What is Staff Augmentation? Definition & How Does It Work

In the IT industry, there has been a spike in employment and contract outsourcing in recent years. This is partly due to declining profit margins, which have prompted many IT firms to look for ways to cut administrative and organizational costs. In this article, we’ll look at one sort of outsourcing, staff augmentation, and how it works.

What Is Staff Augmentation?

Staff augmentation is a type of outsourcing that allows a company to swiftly hire the people it needs for a project. As the name implies, it is the process of building an external team to support your in-house workforce. Staff augmentation allows businesses to increase output without incurring the costs of hiring full-time employees. It also allows your workers to concentrate on core company functions while the hired team handles the rest.

To put the staff augmentation strategy into action in your organization, you’ll normally contact a staff augmentation provider, who will then provide you with a skilled team to work with for the duration of your project. Your needs will decide the number of employees you hire and the length of time they work for you.

Types of Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation can be split into three main classifications:

•  Commodity: These workers are employed to perform basic activities like warehouse work or manual labor. They merely need to be responsible; they don’t need to be gifted in any way.
• Skilled: This necessitates that the hired individuals possess a separate skill set, although one that is not particularly advanced.
•  Highly skilled: Experts who have superior talents to take on crucial work and are highly knowledgeable and skilled.      

Staff Augmentation vs Managed Services (Outsourcing)

While staff augmentation means hiring a crew on a temporary basis to help your company expand its capacity, project-based consulting entails hiring a consulting firm to handle the project while your team handles supervision and other aspects of the business. The following are some of the key differences between the two models.

Expenditure

A company can save money by using staff augmentation. Only the expense of hiring the staff for a limited time is needed of the company. Because the hired crew already has the experience needed to finish the job, you won’t have to spend money on staff training and seminars if you use staff augmentation. On the other hand, managed services aren’t as cost-effective as recruiting more workers.

This is because you just pay for the services of the individuals you hire through staff augmentation agencies, but outsourcing your project to consulting firms requires you to pay the entire agency for the service. As a result, you should avoid outsourcing low-budget projects to consulting firms because you can lose money.

Cohesiveness

The team’s cohesiveness is another element to consider when deciding whether to use staff augmentation or project-based consultancy. It may take some time for new employees to acclimatize to your company’s working standards and rules because you will be boosting your staff with individuals from another business. To make sure this process goes smoothly, integrate it in your employee onboarding process from the beginning.

This is not the case with consulting firms, as the consulting firm owns all project employees, allowing them to operate together as a cohesive unit.

Control

With staff augmentation, you can hire a dedicated team to work under your project managers, giving you complete control over the project’s important components. Because the work is done on your property and on your terms, you can rest assured that your project will be completed on time.

The personnel you hire must likewise commit 100 percent of their time to complete your project. Consulting firms, on the other hand, work on multiple projects for various companies at the same time. Because they may not always be accessible to take your requests, this may create a delay in contact.

When deciding between a staff augmentation approach and an outsourcing development model, consider the following aspects.

Your team

Before determining which model to utilize, it’s critical to assess your team. To keep track of things, you can use tools like TimeDoctor or a Timedoctor alternative. To begin, you must first comprehend your team’s capabilities. This might help you figure out whether hiring more people will help you finish your project or if you’ll have to outsource it entirely.

Another issue to consider is the morale of your crew. What impact will bring in a team of specialists to take on the critical components of your project have on your employees’ morale? Is it going to encourage or discourage them?

Consider the firms

Any company you are considering for staff augmentation or outsourcing should be thoroughly researched. You must confirm that the company’s work culture is compatible with yours, as well as that they have the essential abilities and experience to finish your project.

Analyze the budget

While both staff augmentation and IT outsourcing aim to lower production costs, you must first assess your financial resources to determine whether you can afford to hire a consulting firm to handle the entire project or if you can only afford to hire a dedicated team of professionals to supplement your in-house workforce.

When Should Your Company Implement Staff Augmentation?

For certain businesses, staff augmentation should not be considered. Staff augmentation is however perfect and should be implemented in your company if:

You need to supplement your in-house team

This could be a result of a multitude of issues ranging from a shortage of manpower to a lack of specific competencies needed to execute the project. Staff augmentation may be your only option if you are unable to locate full-time workers for your project due to a labor shortage in your location.

It’s also a good option for your company if the skills you’ll require are only required for one project and will not be required for any others. When you can recruit a dedicated workforce to work on a project-by-project basis, it makes little sense to employ full-time personnel who will only be needed for one project and will be idle the rest of the time.

You’re pressed for time

It’s possible that your company will have trouble meeting a deadline. Hiring a team of professionals to work on the project with you, on the other hand, would allow you to complete it more quickly and meet your deadline.

Trying to find full-time employees in a short amount of time is tough, but finding individuals through staffing agencies on short notice is quite simple. It also allows key members of your team to focus on the core operations of your firm.

You need to get work done while you await full-time staff

Staff augmentation can fill the gap between the need for full-time employees and when you are able to hire them. While you’re on the lookout for new employees, the team you hire from a team augmentation service will allow you to keep things in motion.

What Is Staff Augmentation? Pros and Cons

Pros of Staff Augmentation

It helps to save recruitment time

The process of hiring full-time personnel is time-consuming and resource-intensive. You’ll need to write a job description, shortlist individuals, and conduct interviews.

On the other side, staff augmentation takes a fraction of the time. People are eager to take over your jobs through staff augmentation services, allowing you to return to work in a matter of days.

Access to a talented pool of specialized professionals

When you employ staff augmentation agencies, you do not have to go through a long list of candidates before you identify individuals that have the specific skills you require. All you have to do is specify the technical skills you need, and you’ll be paired with people who have them.

You can even engage foreign professionals who would be impossible to hire without the assistance of staff augmentation. Because different regions offer distinct skills, you can hire individuals from these locations to supplement your current in-house team.

Scalable and flexible

You only need to recruit the number of individuals needed to complete each project because the person you hire from staff augmentation agencies do not belong to you. You don’t want your employees to be idle when you’re working on minor projects.

All you have to do now is hire the people you’ll need to complete each job. Flexible team augmentation services also allow you to hire only the people who are qualified to complete the jobs at hand.

Cons of Staff Augmentation

Lack of internal knowledge

While you may not need to train supplemental personnel to improve their skills, you will need to train them to adhere to your company’s standards and procedures. Supplemental personnel may require some time to adjust to your company’s needs.

Although this will only be valid for a limited time if you work with a qualified agency that will undertake necessary research on your company to ensure that their personnel can quickly integrate.

Management capabilities

Adding new employees necessitates the management of additional resources. While the manager may be able to completely leverage existing resources, it may become a problem to manage added resources. An experienced manager should not have a problem with this although it is something that should be considered.

Higher long term costs

When you use staff augmentation, you must pay both the agency and the hired talent. In the long term, this can increase prices because you’ll have to pay the agency each time you need to engage additional staff for your initiatives.

Tips For Success With Staff Augmentation

To get the most out of a staff augmentation strategy, make sure you run your business properly. The following are some pointers to assist you with properly applying the staff augmentation strategy.

Identify the skills you need

It goes without saying that you must do a thorough examination of the project at hand as well as the capabilities of your in-house staff. This can help you decide the skills you’ll need when approaching staffing companies.

You’ll also need to determine how long it will take to complete the project and how long you’ll need to keep the workers you hire.

Choose the right partner

Make sure you do your study before hiring a staffing firm to guarantee that you will be able to work with them. Check to discover if they have a positive work environment and a solid track record. You should also double-check that the skills they provide match the skills you seek.

Make sure there is clear communication

Communication is critical to the success of any undertaking. Miscommunication can result in costly errors in terms of both resources and time. You must guarantee that all members of your team communicate effectively, whether they are in-house staff or external professionals. To avoid such issues and make communication run smoothly, consider integrating office phone systems, use email, or other types of quick communication methods.

Embrace technology

You should make effective use of project management and team collaboration technologies to ensure good communication amongst members of your team. These tools also inspire your team members to share their thoughts, encouraging unity and cooperation. Slack, Asana, and Trello are examples of useful tools.

Build a good relationship between your hired talents and your in-house staff

Make your new hires feel like they’re valuable members of the team. You should ensure that everyone receives the same treatment. This will assist in the formation of positive relationships among your team members.

You should make sure that your hired employees and in-house employees are communicating properly.

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Conclusion

Staff augmentation is a valuable resource for IT firms trying to boost efficiency without spending a lot of money. A staff augmentation strategy is an excellent way for businesses to stay up with developments in the IT industry by allowing them to acquire highly skilled specialists in their industries.

It also allows businesses to scale simply and effectively by keeping a small number of in-house staff and then hiring more individuals as needed depending on the project’s needs.

While there are numerous benefits to team augmentation, it is equally important to examine the drawbacks. To guarantee that your experience dealing with supplement employees is as beneficial as possible, you must also follow best practices.

Working with the right agency is one way to ensure that you get the most out of staff augmentation. Sumatosoft has been providing IT organizations with supplement workers for more than a decade, with excellent outcomes and comments.

We’ve worked on over a hundred different projects and have a team of software engineers ready to take on the development of your project. Because all of our specialists are fluent in English, no communication barrier can hinder output. We offer complete transparency and extremely low pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the distinction between staff augmentation and Project-based consulting?

Your company keeps control of the project’s progress by using personnel augmentation. You simply enlist the assistance of extra people to complete the endeavor.

Project-based consulting, on the other hand, is the process of contracting out your project to a consulting firm that will work on it based on delivery and quality assurance..

What is the process of employee augmentation?

If a company wants to boost productivity, it needs to look at the job at hand to see what talents supplement personnel will need to supply. They must also figure out how many personnel they’ll need and how long they’ll be needed.

Once all of this is defined, they can contact a staffing agency with their requirements. The organization then searches its database for specialists who fit the needs of the IT firm. Screenings and interviews might be undertaken before job offers are given.

How does one go about finding a reputable staff augmentation firm?

Finding a reliable employment business can be done in a number of ways. One of them is word-of-mouth marketing. A buddy will recommend a competent staff augmentation service to you based on their experience working with the agency, giving you confidence that you can trust the agency with your project.

Another way to locate augmentation services is to carry out a Google search. A Google search will show up a number of agencies that you may look into further and confirm their competence.

What are the benefits of having a clear job description?

A detailed job description will aid you in verifying that the staffing agency’s abilities are a perfect match for your needs. It also saves you time on shortlisting and interviews, which you would have to spend otherwise.

How does staff augmentation differ from outsourcing?

Outsourcing refers to a variety of business models, including workforce augmentation. There are alternative outsourcing models that can be used to complete projects, such as project-based consulting.