IT Staff Augmentation – Effective Model in 2024
Outsourcing is an excellent way to accomplish business goals using minimal resources to help achieve their strategic objectives. Businesses that prefer professional services at a fair cost have quickly adopted this delivery method. Outsourcing firms have increased the scalability of their services according to market demands. It also encompasses software development outsourcing as IT staff augmentation and dedicated development teams.
Outsourcing and traditional staff augmentation have a significant impact on the world economy: In the year 2019, the outsourcing market increased by $92.5 billion across the globe, not just because it’s deemed cost-effective outsourcing but also because businesses often opt to outsource to focus on their core business because of the flexibility which allows the speed of market, as well as improving the quality of service in a new venture.
Remote teams have proven to be an effective solution for the IT sector that requires an experienced programmer with the ability to provide top-quality service to clients at a cost-effective price. Since acquiring in-house experts is a difficult, time-consuming job, and freelancers can be unreliable, staff augmentation can provide the advantages at less cost, but it is contingent on choosing the time and material or fixed price business model.
There are many reasons to decide to go with IT staff augmentation over in-house hiring:
- The cost of hiring employees in-house is high.
- Staff turnover is high.
- Time spent on recruiting, especially in the highly competitive IT market
- The talent pool is not local enough.
- Budget limitations
What is the Staff Augmentation Model?
Staff augmentation model involves expanding an existing team of in-house employees with specialists in specialized areas either on a short-term or long-term project basis. This implies that you could fill in the gaps in a team’s skills by hiring dedicated experts who can meet particular IT requirements for your project, provide an edge for your business and reduce the burden of hiring in-house workers.
In this case, for example, you’re developing an e-commerce website. You already have a group of in-house developers; however, to be able to launch the site on time, you’re lacking two programmers with specific abilities. To avoid wasting months on recruiting or contracting issues and choosing a suitable person for your group, you may employ a staff augment service to hire an experienced software developer within two to three weeks. Once the project is completed, you’re not facing legal problems dismissing a team if you don’t need their services anymore.
Specialized staff augmentation firms can be the perfect location to locate these dedicated IT specialists who can join your team in a matter of days. The employees are contracted and managed through the mid-company. It also means a quicker onboarding process without payroll management requirements and office management, vacations, training, and other legal and administrative issues.
Outsourcing companies keep an inventory of profiles with particular skills. You can then choose to expand your company by hiring vetted software developers. Because of their pool of specialists, expanding your team is simple and quick. This is particularly beneficial for companies that constantly require the hiring of developers with different abilities and expertise levels on a project basis.
Read more: IT Staff Augmentation and Consulting: What Are the Difference?
When Should You Seek IT Staff Augmentation?
You can contact your IT staff augmentation business anytime, based on your need. Here are some reasons why you could consider this approach.
Your Projects Are In Time-Sensitive
Suppose there is already an internal team and you need to recruit more IT specialists. In that case, the local IT workforce’s shortage of qualified IT specialists and the time-consuming recruitment process are holding you back.
This is an indication to follow this approach.
Staff augmentation lets you increase the size of your development team by recruiting other people to assist you in filling skill gaps at different phases of the development process.
Demand For Scaling The Team
In developing software, there will be phases that require you to expand the team faster to achieve the objectives in a short time. You could spend months looking for the most senior developer or someone who has rare/popular skills due to the high competition in the market. Collaborating with a firm that can provide a large pool of experts is the best choice in this case.
As you can see, staff augmentation can be an effective method when you need to recruit five to ten tech experts (depending on the demands of your business) for a set fixed time.
High-level Talents Are Required
If your project requires high-level IT specialists with a specific technology stack, you don’t have time to recruit and train junior employees or people with less knowledge.
You need the specialized expertise you don’t have on your team to execute the project, and you don’t require that expert after your project is completed.
In this case, you may consider staff augmentation. A skilled and highly-skilled engineer is easier and more efficient to integrate into your project.
Read more: How to Choose the Right Staff Augmentation Partner
The Advantages of IT Staff Augmentation Services
Many companies are looking into staff augmentation to meet budgetary and time limitations. If you already have a development team that includes the project manager or the tech responsible, hiring employees would be better than hiring a team for software development that incorporates managed services from suppliers.
Flexible and Secure
IT Staff augmentation helps you scale up or down the size of your development team as needed. You can hire as many IT experts as you like, whether you need one person to handle a specific requirement or multiple employees for a project with a reasonable price for service. In this way, businesses can undertake tasks of all sizes or complexity. Additionally, staff augmentation will allow you to fill vacant positions in just a few days.
Enhance Productivity
Staff augmentation gives you greater productivity as the staff augmentation team commits all of their effort and time to a single task.
Additionally, when you work with staff augmentation providers, You will be able to manage your entire project, which can help you make sure that your staff augmentation providers are following the guidelines you set out.
Reduces Development Costs
Finding and maintaining full-time IT professionals could cost more than you thought. On-demand outstaffing can save you time and money setting up a new workspace and offering hardware, software, and other office equipment. Additionally, you do not have to worry about paying for vacations, sick leave, health insurance and paying the tax for your employee, and all of that is the staffing vendor’s duty.
Sometimes, it could even take you out of your plans and budget, especially for startups and small-sized businesses.
Staff augmentation is an effective alternative to reduce costs, thus increasing revenue and earnings for your company.
According to the Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey 2020, almost 70% of businesses have selected cost reduction as their primary goal for outsourcing, particularly after the impact of Covid-19.
No one can guarantee how much money you will save on a software project due to a variety of other factors. However, by comparing hiring local expertise, staff augmentation tends to be less expensive.
Efficient Staff Management
Unlike outsourcing for projects, staff augmentation offers more control over workflows and the team. Managing the team yourself gives you more authority than leaving team management to the outsourcing provider. Additionally, by keeping track of the development process, the team’s performance and efforts, you can take action immediately. This means that you won’t get caught up in a situation where the outsourced manager tells you about a problem that could have been addressed within three months.
Concentrate on the People, Not on Vendors
When choosing an IT outsourcing service, businesses take note of their expertise and experience. However, these aspects don’t guarantee the quality of the work that the resources outsourced to them will offer. In this situation, the best method is to focus on the competencies you require to accomplish the task before selecting the vendor. You can also look up vendors through Clutch.co for feedback ratings, rankings, and rates.
The model for staff augmentation allows you to choose the right expert with the skills you require regardless of the company. It is possible to select three programmers from three different firms or search for one that can provide all three at once. It’s your choice. In either case, you can employ the required software developers within just a week.
What are The Different Types of Staff Augmentation?
Staff augmentation is an HR outsourcing approach that allows a business to add personnel to a team based on the expertise required for a specific project. Many companies provide various staff augmentation services. The option you select will depend on the specific needs of your organization.
There are two primary types of Staff Augmentation: short-term and long-term.
- Short-term: When there is a temporary requirement for employees or when in-house employees are unavailable, short-term staff augmentation services are used.
- Long-term staff augmentation services are used when the project is lengthy. There is a need to fill a talent gap or reduce operational costs, or when it is difficult to hire an in-house employee.
Additionally, staff augmentation can be separated into the following categories:
- Traditional Staff Providers: traditional staff providers provide temporary labourers.
- Master Vendor Staff Provider: a single vendor runs the whole staffing program.
- Specialized/Boutique Agencies: small companies that focus on highly specialised talents.
- Gig Platforms: online platforms that provide instant access to independent workers.
- On-demand Talent Platforms: online platforms that provide access to highly-skilled specialists
- Independent Contractors: Independent contractors are engaged directly by organizations.
Read more: Staff Augmentation vs IT Project Outsourcing: Pros, Cons & Differences
IT Staff Augmentation Process
Ultimately, the basic process flow for staff augmentation can be broken down into four easy components, which we will detail below.
Step 1: Identify Your Requirements
Before beginning a search for individuals with the necessary skills to bolster your team, you must determine which skills are required. Determine the credentials you will expect of candidates, including their skills and experience and any other prerequisites. You must also select how many of these qualified persons you wish to employ.
Step 2: Research and Evaluation
After identifying the type of people you seek, the next obvious step is to search for a staff augmentation firm that will carry out the work on your behalf using the parameters you have provided. There are several methods for evaluating the suitability of applicants, including conducting interviews and any exams you require them to pass before joining your team.
Step 3: Onboard New Team Members
Once you’ve assessed and identified your new team members, the onboarding phase of the process can begin. The new team member must meet the other team members and become familiar with the company’s values and everyday routines and procedures. Even if they are specialists in their particular industry or set of skills, they will require assistance settling in and being comfortable in their new workplace.
Step 4: Provide Staff support
Once new team members have been assimilated into the workforce, continuing support should be offered to ensure the highest level of cooperation. Provide feedback possibilities that will assist you in establishing a solid and continually improving relationship with your expanded workforce.
What Risks When Hiring an Additional Employee?
- Increased Management. Augmented staff typically won’t work in the office alongside other programmers. You must establish an in-house – augmented communication system for staff, coordinate workflows, track the delivery of tasks, and conduct the timeline with no risk or mistakes. This requires more care from managers.
- Privacy Risks. If you hire an outsider, ensure that your personal information is protected under NDA contracts and regulations.
- Communication. Communication played a significant role when outsourcing nearshore and offshore staff. Schedule time overlaps and working hours based on the time zones. Establish communication tools and the purpose of use. For example, use Zoom to make video calls, Gmail for the most critical data, and Slack for collaboration among teams.
- Coordination. Apart from communication, you should establish the tools for your project that you’ll use: JIRA, TeamClerk, Trello, Asana and so on. Create the outlines everyone can access to discuss the issue with an internal team, but the remote employees aren’t conscious of them.
Read more: How To Handle The Top 5 IT Staff Augmentation Challenges
Where to Find a Reliable IT Outstaffing Agency?
Like any other outsourcing model, staff augmentation comes with advantages and disadvantages. But the most challenging part is finding a trustworthy supplier, particularly when outsourcing in offshore locations that are highly risky and unpredictable. That’s why if you decide to go with staff augmentation for software development, take note of the following factors when choosing an outsourcing software partner:
1. Define the requirements
It is essential to determine what requirements you’d like to meet through outstaffing. Are you searching for a specific skill set, or do you wish to free up your internal team for a critical business project? Consider the scope of work for the augmented staff and the project’s duration.
2. Find out about the experience and expertise of your partner.
Review and read feedback from previous customers. You can check it out through such platforms as Clutch.co. Be aware of their qualifications and portfolios of work. Find out if they have previously worked on projects related to your area and have the necessary skills in their stack.
3. Timezone
Would you instead hire an offshore or nearshore team for software development? Find out if the company has flexible or fixed hours of operation. It indicates how long you have time overlaps with your remote and whether you can communicate in real time.
Read more: How To Handle Time Zone Differences when Offshore Outsourcing
Why is Bestarion the Best Partner to Help You Outstaffing?
We’re motivated by our client’s success, and we provide efficient development and fast time-to-market because of:
- A group of 200 IT experts, comprising business analysts, project managers, developers and QA engineers.
- Agile development ensures a smooth software delivery and evolution based on real-user feedback.
- DevOps practices (CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code and application performance monitoring) to ensure quality software.
- Cloud-native architectures for easy software scaling and microservices for enhanced software maintainability.
Our team of experts is committed to providing technical assistance and guidance with the right talent at the appropriate time. Our team augmentation services and models for hiring that are client-centric help you rapidly build your team to meet your goals.
Get in touch with Bestarion team today to learn how we can help your business succeed.
IT Staff Augmentation Service