It often happens that your staff can’t keep pace with the changing business needs and development requirements. A business failure, you might think? Not at all! The solution is not to hunt for new talent every day, but to employ staff augmentation for the timely and flexible solution of emerging skill gaps.
What is staff augmentation?
The question raised here has become very topical for many software development businesses or clients who wish to keep their staffing and recruitment costs low without a compromise for quality and speed of project development and launch. So, in the simplest words, it is a hiring model presupposing the recruitment of additional required staff on a long-term basis to fill the company’s staffing needs instead of hiring new developers to the in-house team. Though many companies find the model risky and feel reluctant to give away some control and data to outsourced coders, staff augmentation is still the future of software development staffing. It has a number of indisputable benefits that can make a real difference to your business. Here is the top ten of them you might not even suppose.
You expand the talent pool
While there may be a lack of specialists with a corresponding skillset and knowledge of the required technology in your location (or they may charge insurmountable rates), staff augmentation allows you to access the global talent pool and find the proper mix of talent and affordability in some of the best outsourcing locations.
You save time on recruitment
Software development needs may vary from day to day, and fulfilling all of them on time may require having a large HR department responsible for hiring the new needed talent. That option is often quite costly for small and medium businesses; in addition, specialists are usually required for the completion of separate tasks and not for a long time. Thus, their recruitment and further dismissal from the full-time position may cause unnecessary overhead costs.
You can select the remote team members on your own
As soon as you hire a staff augmentation vendor, you create the list of requirements for the candidates. The vendor’s recruiters select resumes based on your individual needs, and all you need to do is hold job interviews with the selected few to choose an ideal fit for your job.
You delegate most of the administrative hassle to the vendor
While in-house recruitment may be a real headache, outsourcing that task to the staffing vendor frees you from numerous administrative fuss.
You receive high-quality service at a reasonable cost
Most staffing vendors offer optimal service packages to ensure the highest level of clients’ satisfaction.
You relieve the in-house team by redistributing the development tasks
The in-house team may be at times overloaded with tasks, which affects its performance. Augmented staff reduces the load per person, thus preventing developers’ burnout.
You inject fresh blood into your project
Development teams are creative workers, so they may also be in a rut. Adding a new staff member with a fresh insight can invigorate the team and give it a new impetus for work.
You supervise the remote employee(s) directly
When you outsource work on a project basis, most of the communication goes through a Project Manager, so the client receives little direct interaction with coders. This is not the case for staff augmentation mainly relying on direct supervision.
You can engage the augmented staff into your corporate culture
The more involved your augmented staff members feel, the more committed they are to your project’s success. Thus, it is always recommended not to separate augmented and in-house teams and to manage them in a synergistic way to achieve a greater level of involvement.
You receive flexibility and scalability
Even if you need only one additional staff member, the staff augmentation model is very flexible, allowing to expand the team later on based on the real-time needs of your business.
As you can see, staff augmentation is not as scary and risky as it might seem on the first gaze. Adding remote employees can help your team work better, your project progress, and your business – remain competitive in the harsh and dynamic business environment.
