Right here and right now, before starting with the details of Staff Augmentation, I would like to ask you to take a moment to assess your idea of Staff Augmentation.
Did you manage to gather the thoughts together and establish a basic idea of Staff Augmentation in your mind?
If yes, then I would love to hear your thoughts in the Comment section.
If not, then I would like you to take a look at what I have to say about the same.
And then be your critic and retrospect the idea you had. The result of this entire process would surely leave you pleased with a clearer idea of Staff Augmentation in your head.
It’s time for some action now!
Let’s get right into the whole concept of Staff Augmentation.
What is Meant by Staff Augmentation?
The world is no short of talent. There is a new talent rising every minute in some form. But what the world is falling scarce of is the tech talent. And it is limited to the degree to which you may have to look for one across the International borders.
Quite a time consuming and sluggish hunt, no?
At such a point, it is Staff Augmentation that enters the scene to save your much loved and taken care of startup from drowning.
Just as the name suggests, i.e., becoming more significant in size of Staff, the Staff Augmentation acts as an outsourcing model which allows you to hire highly skilled developers or experts from around the world based on contract rather than hiring permanently.
It is a strategy that lets you recruit talent from any region of your choice as per your suitability with the rope of management tied to your hands directly. It also allows you to add already proficient resources to your existing in-house team, save time, money, cut down on other expenses, and whatnot on earth!
In simpler words, you would have access to exceptionally qualified and skilled people globally for your projects and work objectives, which would be made available to you by the Staff Augmentation company. All you would have to do is choose the most suitable candidate as per your requirements.
There wouldn’t be any need for you to set out on the quest yourself, ultimately lessening all the troubles associated with the same to zero.
Besides all mentioned above, Staff Augmentation helps you to grow your business without overpaying. Such collaboration provides you with technical Staff to work with your internal team till you want them to. The process supports working from either home or workplace too. More than just managing the augmented Staff, it also lets you evaluate your existing team for their performance.
As the trend has been set, many companies worldwide are recruiting professionals with the help of Staff Augmentation companies to promote work on a project-only basis.
Types of Staff Augmentation
You can hire anyone from developers, programmers to designers, marketing specialists, and others with necessary tech experience and resources, i.e., software for the successful completion of the project.
However, before finalizing someone, you need to make sure what sort of Staff Augmentation you need.
The types of Staff Augmentation are:
Short Term: You may need the Short Term Augmentation if:
- It’s a peak season
- Vacation time but work needs to get done
- It’s just a single project
- You are too sick to do it on your own
Long Term: You may need the Long Term Augmentation if:
- There is a gap of skills
- Every time hiring consumes time
- The project is going to continue for quite a long time
- A need to cut on operational costs
How to Determine if Staff Augmentation is Right for You?
You wouldn’t get a dream where an angel happens to drop by to tell you if Staff Augmentation is the right option for your startup.
That’s one in a trillion chance! Or it may be impossible!
So, here are some specific points you need to pay attention to while opting for Staff Augmentation:
- The first scenario is where you already have a well-equipped team of engineers working diligently on your project. Yet you wish to expand your team to have another set of developers to work on other aspects of the project or the ones that are still untouched by your in-house team. It would help if you had a group of 4-7 tech experts to do the same but can’t even achieve that due to scarcity of the talent. And if then, it hits you that there is an already strong demand in the market, the struggle of looking for the talent in your market would take too much time, including other potential risks, then Staff Augmentation is for you.
Read More: Tech Hiring: Solutions to the Possible Challenges
- If you already have a team for your project, but a specific professional is what you lack to generate a satisfying result, you need to go for Staff Augmentation.
- You hire a project outsourcing company to get your project done. But, somehow, it fails to live up to your expectations. The result doesn’t fit your needs. It’s a massive waste of time and resources. That would be when the demand for you to choose the facility of Staff Augmentation rises to finally get your project done as desired with the cooperation of your in-house team and remote employees.
Above mentioned are the few major ones, you must gather a more detailed view of some significant considerations and misunderstandings while deciding if the Staff Augmentation model is right for you.
Staff Augmentation in Comparison to Other Models
Staff Augmentation
The Staff Augmentation model blesses you with innumerable opportunities. You get a chance to pick the candidate on a personal level and handle them according to your terms. The Staff Augmentation company takes all the headaches of organizational and administrative troubles, leaving a plethora of opportunities for you to succeed with your goal and, of course, the project.
Managed Services
In this case, the outsourcing company hired looks after all the phases of project or product development. From creating a team to give the finishing touch, the company does it all on their own. It’s solely their participation and decisions throughout the entire process of development.
There isn’t any need for an in-house team or remote employee to carry out the work. One significant drawback here is the unfamiliarity with who is working on your project, what stage the project is at, i.e., what is going on currently and which minor decisions got implemented without your knowledge.
R&D Center
If you’re looking for something bigger to work with a team of around 30-40 professionals to work on your project, you can create your R & D department in a region with a suitable business atmosphere.
However, it includes understanding that region’s legal system. The process also involves getting to know the social, cultural, political, and geographical specifics of an area along with handling risk on your own.
After a look at all models, we can conclude that the Staff Augmentation model certainly enhances the growth of your business!
What Advantages does Staff Augmentation have?
Immense Productivity
Staff Augmentation guarantees an increased level of productivity as compared to other models of outsourcing. Here, the main focus of the employee is your project. They are obligated to deliver the work under deadline. It indeed ensures 100% productivity in the case of your project. In contrast, a project outsourcing team may handle multiple projects at the moment, which leads to the division of focus on each one.
Much more motivation and dedication exist under Staff Augmentation.
Work with Ease
It has two points to it:
- You get exposure to a vast pool of talent to choose within. From designers and developers to product owners and managers, you can hire anyone.
- It becomes more comfortable to replace when you don’t have what you expected or needed due to the availability of a bigger talent pool.
Cost-Effectiveness
The process of Staff Augmentation tends to be as transparent as crystal in terms of the pricing. There is no need for you to take trouble with organizational and administrative expenses, including the workstation, office space, and other additional benefits. All you need to pay is the employee’s fee and focus on the project; the rest is taken care of by the Staff Augmentation company.
Equal Opportunity
Staff Augmentation provides equal opportunity to you and your remote employee to put their opinion.
The developers, too, wish to have a say in development by sharing their ideas. And you may never know what their brilliant mind may bring. They deserve an opportunity.
And you too get to shape the things as per your wish or requirement. Both of you get to enjoy the freedom to express under Staff Augmentation.
These are a few primary benefits of the Staff Augmentation.
But this is not just it; there’s a lot more to the advantages of Staff Augmentation and you can always explore it.
How to Expand your Team?
Expanding your team with Staff Augmentation is not a single step process. It is instead a multi-staged process that requires due diligence on every step.
Here are a few steps that need to be adopted or taken into consideration while thinking of expanding the team using Staff Augmentation:
Put Forward your Needs
Putting forwards or explaining your needs to your Augmentation partner is the first and foremost step to reach the goal. You need to have a clear idea of what you expect from the team of Augmentation specialists to serve you exactly what you want.
Interview and Hire Developers
State all your needs, expectations, desired result to the Staff Augmentation specialists. They need to know what you want. Based on that, they look for multiple suitable candidates for you, interview them, check for the qualification and background to later hand over the same to you for review.
You can then interview the potential candidates as much as you want using the methods and tools you prefer until you reach a satisfactory finalization level.
To achieve the same successfully, you need to refer to a detailed guide about why Staff Augmentation is a good decision and how to hire developers in the right manner.
Begin the Work
Now, when you finally have the professionals you need to carry out your project, you can explain your requirements and objectives more elaborately. You can also introduce the collaboration of your in-house team and remote employees to work on the project together.
Ask for Support if Required
Besides asking the employee for their support to produce successful desired results, you can always go to the Staff Augmentation company for other similar assistance.
They may assign someone other than the developer to establish a fruitful relationship with your hired team. They would also make sure to keep your data, project information, along with other things secured.
If the advantages of Staff Augmentation are making you inclined toward them, then there is a high need and the next step, to know about efficient ways to make Staff Augmentation work for your business.
Don’t forget to probe into them!
How to Finally Reach Success With Staff Augmentation?
It is essential to choose a Staff Augmentation Company that would respect your needs and provide your remote developers with favourable circumstances and facilities to make them work to the best of their capabilities.
For example, offering a workspace with the client’s branding to promote collaboration with the client’s in-house team.
Make a note to provide the feeling of affinity to your remote developers. Such a feeling helps in maintaining the motivation in an employee’s heart. For instance, initiate a time-to-time conversation between the augmented employee and your in-house team or arrange for timely video calls to share an idea of the current process.
Ask the Staff Augmentation team for their assistance in helping you reach and work with your hired team more effectively and efficiently. For example, you may ask for a group of managers that would make sure to create a healthy working environment on both ends. A team that would make it a point to eliminate all potential troubles and misunderstandings in advance with cooperation for smooth working.
All this can be done and understood more by passing through a detailed overview of how Staff Augmentation strategy carried out correctly can make a difference.
The Verdict
Now that you have an idea of what Staff Augmentation is, I urge you to do what I mentioned at the beginning of the article, i.e., be your own critic and retrospect the idea you had of Staff Augmentation before going through this article.
You can now consider all the points regarding the Staff Augmentation model and make the best decision in favour of your startup or business.
Don’t forget to acknowledge the pros and cons of an extended or remote team.
Examine your target market, too, as the consumer is the king.
The model of Staff Augmentation offers immense flexibility, cost-effectiveness, reliability, and comfortable hiring. Just make sure to choose the best out of all for your business.
