In large teams this can be a destructive cycle. You hire quickly and get people in the field as soon as possible, because there’s a lot of work to do. This pressure means that new team members end up handling work they aren’t ready for, making mistakes that could be costly for the business.
With inadequate supervision or mentorship, they grow unhappy and leave the team. You then have to start the whole process over again, which only increases the pressure on your more experienced team members.
The fastest way to address these challenges and ensure that you have a strong, well-rounded team is to have a solid R&D induction process in place. That way, new team members feel supported from the start, and can quickly develop the skills and confidence to manage their assigned work.
New hires are struggling
Induction processes that used to work perfectly can get less effective as organisations grow – and it’s not always easy to spot! Smaller firms often rely on close mentoring and support from existing team members, requiring new hires to familiarise themselves with the job by learning from colleagues.
But in a large team it’s often harder to make this work. Maybe it’s not always clear who to ask for help, or the ‘go-to-person’ for something is too busy to be consistently available to other staff. The company’s internal management and reporting processes might also become more focussed on structured reviews and documentation, with little time for task- or client-focussed feedback.
Poor training causes problems
If you’re overseeing a large team, this squeezes the amount of time you can spend with each individual. It’s difficult to schedule regular check-ins and ensure that new hires receive the support they need. But when new hires are left to manage their own training and development, they can all too easily develop gaps in their knowledge that won’t be noticed until it’s too late.
If these gaps aren’t identified and fixed, it reflects badly on you and your team. Mistakes made in front of clients could require intervention from senior team members to correct, or worse, could damage the trust and relationship that you’ve worked so hard to build up.
An induction process which ensures that new starts get effective R&D training can make all the difference. It not only helps maintain the quality of service your team provides but also prevents the costly errors that can lead to fee write-offs.
Top training priorities in R&D tax relief
Whenever someone new joins your R&D team, they need to have a foundational understanding of a number of key topics:
- The Definition of R&D for Tax Purposes
- Administrative Features of the Schemes: Rules and timelines for claiming
- Scientific or Technological Uncertainty: What it is and how it applies
- R&D Tax Relief for Subcontractors: Specific rules and considerations
- How to differentiate between Commercial Projects and R&D for Tax Purposes
- Responsibilities of the Competent Professional
- Eligible Categories of Expenditure
- Impact of Grants and Subsidies
- Calculating Potential Tax Benefits: Understanding the mechanisms within each R&D scheme
They can’t be expected to be experts right from the start, but a basic understanding of the fundamentals is essential to building trust and providing a good service to clients. After all, clients can throw up questions about all kinds of things – you want your team to be able to handle these with confidence and accuracy.
And of course, this knowledge also supports another essential skill – preparing technical reports and submissions. They need to be able to gather and present relevant information in a clear and concise way that’s easy for HMRC to digest. HMRC has turned a much stricter eye on R&D tax relief in recent years, and they won’t hesitate to issue a compliance check if the claim is confusingly presented or packed with well-meaning but irrelevant detail.
Structure and support both matter in R&D training
Mentorship from experienced team members is invaluable for helping new hires connect the dots and form a comprehensive understanding of the R&D schemes. Most firms rely on it to provide the training their new hires need.
But to give your team the best chance of success, you should also offer a planned and structured training process. .
Structured training has clear benefits. It allows your new hires to quickly get up to speed and become an effective part of your team. Subject-specific training gives them the info they need without eating into anyone else’s time. And it will give you confidence that they’re covering all the necessary information for their role.
Unfortunately, building an R&D training programme from scratch takes a long time, so it’s hard to prioritise as a busy R&D manager!
To cut down the time it will take you, we’ve developed a free training calendar which you can adapt for your team. It gives you a detailed list of all the topics to cover, and you can use it to work any existing internal resources into a more effective programme. If you have gaps to fill in your resources, there are also suggested training materials you can use to plug them.
