Dorota Jasińska
Agata Tomasik
Running an IT business requires the right team and talent to get the job done. Sometimes, companies struggle to find skilled professionals to fill in the gaps in the staff. This is when staff augmentation may be the solution.
Definition of staff augmentation
Staff augmentation is a type of outsourcing strategy. It’s mostly used by IT businesses who need to fill in the weak links in the talent pool. Staff augmentation starts with the evaluation of the staff’s needs. This hiring practice helps bring in an outside talent to complement the current team. It makes it possible for the company to be supplemented with the expertise it requires without the need to hire full-time professionals or run a time-consuming recruitment process.
Types of IT staff augmentation
There are many types and models of staff augmentation, depending on the localization of the hired talent, the time of cooperation, their skills, etc.
Traditional staff augmentation
Traditional staff augmentation involves using an agency to hire a person to complement the company’s in-house team. This adds a temporary talent to the poll through a third-party hiring service.
Offshore staff augmentation
Offshore staff augmentation involves hiring professionals or teams from other countries to support the in-house unit. The hires work remotely to fulfill the company’s needs. This strategy makes it possible to access global talent.
Onshore staff augmentation
Onshore staff augmentation involves hiring workers in the same country. In this case, professionals are hired from another company through an agency. This strategy targets local talents.
Remote staff augmentation
Remote staff augmentation involves hiring professionals remotely. The candidates can be international or local but don’t work on-site. They complement the company’s in-house team while being available away from the office.
Time-based staff augmentation
Time-based staff augmentation involves hiring professionals for a specific period. Such a strategy is used to fill in the gap of an employee who may be absent for a while due to various reasons. Or, it may be used when a company needs a specialist for the period until a full-time employee joins the team.
Skill-based staff augmentation
Skill-based staff augmentation involves hiring a professional who will provide your in-house team with specific skills. This usually includes adding a team member who is a specialist in a field that the team is lacking.
Hybrid staff augmentation
Hybrid staff augmentation is a combination of the types described above or an outsourcing strategy. Depending on the needs of the company, different types of augmentation may be combined to fulfill your goals.
When to use staff augmentation?
The main purpose of staff augmentation is to utilize talents that usually wouldn’t be available for recruitment. Agencies offer a talent pool that may not be available to your recruiters. Staff augmentation also makes it possible to quickly add a missing specialist to the team. You skip the lengthy hiring process to get a specialist depending on your company’s needs.
Staff augmentation can also be a solution when companies facing a tight deadline but having too few employees to meet it. This way, they can easily complete the team with skilled professionals who can help reach business goals.
How does staff augmentation work?
Depending on the type of staff augmentation provider you choose, the process may be slightly different. However, to accurately identify the solution that suits your company, it’s best to start with an analysis of what you need. Once you determine your needs and the scope of skills required to achieve your goals, it’s easier to find the proper talent source. When you finally find the talents you were looking for, you can start onboarding.
Staff augmentation sources
Knowing what your company is lacking in terms of skills is one of the most important aspects of finding the right staff augmentation provider. There are talent sources that offer candidates of a specific specialization or are focused on different aspects of staff augmentation. Let’s look at different types of staff augmentation vendors.
Independent contractors
Independent contractors are self-employed, highly skilled specialists who directly engage with the company.
Master vendor staff
Master vendor staff involves using the services of a staffing agency that can provide a lot of temporarily employed professionals.
Boutique agency
A boutique agency involves using the services of a small staffing agency with a focus on highly skilled professionals.
Talent platforms
Talent platforms (gig and on-demand talent platforms) involve a wide talent pool of skilled professionals, usually freelancers, and a flexible workforce model.
Benefits of IT staff augmentation
Staff augmentation can help your company reach its business goals thanks to skilled professionals who can join your team. Let’s look at the benefits of this type of staffing service.
Flexibility
Staff augmentation makes it possible to find whatever your company needs. Whether your team lacks one person or a dozen, you decide how many you hire. This applies also to the time of the arrangement. You can find a long-term or short-term worker for a specific gig or a lengthy project. Such flexibility is the key benefit of using staff augmentation.
Cost-effectiveness
Staff augmentation also makes it possible to draw a budget and find a specialist that fits in. And once the cooperation is done, there are no more costs for the company. So you know from the start how much staff augmentation will cost. It is cheaper than hiring a full-time employee because you don’t need to invest in competency training or provide any extra bonuses, such as health care.
Increased productivity
Having more people on board leads to getting more projects done or completing them faster. Moreover, when you hire a person with a specific skill set for a concrete task, they will focus solely on delivering it. With their expertise, they can start working on their job without an introduction and onboarding.
Access to talent
It may happen that finding the right person through traditional recruitment is very hard due to many limitations. With staff augmentation, the company gains access to a wide talent pool from all over the world. This way, the choice of candidates for a job is much broader.
Adding new perspectives
Adding external specialists, in line with IT staff augmentation trends, may bring in a fresh approach to some issues or tasks. Their expertise can influence the project in many ways, including changing the implementation or adding new solutions that are better than the initial ones. Thanks to their experience, the company can benefit from new, useful insights.
What are the drawbacks of staff augmentation?
While staff augmentation may bring many benefits, there are still some risks connected to this service. Let’s look at the drawbacks of staff augmentation.
Time zones
When you decide to hire a worker from an offshore localization, you may encounter a time difference that can be problematic when it comes to work synchronization.
Language barrier
In some cases, the issue may arise from language differences between the teams. This can lead to communication problems in terms of the scope of tasks.
Data security
Adding a professional from outside the organization to your team can put the company data at risk. It’s hard to check if the person follows security protocol specific to your company.
Staff augmentation vs. outsourcing
What is the difference between staff augmentation and outsourcing? The main differences between these two are the way the hired specialists work in relation to the company, the management process, etc.
Staff augmentation
In the case of staff augmentation, the company needs to take care of training of the new workers to get the new employees in sync with the team. The workers are managed by the company directly and join a specific project. They become part of the internal process.
Outsourcing
In the case of outsourcing, the company uses an external team of specialists who work independently from the team. The vendor is responsible for training and management. The outsourcing team works on a separate project under external management.
It’s important to understand the company needs in order to find the right way of adding talent to the organization. If you’re not sure whether to outsource or outstaff, here’s an article that closely analyses the two strategies.
How can Neontri help in IT staff augmentation?
Our Total Talent Management is an effective IT outstaffing and outsourcing solution. Our team provides staff augmentation and other outsourcing strategies by matching candidates to your requirements. We make sure the staff has the right skills and experience. We’ve been recruiting talents for over 10 years and have a deep understanding of the industry. This allows us to identify the right candidates to specific needs.
You don’t need to worry about language barriers and other issues. Our candidates are carefully vetted to make sure they have necessary experience and required competencies. We’ve got a database of 40,000 vetted IT professionals. We offer experienced, reliable teams of specialists to work with.
