8 Сases When You Should Turn to Staff Augmentation

The IT sector is evolving by leaps and bounds while not showing any signs of slowing down in the near future. Consequently, businesses striving to prosper should be able to swiftly adapt to new market conditions and needs, implement new technologies, and have the ability to swiftly scale and reorganize their teams.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the classic recruitment strategy cannot keep up with this blistering pace causing a delay in the software development process. Luckily, new hiring models have emerged, with staff augmentation being a prominent one. Recently, the popularity of staff augmentation has grown drastically. No wonder – it offers unprecedented flexibility that helps organizations stay ahead of the competition.

While staff augmentation always comes with multiple advantages, there are particular scenarios when it hits the spot. If you have doubts about whether this hiring strategy fits you, this article may provide you with valuable insights.

All you need to know about staff augmentation

Facing serious hiring challenges, large, medium, and small businesses all over the world make a strategic decision to fall back on staff augmentation as a highly efficient way to engage staff while not employing them. So, staff augmentation is a hiring model suggesting the extension of in-house teams with temporary or contract employees provided by an outside company. This unique approach presents a golden opportunity to fast and easily ramp up or down IT resources in response to the current needs of a project, without the hassle related to the classic hiring process.

Why is staff augmentation steadily gaining ground in the IT community? The answer lies in the multitude of its benefits, enabling organizations to continue the smooth work on their projects in the face of various challenges. Let's have a look at what staff augmentation has to offer.

• Complete Scalability: As previously mentioned, staff augmentation empowers companies with the ability to rapidly and seamlessly adjust both the size and composition of their teams to match the evolving demands of their projects. This scalability not only provides agility but also allows organizations to stay nimble while not weighing themselves down with long-term obligations.
• Expertise and Experience: Staff augmentation grants access to an extensive pool of highly skilled and seasoned professionals who bring with them diverse backgrounds and deep domain knowledge. Access to an extensive talent pool allows businesses to onboard even the most sought-after and specialized experts rapidly, enabling their projects to take advantage of a wellspring of experience and proficiency that might otherwise be challenging to find and attain.
• High Speed: Access to the global talent pool coupled with streamlined and efficient hiring processes, grants businesses the ability to identify and attain specialists possessing precise skill sets within the shortest possible time. Consequently, projects are developed without delays, and short time-to-market is ensured.
• Cost Effectiveness: In comparison with the classic hiring model, staff augmentation is a much more budget-friendly approach as it provides an opportunity to onboard offshore highly professional IT specialists at lower rates. Furthermore, it eliminates additional expenses on perks, training programs, equipment, etc. By leveraging staff augmentation, organizations can achieve their project goals while optimizing their financial resources and focusing on what truly matters.
• Lightened Administrative Burden: Businesses also benefit from simplified HR and administrative tasks, as staff augmentation companies usually assume responsibility for all recruitment and payroll issues, streamlining these processes and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
• High Productivity: Quick team extension as well as quick engagement of specialists with specific skills boost overall team performance and foster a heightened sense of morale among all team members.
• Improved Focus: In-house teams can devote all their time and attention to critical tasks while augmented staff can handle non-critical ones. This optimized allocation of resources also contributes to greater efficiency and effectiveness.
• Full Control: Businesses maintain full control over the specialists they bring in with the help of staff augmentation. Despite being employed by an external company, these specialists are managed in the same manner as in-house staff. This complete control guarantees that projects are executed in alignment with organizational goals and standards, providing a sense of continuity and cohesiveness within the team.

To sum it up, staff augmentation is an effective way to bring in talent within the shortest possible time. Organizations that seek workforce flexibility and agility should definitely consider this hiring model.

Best Scenarios for Leveraging IT Staff Augmentation Services

Periodically, almost every organization encounters serious difficulties related to workforce recruitment. Often, it can be challenging to acquire and retain top-tier talent due to high salary expectations, skill scarcity within the local job market, inability to offer perks that IT giants offer, and more. Collectively, these challenges can impose substantial impediments to organizations that can occasionally slow down or suspend vital business operations.

However, there is a silver lining to this conundrum. In a multitude of cases, staff augmentation emerges as the pre-eminent solution to these vexing staffing hurdles. Below, we will meticulously explore and delineate the key scenarios wherein staff augmentation proves not only beneficial but indeed the wisest strategy for organizations facing intricate workforce challenges.

Scenario 1 - Local IT specialists are too expensive for you

Far too often the cost of hiring local IT specialists, particularly for small companies and startups operating under tight budgets, proves prohibitively high. Thus, they have to pay their own recruiters or recruiting agencies, offer higher salaries to outshine offers from other companies hunting the same specialists, and spend even more on fringe benefits, and infrastructure.

In light of these exigencies, it should come as no surprise that staff augmentation emerges as the most pragmatic solution. This approach enables companies to reduce costs significantly by enlisting offshore specialists at lower rates. Importantly, all ancillary expenditures related to employee benefits, leaves, insurance, taxes, etc. are on a staff augmentation partner. Consequently, businesses need to pay just for the actually provided service.

With staff augmentation, financial pressure is not a reason for not engaging required experts.

Scenario 2 – It’s challenging for you to find a specialist with a specific skill set

Some projects have an urgent need for highly specialized skill sets. This is particularly applicable to projects that use advanced or widely used technologies, such as AI/ML, blockchain, cloud technology, etc. The task of finding those skills gets even more daunting if they should be also complemented with profound industry knowledge. Whether there are skill gaps in the market or you just can’t find a candidate that matches your requirements, staff augmentation can solve your problem.

Staff augmentation companies strive to attract and retain the very best talent across a wide spectrum of specialized domains, including those characterized by particular uniqueness or rarity. With direct access to their extensive pool of experts, you can find needed IT specialists in no time.

If you have already searched in every nook and cranny but haven't found the needed talent yet, it is high time to enlist the services of a trustworthy staff augmentation company. In the future, don't hesitate to take swift action and reach out to your staff augmentation partner without delay. It is better to spend your valuable time on other business-critical endeavors.

Scenario 3 – You're making layoffs but require temporary support

The current global economic crisis has cast a formidable shadow over many IT companies worldwide, causing a wave of belt-tightening measures. A substantial reduction in investments has driven many businesses to the somber necessity of implementing extensive layoffs. Still, even during this economic turbulence, there are situations when businesses find themselves in need of reinforcing their core IT teams with extra specialists on a temporary basis. Traditional full-time employment is not relevant in these circumstances, yet the agile framework of staff augmentation presents itself as the perfect solution.

A staff augmentation service provider can supply you with the IT specialists you need for a certain period of time without any long-term obligations. So organizations can navigate the choppy waters of economic uncertainty with dexterity, ensuring that they can easily adapt to evolving circumstances.

Scenario 4 – You need to scale fast with fully flexible on-demand resources

Is your team feeling the strain of an increasing workload? Is your organization on a rapid growth trajectory, facing the exciting prospect of serving an ever-growing clientele? Perhaps you're embarking on a complicated project that threatens to overwhelm your backlog. Whatever the reason for ramping up your workforce urgently, staff augmentation always comes up with a rapid solution.

It offers a ready pipeline of highly skilled and seasoned specialists, poised to seamlessly join your team, helping you avoid delays and hitches on your path to achieving your objectives.

If your project drastically evolves or you experience significant workload fluctuations, staff augmentation gives you an opportunity to ramp your team up or down at the snap of your fingers, all while maintaining full control and oversight.

Scenario 5 – You need to implement cutting-edge technologies quickly

No need to say that today technology is advancing at lightning speed. Companies face the ongoing challenge of keeping up with the latest trends and modern tools to remain competitive. To maintain a position at the forefront of technology, you may find yourself urgently needing to implement new technologies. Unfortunately, acquiring experts in these advanced technologies can be a daunting task, not to mention the potential high expenses of hiring specialized professionals.

The good news is that with staff augmentation, you get access to a rich pool of experts who are knowledgeable in the latest technologies, making it a breeze to embrace new tech innovations quickly. This approach lets you bring in specialized talent for a period that aligns with your unique project needs, whether it's for short-term or long-term engagement, allowing you to study and implement new technology.

Scenario 6 – You have a lack of time due to very strict deadlines

Time is often a critical factor, especially in the fast-paced realm of software development where delays may result in increased costs, longer time-to-market, and failure to pioneer the market with a new solution. Despite efforts to plan and avoid unexpected events, they can still occur: Your key team members can leave you in the midst of a critical development phase, or unforeseen project adjustments could necessitate the swift addition of a specialized professional. Situations like this can leave you in a tight spot, especially when the classic recruitment process takes months – time you simply don't have.

Once again, staff augmentation steps in as the hero of the hour. With an extensive talent pool and simplified recruitment processes, staff augmentation companies can quickly provide you with any IT specialists you need.

If time is your most pressing concern, and the traditional, time-consuming recruitment and hiring methods cannot cover your needs, staff augmentation deserves consideration. It offers the agility and rapid response necessary to meet tight deadlines.

Scenario 7 – You need to fuel innovativeness within your team

Over time, teams that have been collaborating extensively can fall into a pattern of shared thinking. While this cohesiveness often fosters productivity, it can sometimes stifle innovation. When team members approach projects from the same angles repeatedly, they might overlook alternative pathways to superior, more advanced, or budget-friendly solutions.

In this situation, staff augmentation can be leveraged to bring in new experts to a well-established team in order to shake it up, generate new ideas, and find novel approaches. This can immensely stimulate your internal team to explore previously overlooked opportunities.

So, if you're eager to invigorate your team, staff augmentation is ready to serve as a catalyst for such transformation.

Scenario 8 – You are running a project with clearly defined goals and processes

While staff augmentation is indeed a highly efficient and convenient approach that can help you address various challenges, it's crucial to note that this hiring model delivers maximum benefits when applied to projects with clearly determined objectives and processes.

When reaching out to a staff augmentation company, it's paramount to have a complete understanding of your goals, expected workload, projected time frames, required resources, and necessary skill sets. This level of clarity empowers your partner to provide you with specialists that you really need and that will significantly contribute to your project development.

In situations where your project vision remains uncertain or vaguely defined, it's advisable to take your time. Contact a staff augmentation service provider when you know for sure in which direction you should move and what exactly you need for this.

Bottom line

Staff augmentation stands as a contemporary hiring model, offering unparalleled convenience, flexibility, and speed, allowing businesses to reach their most ambitious goals. Being immensely effective it brings maximum value in a number of scenarios. Thus, you can use it with full confidence when you cannot find specialists in a local job market, you have a need for a hard-to-find specialist, you need temporary staff, team scalability is of utter importance for you, the swift adoption of advanced technology is crucial, time is a matter of death and life, your team lacks innovativeness, and your project is well-defined. Do not limit yourself to traditional hiring, but use staff augmentation to power your projects with the skills, knowledge, and expertise they demand.