Today's business is about newer strategies, business models, and trends that could add value to it. One such trend that has seen a dramatic surge within the last few years is IT staff augmentation.
The name might be new, but the practice is not. Earlier, organizations used to borrow staff temporarily due to reasons such as illnesses, vacations, etc. Today, it is done in the name of staff augmentation and as part of a working model. Owing to its super beneficial results, everyone in the business world is implying it and reaping the benefits.
If you have been thinking about doing the same and need some information about the concept, you are at the right spot. Let's get started:
What Is Staff Augmentation And What You Should Know About It?
The definition of staff augmentation is quite simple and will highlight the concept;
"The temporary hiring of outside staff to augment an organization's capacity is known as staff augmentation."
Or
"When an organization hires a specific talent for a particular project, the process is known as staff augmentation."
Many people confuse the concept of staff augmentation with outsourcing, where the two are slightly different from each other; when you outsource a project, you outsource the tasks and responsibilities of the project to another organization. This brings in unexpected challenges and risks with it.
But with staff augmentation, you hire staff/individuals that are fully trained and skilled for the particular project. In comparison to outsourcing, where you do not have much control over how the project will go, staff augmentation gives you full control over the progress and outcome of the project.
To make it easier, it is like you are in the driver's seat and your friends, i.e., the augmented staff, are in the backseat.
What’s more? The best part about staff augmentation is that you can spend your resources on something other than training them or paying them benefits that your regular employees enjoy.
In fact, it is a partnership for the time being, and you don't have to shuffle the temporary staff with the existing one. Also, you can skip the extensive paperwork as well.
Most Common Reasons That Lead To Staff Augmentation:
Staff augmentation is not limited to hiring employees for a specific project. Instead, you can do it for the following different reasons:
❖ Cover Up For A New Business: Companies and organizations need to hire staff for the slightly longer term when they are setting up a new location or establishing a new line of business. This type of hiring is usually done while the company awaits to hire the permanent staff or move them to a new location.
❖ Specialized Services: Often business or a company needs a specific service or a skill set for a project such as;
- Branding
- Logo design
- Facilities setup
- Technology set up
This hiring for specialized skills is a common reason companies do staff augmentation. Moreover, this lets them get the desired job done by the experts at a cost-effective price and without hiring them.
❖ Higher Workload: Most of the time, there is a temporary increase in routine work, such as increased production, higher consumer demands, increased project work, and a season-specific business. To make room for the higher workload, staff augmentation is carried out.
❖ Part of a Strategy: Sometimes companies need to get competitive advantages over their competitors and thus hire temporary and flexible employees. This helps them to be more agile and ramp up their speed.
What Are The Benefits Of Staff Augmentation?
A business, in a constant state of flux, can reap many benefits from staff augmentation. They temporarily hire talents, fulfill their needs, and control the project. Here are the top benefits of staff augmentation that you can achieve:
1. Fulfilling The Gaps:
Staff augmentation can be the best thing for you if there are gaps in your workforce and you need an extra set of hands for a specific project. Doing so will help you fill those gaps and be a great source for adding talent to your team.
There is no limitation on whom you can hire to get the work done. Actually, you can hire anyone from around the globe and thus hire skilled resources to make them a part of your team, both short and long-term, tailor-made to your needs.
2. Saving Lots Of Time:
Businesses must spend their time wisely, or sometimes they are too occupied with spending time on hiring new staff. In fact, hiring staff needs lots of time and effort and is a long process that begins with;
- Creating job postings first
- Interviewing job candidates
- Checking the complete paperwork before making them full-time employees.
When you carry out staff augmentation, you save yourself from lots of hassle and time that you can use to focus on other things.
3. Controlling Expenses:
When you hire employees on a temporary basis, you don't have to give them full salaries, insurance, and other benefits. This saves you lots of money and is a great way to control expenses without compromising on the quality of work.
4. Having Full Control:
Even though you are hiring people temporarily and offering them lesser incentives than your permanent staff, you still have complete control of the employees. This is so because you are in the driving seat of the project at hand.
Adding more to this, you get to decide the pace of the project, the leadership, and the priorities. You may be hiring talented people from across the world, but you don't have to give control to their hands. It will be yours entirely.
5. Reducing the Risks:
Staff augmentation reduces your business's potential risks. You can add or drop the employees anytime without experiencing consequences and scale up or down the industry the way you want.