Staff Augmentation Services: The New Staffing Norm For 2021

14 Sep

Whenever I have to do something outside my area of expertise, I prefer taking help from someone more competent than me in that particular field.

This is because if I try to do it by myself and don't like the outcome — I would be highly disappointed for wasting all my time, efforts, and resources, of course. And I trust you’d be too if you were in my shoes.

We all have done that at some point in our life. Right?

And the lesson I believe we learned the hard way is — the best way to address any problem beyond your expertise is to entrust it with someone qualified. Someone experienced, like a mechanic for your car and a plumber for that leaky tap in your kitchen.

And wise entrepreneurs know this.


They know their job is to make the business successful and not to do everything alone — such as developing their app having zero development experience.

This is why more and more startups are looking for IT wizards nowadays who can manage the technical parts and enhance the overall capabilities of their in-house team.

Well, there's good news for all the companies that were outsourcing the development of your project is not the only option available now — since many IT companies have started using the Staff Augmentation services to achieve their product goals economically.

Let’s dive deeper into the topic of Resources & staff augmentation to understand it better.


So, What Is Staff Augmentation?


Simply put, staff augmentation is a collaborative outsourcing model, where you hire specialists from a company temporarily to augment an organization’s capabilities, primarily in IT.

So basically, it’s an outsourcing strategy where external employees are hired to fill gaps on projects to achieve the outlined objectives, due to the lack of an adequate amount of skilled workforce.

Staff Augmentation services can be further broken down into five major categories, based on the different criteria:

Criteria Category Meaning
Hiring Model Short Term Generally used in case of increased demand scenarios — such as when the in-house employees are unavailable.
Long Term More suitable for long-term projects because they cut down operational costs to a considerable extent by filling up the skill gap.
Requirements Commonly In cases where you need a reliable workforce to perform tasks that do not require a particular skill set — such as factory workers./td>
Skill Based When you need staff, who needs to possess some basic skill set — such as MSExcel for data entry.
Highly-Skilled When you need advanced skills that can only be possessed via training and experience, such as software engineering and copywriting.


Staff Augmentation v/s Outsourcing

There’s a fine line that separates Staff Augmentation for Outsourcing.

While IT project outsourcing is when an external company is assigned with the complete project or all the related aspects, staff augmentation, in contrast, provides the IT team with virtual resources to manage the workload.

Who is responsible for project management and the final results — these two are the main differentiating factors between outsourcing and staff augmentation.

So in the case of outsourcing, the company you give your project to shall be held accountable for the results, whereas, in the case of staff augmentation, your in-house team is responsible for getting results.


Staff Augmentation v/s Outsourcing

Like any major business decision, there are a number of factors you need to take into consideration before you employ any new methodology in your business. And staff augmentation is not different.

Here are the four major considerations you need to look out for before you hire a staff augmentation company.

1. Determine Your Actual Staffing Needs.

Why do you need to extend your team?

You need to be crystal clear with this particular question before hiring any IT staff augmentation services.

Perhaps you require highly qualified software engineers to fill the skills gaps or cope with insufficient office space. Or maybe your project managers need additional engineering resources to meet the project deadline.

Before you hire someone, you must evaluate your staffing needs. To know which skilled resource you need — you can consult your HR team, managers, and employees.


2. The Length of the Project.

An increase in staff can be used in a unique way to meet the requirements of an organization. However, in every scenario, it is not a perfect solution.

In contrast to longer-term projects that last for months or years to complete, staff augmentation is usually best suited for short-term projects because of all the time, effort, and money involved in the longer run.


3. Project Schedule.

You need to consider whether the staff augmentation company would keep up with the pace of the project's schedule. That is why you should only cooperate with an augmentation company that can meet your schedule efficiently.


4. Secrecy.

Specific projects are really sensitive and involve critical intellectual property. In such instances, staff augmentation solutions should be carefully assessed for security purposes.

However, an agreement signed with a contractor is as solid as one signed with a full-time employee — but doing a little background check on the reputation and security measures practiced won’t do any harm.


Wrapping Up

The IT staff augmentation companies have several advantages, including temporary recruitment, lower development costs, less legal disturbance, greater flexibility, sustainable authority, and many others.

If you are also an IT company owner or startup looking for IT personnel enhancement services, feel free to contact us.

We are a leading software development company with 11+ years of experience in the industry — and a pool of skilled, technologically knowledgeable resources for your next big project.

We have worked on some truly amazing projects which you can check out here.