I am a Technology Lead for a US based Organization. My Organization outsources some of the work to various Indian Outsourcing Companies. We started a new project with a new team 6 months back. It is a very critical and revenue generating project for my organization. Due to these reasons, I asked for highly refined, technically mature and analytically competent individuals. To the same end, we are paying candidates higher than what we pay for the candidates who work for other projects in the organization.
One of the Indian Companies, Company A, approached me for opportunities. Initially they provided good candidates who are doing well. Three months back, A's manager proposed two more candidates. A said that they will take care of screening with the help of their employees who are already working on the project. A claimed they would provide the best candidate as per project requirements. I trusted them and took a chance. They recently come up with a candidate, named Ram. I trusted their decision and accepted to take Ram into the team.
After one month with Ram, I have noticed several things. Ram is a super hard working and dedicated person. He gives more than 100% to deliver the assigned task. The problem is he is a novice in the skills required for the project. We need expertise for this project. Also; this is his first on-site opportunity also and he has no prior on-site experience.
Ram works continuously - more than 10 hours a day and even on week ends - to deliver his tasks on time. For three months, he has worked late nights and from home on week ends. Despite that, he requires help from team members to minimally reach just below the QA standards. In order to sign off his work to production, I have put a lot of effort to convince the QA team Lead.
My problem is that I can not allow this to continue further. Ram is not a slave, but he is working like that for the project. I am very hesitant to give any bad feedback to A's manager. If I give any bad feedback they will fire him and replace him with another candidate. Although it is not my problem, I feel this may be inhumane.
How can I improve the situation professionally without hurting Ram?