Need a short-term solution for scaling your staff? Staffing with permanent staff is a lengthy and costly process that also requires infrastructure setup.
So what other option do we have?
IT staff augmentation is an ideal solution to scale your solutions with skilled professionals on a temporary basis.
But before taking advantage of staff augmentation services, you need to understand what it is and how it works.
In this blog, we will walk you through the definition of staff augmentation, and how it works, alongside the perks and cons of staff augmentation.
All right, let’s get started.
Staff augmentation is a method of onboarding the skills an organization needs on a temporary basis to respond to the business objective for a certain period of time.
Let’s use an example to understand what staff augmentation is:
Let’s say that you own a transportation company and want to add technology to your business process by developing a mobile application.
In such a case, there are two options available for you. The first option is to hire in-house mobile app developers. The second option is to outsource mobile app developers from IT companies who will work on your project until it is complete.
In the first option, you have to go through the lengthy process of hiring. You also need to invest in infrastructure setup.
While on the other side, if you outsource your transportation app development project, you can hire professional developers to respond to your development needs.
In this case, you are free from the investment of infrastructure setup, and the lengthy process of finding candidates, interviewing, and onboarding them.
Upon the completion of the projects, you can close your contract with the developer and start experiencing the benefits of well-built mobile applications.
This is how staff augmentation services work.
Now, we will talk about the different use cases when opting for IT staff augmentation services makes sense:
Are you faced with a requirement your in-house team can’t fulfill? Do you want to meet quick delivery deadlines? In these cases, staff augmentation is the ideal solution for you to meet the deadlines and extend the capabilities of your team.
Come across a short-term requirement that requires expert insights and skills. In such a case hiring an in-house specialist for short-term projects is not a viable solution. Augmenting dedicated employees with the required skills will help you respond to your requirements.
When your organization is dealing with multiple projects that require different areas of expertise. Since the demand for these projects inflates, you have to dynamic address the project requirements to ensure the successful execution of the project. With augmentation, you can get access to staff that holds expertise in different areas.
Undoubtedly, IT staff augmentation services come with a lot of benefits. But there are also some cases when you should not use IT staff augmentation services:
Let’s see when you should avoid using staff augmentation:
If your project is supposed to take a long time i.e. months or years, then team augmentation is not a viable option for you.
For a long-term project, instead of augmenting staff, you can consider outsourcing your project.
Projects that contain highly sensitive information may have unfavorable effects on your project if it is disclosed. In such a case investing in a building, an in-house team is a better option for you.
As said above, augmenting staff is the best choice when your requirements are constantly changing. If your requirements are going to remain intact and when you have ongoing requirements for these skills then an in-house team setup is a good decision.
The staff augmentation services market is growing rapidly. According to SpendEdge, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.53% resulting in a value of USD 81.87 Billion during 2021-2025.
This growth is the result of the several benefits augmenting staffing provides. Let’s have a quick overview of the benefits of staff augmentation:
This is one of the biggest benefits of augmenting staffing. It allows you to pay for the services you require, neither you need to pay for infrastructure nor the hiring process. All you have to do is find the right team and sign a contract for a specific period of time.
You can outsource staff from any corner of the world. In simple terms, you have access to the global talent that can work on your project just like your in-house team to ensure its success.
When hiring an in-house team you have to go through a long-standing process. You have to create the job posting, interview candidates, and go through background checks to ensure you are hiring the right candidate. By outsourcing staff, you can eliminate these long-standing processes.
With team augmenting you have the flexibility to scale up your team or go down in response to your requirement.
You can easily communicate your business requirements with the outsourced staff without any barrier just like your in-house team. Your team members will directly report to you and hold the responsibility to work according to your guidelines.
Staff augmentation is the best way to extend your team’s capabilities and bridge the skills gap. But still, it has some drawbacks that you should be aware of before you consider working with a staff augmentation company.
Let’s see the cons of staff augmentation services:
As said earlier, staff augmenting means you have access to global talent. There are, however, some challenges associated with access to global talents, such as a language barrier and a time barrier.
By hiring staff augmentation companies that offer communication in languages you understand, and comply with your timezone, you can easily overcome this challenge.
When working with an augmenting team you are sharing your business information with third parties. Third parties are getting involved in the operations of your business. By considering these things, security is at risk.
The best practice to ease the security concerns is to choose a company that agrees to sign an NDA with you to ensure the complete security of your business data.
Put simply, staff augmentation is the best way to reduce the cost while still having the necessary resources to respond to your business requirements. Additionally, you can scale or reduce the number of resources allocated to you. The number of benefits staff augmentation has are unlimited, but in order to unlock them, you have to partner with the right staff augmentation company.
Konstant Infosolutions is a reliable staff augmentation company that matches you with the perfect candidate, regardless of the size and scope of your projects. The company has a dedicated team of designers and developers at reasonable prices tailored to your project requirement.
The company offers the three hiring models such as full-time hiring, part-time hiring, and hourly hiring. Depending on the nature of your project, you can choose the right hiring model that adheres to your budget.
The company follows a structured process to match you with the right talent to work on your project.
Let’s connect with the company, and have a discussion about your project requirements to see how Konstant Infosolutions can help you.
How does staff augmentation work?
First, be acquainted with your requirements. Connect with a staff augmentation company, review the resume of the candidates, interview them and select the best candidate that matches your requirement.
What is the difference between staff augmentation vs outsourcing?
Staff augmentation refers to hiring resources on a full-time, part-time, or hourly basis to respond to some specific requirements of the business. Under this model, resources will work under your supervision exactly like your in-house team.
Conversely, outsourcing refers to giving an individual or organization the responsibility of completing the work. Using this model, the company will have control over how the project is completed, and who will be working on it, as well as hold accountability for all its risks involved in the project.
Vipin Jain is the Co-Founder and CEO at Konstant Infosolutions and is in charge of marketing, project management, administration and R&D at the company. With his marketing background, Vipin Jain has developed and honed the company’s vision, corporate structure & initiatives and its goals, and brought the company into the current era of success.
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