What is Staff Augmentation?
Staff Augmentation means an outsourcing strategy in which companies hire talents to cover the necessary positions in their teams. Businesses can effectively scale their team and choose candidates based on their requirements and needs. Additionally, the team augmentation model helps to reduce the costs and hassle of hiring full-time staff members, leaving more opportunities for workflow optimization. If you haven't checked about our earlier article then check What is Staffing Agency and different services offered by Staffing Agencies.
The Staff Augmentation process is also valuable because of the expertise of candidates it offers. Traditionally, your outsourcing Staff Augmentation partner determines the knowledge and skills required for in-house teams and complements them with the right professionals. This allows companies to tackle the talent shortage and improve the performance of their internal team. Staff Augmentation services are also offered by Service-based Company apart from Staffing Agencies. Learn more about the difference between Product-based Company and Service-based Company.
How does Staff Augmentation work?
Staff Augmentation is a means to employ qualified individuals on a contract rather than permanently. Simply put, you’re bringing in highly skilled individuals from a staffing firm to provide you with an advantage to meet your project’s goals. Staff Augmentation allows companies to expand their workforce without additional costs. Throughout the life of your project, technical or non-technical personnel operate alongside your internal team; even working remotely.
The Staff Augmentation model is a fantastic alternative for IT organizations looking to cut expenses while increasing production and efficiency. However, it’s critical to first understand what this model entails, and its applications and benefits to an augmented team before implementing it.
What are the types of Staff Augmentation?
Finding the top talent from the market and deliver them on Staff Augmentation module takes very much effort as candidates not being your existing employees but here are killer sourcing strategies to find the top talent. Staff augmentation can be carried out in three ways:
Commodity-based Augmentation - This type of augmentation primarily adds more staff to a business. It involves hiring employees who are not necessarily highly skilled but can still perform the basic tasks required by the business. Commodity-based augmentation can be done when there is a shortage of employees and businesses need to hire people quickly or when they need to fill positions that do not require high levels of skill.
Skill-based Augmentation - This staff augmentation occurs when businesses hire skilled workers. These individuals will have higher levels of education and experience than average workers, allowing them to complete tasks more efficiently than others within the company. These employees may also have skills not readily available in other companies, making them valuable assets to an organization.
Highly-skilled Augmentation - Highly skilled individuals come from outside organizations and are hired for specific projects within those organizations. They may perform tasks that require expertise, such as developing new products or solving complex problems with existing ones.
It can also be divided into two categories short-term and long-term. Short-term staff augmentation involves bringing on temporary employees to help you with a specific task. For example, if you're working on an ad campaign, you should bring on an intern to help you with the design elements. This would be considered short-term because it will only last for one project.
On the other hand, long-term staff augmentation is when you hire someone for a longer period, typically a year or more. This can be because employees' skills have grown so much that they've become indispensable to your business, and you need them for the long haul.
What are the benefits of Staff Augmentation?
Staff Augmentation is a go-to option when permanent hiring is challenging or adds to the additional cost of managing the workforce. Here are some add-on benefits to be aware of:
Increase in Productivity - In this setup, you have an in-house team and selected professionals from an outside organization working on your project. The good thing is that they will be dedicated to the project the whole time without interruptions or delays, thus helping increase productivity. You can hire them for other long-term projects if you are satisfied with their performance. Moreover, you can communicate directly with them about any requirement.
Flexibility - In the case of a permanent developer, you will have to follow a lengthy replacement process, and it becomes even more challenging to replace a software development outsourcing team. On the other hand, if an augmented developer does not perform optimally and brings no value addition, you can easily replace the developers without much hassle.
Cost Savings - One of the most significant benefits of Staff Augmentation services narrows down to its cost-effectiveness. Let’s say you borrow two developers to augment your in-house team. The cost of an in-house team includes — infrastructure, basic pay, and other benefits. On the other hand, you only have to pay the basic wage to the two augmented developers without worrying about infrastructure or office space provision costs. The augmented service provider takes care of the rest.
Time Savings - Hiring a team of developers from an outside development agency takes less time than hiring permanent staff. You are saved from the long process of hiring, training, and maintaining the permanent staff when the project is under discussion, and you have no time to waste.
Growth and adaptability - Since the system is flexible, companies can expand their working operations even without the binding of expanding the entire workforce. Staff Augmentation services have facilitated more effective alternatives for businesses – they can hire people on a project basis.
What are the challenges of Staff Augmentation?
To make optimal use of the Staff Augmentation process, you need to know the challenges too
Knowledge and Quality Gaps - It can sometimes become difficult to control quality, especially when managers try and control costs. If the quality of work of the developer is not up to the mark, it could lead to project cost overruns and poor quality of deliverables.
Cultural Background Barriers - Language and culture play a huge role in the workflow. Consistency of the language, time zone gaps, and the general attitude to work may vary because of the varied ethos & culture. It is not easy to govern the level of motivation or accessibility of the remote staff.
Security Risk - Security can be a significant issue during Staff Augmentation. While integrating third-party sources into your work environment, there is always a risk involved – client & organizational security needs to be taken care of. Security audits should be an integral part of the work processes so that client data is not at risk.
Possible Misfit for Long-term Projects - Staff Augmentation can sometimes be inappropriate for projects that run over a long time or require ongoing inputs. The hired staff could turn over during that time, causing discontinuity and disruptions in the project.