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What is Staff Augmentation?
At its root, staff augmentation is a business strategy that evolved in the eternal quest of organizations to restructure themselves for maximum efficiency. Historically, businesses had to delegate ancillary functions that could not be accomplished internally. This phenomenon is referred to as outsourcing.
Outsourcing enables organizations to focus on their core business and delegate non-essential support functions to ensure business continuity. For example, a fast-food chain might not have the time/resources to hire and manage a workforce for website maintenance. By outsourcing the development and management of its website, the business can focus on its core services and expand faster.
Staff augmentation evolved as part of this outsourcing phenomenon. Businesses are sometimes faced with constraints that prevent outsourcing to an external environment. These situations require contracting an external resource to work within the company’s internal environment. And hence the concept of staff augmentation was born.
While outsourcing involves delegating functions to external agencies, staff augmentation involves contracting external resources to work on internal projects. Picking between either strategy depends entirely on your business needs.
Here’s Why You Should Bother With IT Staff Augmentation Services in 2023
There’s a growing shortage of tech talent across industries worldwide. Organizational firm Korn Ferry predicts an 8.5 trillion dollar global tech talent shortage and close to 85 million tech roles to be filled by the year 2030 [1]. This spells a huge opportunity for IT staff augmentation services which could offer a viable solution through talent sharing and efficient sourcing.
Statista reports that although the worldwide staffing industry took a big hit in recent times due to the coronavirus pandemic, recovery has been swift, and the revenue for 2022 was projected to be well over 650 billion dollars [2]. This growth is only bound to accelerate in the near future due to the acute talent crunch that organizations are facing.
So the big picture clearly indicates the need for quality enterprise IT staff augmentation. If your organization is facing an increasing shortage of tech talent, rest assured that you’re not alone. Partnering with a dependable and professional IT staff augmentation services firm is now a must-have strategy in every enterprise’s decision-making toolkit.
That said, here are some pointers to help you decide if staff augmentation is the right strategy for you in a given situation.
When to Opt for Staff Augmentation?
Need for Skilled Resources
With the proliferation of niche technologies like artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, and the Internet of Things, the organizational landscape is undergoing unprecedented digital transformation. There is a need for highly specialized talent in these areas and not enough resources at hand.
Staff augmentation can bridge this gap and allow access to skilled talent at the critical junctures you need them. Strategically employing augmentation services during software development phases, like requirement analysis and architecture planning, can prevent costly technical errors that result from a lack of expertise.
Urgent Resource Requirement
Organizations routinely seek to fill critical roles when faced with an urgent need for resources in situations like new project acquisitions, approaching project deadlines, attrition of critical human resources, and more. Filling roles through the traditional recruitment process in these situations can prove to be time-consuming and ultimately costly.
Working with a trusted staff augmentation services provider in times like this can ensure business continuity and resilience. Perhourly, for example, promises resource deployment in as little as 3 days for most highly specialized technical roles.
Project Confidentiality Concerns
Outsourcing is an attractive alternative to staff augmentation, but some scenarios prevent the adoption of outsourcing as a viable strategy. Concerns like data security, integrity, and client confidentiality may mandate close collaboration with all the project resources. In situations like these, staff augmentation is a clear winner that ensures the resources work in line with your organizational constraints.
Augmented staff report to decision-making within your organization, enabling close collaboration and control mechanisms for data confidentiality. Since the resources are also managed by a professional staffing firm, they also adhere to strict confidentiality standards. For instance, resources provided by Perhourly are bound by strict NDAs that ensure complete client confidentiality.
Short-term Staffing Necessity
Sometimes you need to fill in roles for the short term. This might include changing client requirements, fast-approaching deadlines, or a short-term project. Hiring additional resources in these scenarios is simply overkill and a drain on organizational resources.
Staff augmentation provides a smart and superior alternative to traditional recruiting or outsourcing in times like these while ensuring customer satisfaction.
Skipping the Overhead of Hiring
Traditional recruiting is a costly affair. Not only does the process require substantial efforts at multiple levels, but acquiring and retaining the right organizational resources also consumes valuable organizational resources like time and money. Staff augmentation can solve these problems by providing access to pre-vetted high-quality talent at the right time and within budget.
Most staff augmentation providers also incorporate strict quality-control mechanisms and procedures to match organizations with the right talent minimizing the risk of acquiring new resources. At Perhourly, we offer a 14-day resource replacement policy that protects client interests in the rare scenario where resources don’t match client requirements.
The Bottomline
So that’s a quick guide to staff augmentation in 2023. With the increasing problem of a tech talent crunch, the possibility of an economic recession, and uncertain market conditions at hand, organizations must adopt a solid staff augmentation strategy to tide over resource crises. In turbulent times like ours, failure to adopt a staff augmentation strategy can result in lost opportunities and failed projects.
Partner with a professional staff augmentation services provider to reduce organizational costs, provide resilience and ensure business continuity. Connect with our in-house staff augmentation specialist for a free consultation that can help you design a custom staff augmentation strategy for your business.
