What do you need to know when thinking about Staff Augmentation?

Companies are in business to make money in the most efficient and effective way possible while providing a needed service to consumers and clients. For a business, it’s essential to understand that the completion of these goals is paramount. How these goals are achieved can vary. Many companies take care of multiple services in-house while others have come to the realization that their skills are best suited to a specific area, be that marketing, design, or elsewhere. They don’t have to be all things to all people to be successful and, in fact, are more likely to succeed if they specialize in one key area.

What is Staff Augmentation?

Staff augmentation is a form of outsourcing. However, instead of farming projects and working out to an external company, resources are brought in-house to work with existing teams.
Using staff augmentation, companies can fill the different gaps they have within their organization without hiring new employees. These resources can be utilized for specific projects on a short or long term basis, and they work with the existing internal teams.
Staff augmentation has many benefits, but probably the most important one is that it gives companies access to a pool of talent and skills they do not have access to internally. Staff augmentation lets companies expand their search for talent to other regions and countries. This often allows the company to save money by sourcing resources from skilled but low-cost areas like South America and Asia.

Why you should consider Staff Augmentation for your next IT project

Information Technology or IT is a vast field. Nowadays, there are about 700 different programming languages. This can give you a rough idea of the huge variety that exists in the industry. It’s not really something one single company can take on on its own. In many cases, companies have a subset of skills in-house, while they explore other specific technologies or frameworks with the help of a specialised partner.

Regardless of the size of the organization, from startup to massive multinational, it is almost impossible to have all of the skills you need for every project in-house. In these cases, staff augmentation is a perfect solution.

Benefits of Staff Augmentation

There are many benefits to companies that pursue a strategy of staff augmentation. Some of these include:

Skilled Resources – skilled resources are available for projects in a timely manner. This lets companies complete projects and tasks quickly and efficiently.
Reduced Costs – companies that utilize staff augmentation models are often able to save high costs while still gaining the skills and knowledge they need.
Improved Throughput – larger teams of resources help drive improved Throughput and efficiencies within an organization.
Direct Control – unlike traditional outsourcing, staff augmentation retains control of a project internally.

When to consider Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation might not be right for every scenario, but some of the more typical times when it’s the right solution are as follows:

Save on Recruitment – companies looking to save time and money on recruitment costs should consider staff augmentation as a way of gaining the skills needed.
Lack of Specialist Knowledge – when large projects require specialized knowledge that is not available in-house, staff augmentation is a suitable alternative to consider.
Resource Limitations – if teams are overworked or unable to complete a project, then staff augmentation might be a solution to help.
Temporary Assistance – if team members are unavailable for extended periods of time, staff augmentation might be a suitable substitution.

Conclusion

There are many different reasons to consider whether staff augmentation is a suitable option for your organization. The benefits to the strategy are many and it’s a great way of bringing new knowledge and skills into a team. It is however, important to ensure that you choose the right company to partner with when considering this strategy.