What Is Staff Augmentation and When Does It Work Best?

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What Is Staff Augmentation and When Does It Work Best?

Staff augmentation is a powerful outsourcing strategy used by businesses to hire talent from an external provider, either as part-time contractors or full-time employees. In recent years, companies of all sizes have taken advantage of staff and team augmentation arrangements, hiring short-term talent to supplement their full-time workforce. While it is a short-term tactic, there are advantages to this approach over the conventional one of employing in-house staff. 

Staff augmentation aims to find a team to swiftly compensate for a lack of expertise and experience, like adding members to your team without expanding your workforce. By adding more personnel to your team, you can avoid taking on HR and administrative employment issues. Rather, all these concerns are handled by the outsourcing partner that supplies the augmented team. 

The strategy enables you to close the knowledge gap, reduce hiring and marketing time, and gain access to highly qualified software developers, thereby increasing your team’s productivity. This article will discuss staff augmentation and when it works best. It will provide you with the answer you are looking for if you are wondering if it is the right choice for you. So, let’s dive right in! 

When Does the Strategy Work Best?

Staff augmentation allows you to quickly acquire additional resources and professionals without having to invest in hiring and training them. It also allows you to scale up or down quickly, depending on the project’s needs. Furthermore, it provides access to specialised skills and technologies that may be hard to find. 

It may seem attractive as an outsourcing strategy, but you shouldn’t think this approach will suit all scenarios. The scenarios mentioned below are some of the scenarios where the strategy works best. 

  • It is a good strategy for short-term projects that require specialised skills or resources, but it is not suitable for long-term projects. Because they can take months to complete, you are better off hiring a long-term, full-time worker for them.
  • It is imperative to augment or improve your current expertise when launching a new product or embarking on a new project, even if you have software developers working for you internally. Then expanding your IT department’s workforce makes sense.
  • The strategy works best for projects of low or medium complexity. It is not suitable for complex projects that involve a lengthy ramp-up time. 
  • Another situation in which the strategy works well is when you already have developers working on your product in-house. But to work on creating a different product component, you want to assemble another engineering team consisting of a few talented gig workers.

Most Common Types of Staff Augmentation

There are three approaches to staff augmentation: highly skilled, skill-based, and commodity-based. Take a look at each in more detail.

  • Commodity-Based Augmentation
  • Skill-Based Augmentation
  • Highly-Skilled Augmentation

1. Commodity-Based Augmentation

Hiring more staff is the primary advantage of this type of augmentation for a business. It entails selecting workers who can carry out the fundamental duties needed by the company but may not be extremely skilled. Businesses that need to fill positions that do not require a high level of skill or those that are experiencing a labour shortage can use commodity-based augmentation.

2. Skill-Based Augmentation

In this type of staff augmentation, businesses hire skilled workers with a higher level of education and experience than average workers. They are able to accomplish tasks more efficiently than other employees. These workers may possess abilities that are hard to come by in other businesses, which makes them invaluable resources for a company.

3. Highly-Skilled Augmentation

Highly skilled individuals are recruited from outside organisations and hired for specific projects within those organisations. They might carry out tasks that require specialised knowledge, like developing new products or fixing challenging problems with already existing ones. Additionally, it can be separated into two groups: short-term and long-term. 

  • Short-term staff augmentation is hiring temporary workers to assist you in completing a particular task. 
  • For instance, hiring an intern to assist with the design elements of an ad campaign is a good idea. Given that it is only intended to last for one project, it would be regarded as short-term.
  • However, long-term staff augmentation refers to hiring someone for an extended period of time, usually a year or longer. 
  • It may be the result of employees’ skills developing to the point where they are now essential to your company and will be around for a long time.

‍Pros of Staff Augmentation

There are several ways that staff augmentation can contribute to the success of your company. These include access to specialised skills and knowledge, the ability to quickly fill gaps and adjust to changing business needs, and the cost savings associated with not having to hire permanent staff, among others. Here are some of the other advantages of staff augmentation.

1. Global Talent Access

It goes without saying that when you augment staff, you are no longer constrained by the pool of local talent. You might need to lower your standards when hiring locally and in person to bring on the necessary personnel for your projects. With staff augmentation services accessible everywhere, working remotely with vendors and hiring top talent from any location is simple.

2. Superior Productivity

Your team will work more efficiently with the staff augmentation model because the developers you hire will be entirely focused on your project. As a committed team, they are involved in every aspect of your project and handle it as though it were their own. They do not work as part of an outsourcing team that manages several projects a day, so their productivity is high, and your project is finished as you want it to be.

3. No Additional Costs

You are not required to pay extra for things like equipment purchases, social benefits, or office rent. You could hire more experts who would meet your needs for far less money. All that needs to be done is set up an account on a website such as Upwork or pay a staff augmentation company a fee; they will handle the rest. Your primary business responsibilities will receive more attention during this time.

4. Greater Adaptability

The team can be resized or reorganised more easily when outside talent is hired. In the event that project demands increase, you can hire talent on a temporary basis. You will not have to waste time or money hiring full-time staff members and firing them when the project is done. 

5. Quick Project Completion

A staff augmentation project can be very beneficial because almost all IT projects have delivery deadlines. If you are struggling to meet strict deadlines, staff augmentation can help you expedite project execution times. You will be able to swiftly bring in top-notch engineers to your team and support the growth of your business.

As you are aware, finding fresh talent for your company can be a laborious process with occasionally unpredictable results. At that point, staff augmentation proves to be a priceless strategy to follow for bringing on productive talent without requiring a long-term commitment. 

Hiring flexible remote talent without having to deal with paperwork or other tedious processes can help you stay ahead of the competition while also giving you more control over your projects. If staff augmentation is indeed what you are after, this article will provide you with the necessary information to quickly and easily assemble a development team that is both scalable and effective.

Interesting Links:

Staff Augmentation Strategy Explained

What are the Pros and Cons of Staff Augmentation

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