Staff augmentation is a valuable process of reducing costs and a flexible solution for businesses to expand their workforce as needed.
There is a significant need for information technology (IT) services across multiple sectors.
Companies worldwide embrace innovative technologies to transform operations and stay competitive in evolving market environments.
It can help you meet short-term and long-term goals with added flexibility and quick access to expert pools.
What are Staff Augmentation Services?
Staff augmentation is a tactical process that helps businesses to hire external professionals to work as part-time or full-time contractors with the company’s existing teams on a specific project.
For example, if a company is planning to develop an enterprise resource planning or ERP software.
However, the company has only three in-house developers and needs more developers for the project. Hiring extra professional developers to complete the software within a few weeks.
By implementing the staff augmentation services, a company can bridge the knowledge gap, accelerate the hiring processes and time to market, and gain access to highly qualified software developers.
Staff augmentation services are a superior method that allows businesses to boost their team whenever needed without hiring full-time employees.
Upon the launch of the company’s software in the market, there is no necessity to terminate the developers engaged in its creation.
The strategy enables the avoidance of the legal intricacies and documentation associated with full-time employment.
What are the types of Staff Augmentation Services?
Staff augmentation services come in different types based on the nature of the requirements at various times.
This diversity has contributed to its widespread adoption as a staffing approach in the global market. Here are the main types:
1. Skill-Based Augmentation
Skill-based augmentation involves hiring specific skillful experts based on specific projects. These professionals generally hold a higher degree and experience, enabling them to execute tasks with greater efficiency. Their distinct skill sets render them important assets.
Example – Data entry specialists.
2. Highly Skilled Augmentation
Highly skilled augmentation requires professionals with advanced domain knowledge. This model is useful when it is a priority.
These professionals are engaged to tackle intricate challenges or to oversee projects that necessitate specialized technical knowledge, including product development or the resolution of significant problems. However, it can be expensive.
Example – Software developers.
3. Commodity-Based Augmentation
Commodity-based augmentation strategy emphasizes the rapid recruitment of personnel to address urgent business requirements.
Employees acquired through commodity-based augmentation may lack specialized expertise; however, they are capable of executing fundamental tasks.
This method is frequently employed in situations where there is a workforce shortage or to occupy positions that necessitate basic skill sets.
Example – Warehouse workers.
4. Short-Term Augmentation
Short-term augmentation services are designed for specific time frames and are utilised for short-term needs and general projects that can be executed quickly.
This model effectively addresses urgent needs and obstacles within a company.
Occasionally, external specialists are engaged during the final stages of a project to resolve issues and facilitate the product’s market launch.
Example – Hiring extra accountants during tax season.
5. Long-Term Augmentation
Long-term augmentation process, hiring a professional for a prolonged duration. It can be a year or more than one year.
This strategy is often adopted when the individual’s expertise becomes vital to the business, necessitating ongoing engagement beyond a single project.
Example – A company hires IT consultants for a prolonged duration.
6. Project-Based Augmentation
Project-based augmentation involves bringing professionals for the whole project. The project-based augmentation can be for short term, mid term or long term.
Team augmentation services are generally structured around specific projects. For that, it requires more team members and a variety of skills.
Example – A software development team is brought in to build a gaming application.
What are the benefits of Staff Augmentation?
Staff augmentation refers to the process of boosting the company’s existing staff with experts. It is mainly beneficial for project-based businesses. Here are a few important benefits:
1. Lower Hiring Cost
The company can hire temporary or contract-based staff, which depends on the nature of the business.
Businesses can avoid the long-term costs of full-time employees. For example, training and office space.
2. Access to Specialized Skills
In the current market, technology has changed rapidly with the help of AI and automation.
There is a shortage of talent in many businesses that can bring creative ideas. Businesses can bridge the skills gap by utilizing external talent.
The global talent pool gives businesses additional opportunities to connect rather than being limited to local resources, which enables them to hire more quickly, intelligently, and economically.
3. Scalability and Flexibility
Outsourcing professionals allow boosting the workforce on project needs. Instead of engaging full-time staff for a long-term project and firing them when it’s finished, you can swiftly acquire qualified specialists for short-term contracts.
4. Faster Project Delivery
By accelerating project execution, staff augmentation can assist in meeting goals when faced with tight project timelines.
Fast access to highly skilled experts allows companies to expedite schedules and guarantee project completion.
Hence, the staff augmentation approach provides the flexibility and resources of companies to effectively meet the project deadline.
What is a Staff Augmentation Model?
Staff augmentation falls under the outsourcing business model, wherein a company depends on external talent and resources to handle different tasks and activities that it cannot accomplish independently.
However, the process of staff augmentation differs from other outsourcing services, such as consulting or managed services.
In staff augmentation, you onboard professionals or expertise from external sources to fill the void in your organization; it can be temporary or permanent.
When you delegate the project to external parties, you might or might not supply the necessary resources. Typically, outsourced projects do not utilize your internal resources.
Conclusion
By utilizing external professionals with specific skill sets, companies can enhance their capabilities, adjust their workforce in line with project needs, and minimize operational risks.
This enables you to boost the team’s skills, raise productivity, speed up the time to market, and enhance efficiency. By hiring a reputable IT staff augmentation company, you can gain a competitive edge in the market.
