and cause them to fragment into cliques and silos. Rifts can form, and overall collaboration can be stifled as a result. This doesn’t just harm productivity – it destroys morale.

Your team members don’t have to be best friends (it certainly helps, though!), but they do need to be able to work together respectfully and amicably. If not, people will start to leave. If you’re not careful, it’ll be your top performers who go first. They can often feel that they’ve had to accommodate the bad hire, and have been left to stagnate during their tenure.

Attrition

One bad hire can lead to having to make many more hires to undo the damage. If the team begins to suffer as a result of a bad hire, those not inclined to voice their concerns may become disgruntled – and quit*.

*Bear in mind that this can be a sign of deeper issues. A bad hire making work worse is usually the last kick in the teeth for some people who are already at the end of the employee lifecycle.

Client/customer loss

When quality dives, or key team members leave, clients and customers suffer. This is the final straw for any business, because it’s glaringly obvious that the bottom line is getting hurt.

Don’t let it get this far.

How can you stop a bad hire from getting in?

Well… You sort of can’t. If they interview well, but come into work like a totally different person, that’s just the way it is. You’ll never know until you see them on a day-to-day basis, and see their work (or lack thereof).

Basically, there are no guarantees.

You can change your vetting process, to include skills checks, and ask for previous examples of work. Checking in with former employers is a good starting point, but beware that sometimes a generic response from HR is all you’ll get, and it’s not likely to be a deep-dive into their values and daily output.

Also, be mindful that we’re all human. That new hire might be having a really bad time that you don’t even know about, and this could all just be temporary.

Try talking first.

How to spot a bad hire before it’s too late:

  • Skills are missing that the employee claimed to have
  • Low quality of work
  • Repeated mistakes, even after fair coaching
  • Poor timekeeping and high absenteeism
  • No ownership or responsibility when things go wrong
  • Negative and critical of the company
  • Incomplete workloads are being taken on by other team members
  • Collaboration and communication drops off
  • A noticeable “social void” appears around the new hire

How to respond to a bad hire

  • Find out if their work is suffering because they are. Can you help resolve it?
  • Are they competent, but not familiar with your way of working?
  • Are they motivated to improve?

If the answer to any or all of those questions is a no, then it’s time to terminate their contract, based on your contract agreement and legal obligations.

All that time, just to let them go… 

But for companies who need tech talent, there is a better way.

Generic recruitment can only get you so far. But a specialist recruiter, who knows the job and the people who’ll excel at it? That’s the ideal standard.

This is what we do at ClearHub – the largest global network of Atlassian, DevOps and software professionals in the world.

Created by a team of software and Atlassian experts, we take our deep knowledge of the industry to find the candidates that no generic recruiter can. We consider company culture, technical needs and your existing talent, to find people that will work to build your company.

Our specialist recruiters continue to assist you and your new recruit in their role, with a combination of dedicated project management and technical support should you run into any problems.

The best candidates come to ClearHub. You should, too.

No more bad hires. Get the best talent – with ClearHub.

Our team pairs businesses with Atlassian, Cloud, DevOps and ITSM experts. Everyone in the ClearHub network is vetted, skills-checked and ready to go from day one. We support all our clients and their chosen experts while they’re on the job, too; so you’ll never have to worry about training, upskilling, or making a bad hire ever again.

Get in touch today.

UK contact: Aaron Rowsell

Global Contractor Manager

Email: arowsell@clearhub.tech 

Call: +44 2381 157 811​

US contact: David Runyon

Recruitment Consultant

Email: drunyon@clearhub.tech

Call +1 858 304 1215

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