In business building and teams, it is vital to create such a model of staff that would correspond to the key goals and the style of the company’s work. Staff augmentation is becoming increasingly wide-used as a way to organize work, but before going all in, it is necessary to choose the right model.
This article will define staff augmentation, cover its benefits and downsides, discuss organization models, and give some important considerations for teams that want to go this way.
Defining Staff Augmentation and When Exactly It Is Necessary
These days there is a great trend for staff augmentation, which has evolved due to the need for companies in contingent or part-time workers who contribute to the firm’s activity regularly. Nowadays, in every industry, you can hear the word ‘freelancer’ standing for a hired or independent individual who earns money per task or project instead of per month. In fact, over 34% of employees are hired as freelance workers in the US.
To understand what staff augmentation is, let’s look at its definition. So, staff augmentation means using the ‘outside’ personnel when necessary to enhance the organization’s potential and capacities. This idea allows for a large number of augmentation scenarios.
The most common goals for using this model include the following:
- Increasing productivity.
A ‘jump’ in the labor capacities can help to boost the way everyday work is done and achieve a better quality or top up the quantity. Here, augmentation is driven by big customer demand, project work aimed at increased production, or completing seasonal work.
- Hiring narrow-profile specialists.
If special skills are needed to perform one of the key company’s tasks, outsourcing staff is a good idea, whether for temporary or consistent cooperation.
- Bridging gaps before hiring permanent teams.
Sometimes it makes sense to hire talents for an amount of time while you’re searching for all-time specialists. These teams often perform the tasks needed for the company forming stage, such as logo and brand philosophy development, website creation, etc.
- Building a highly competitive team.
This is just for the sake of making up a flexible team and gaining an advantage over competitors.
Pluses and Minuses of Talent Augmentation in the Contemporary Society
Like any strategy for the organization of business, talent augmentation can have both good sides and drawbacks. If you are looking for guidance on this question, the overview of the pros and cons might be helpful.
Pluses
- Easily sourcing the needed skill sets adds value to your team overall.
- Saving money since it’s possible to hire staff part-time rather than looking for people to take for a long period.
- Being able to get a smoother run of your deals during the ‘valley’ times.
* This was seen when Toyota discharged some of its full-time employees and diversified its workforce so that the so-called ‘buffer’ of employees (up to 20% of freelancers) maintained productivity after the crisis from 2007 to 2009.
- Using this technique as a way to try new staff.
- Easily increasing or decreasing workforce and pace on demand depending on the demand.
Minuses
- Might not be a good solution for tasks that require excellent teamwork since good teams aren’t built overnight.
- Some projects fail because they need a profound knowledge of the nuances and institutions of the contexts. Hence, this can turn into longer than expected project completions and lost finances.
- Dependence on third-party sides regarding staff members makes the firm less sustainable.
Considering the Type of Talent Augmentation: What Types Exist and What Peculiarities They Hold
Figuring out the whole idea of augmentation is only half of success. Next, you must think about the exact type of IT Craft staff augmentation solutions to meet your key goals and let it turn out as a booster rather than a pain in the neck.
These days, employers can choose from the following types of augmentation.
- Skill based.
Now, let us imagine that your company needs a specific set of skills (typing, receiving phone calls, use of Excel), but the level of these skills isn’t critical. This often concerns tasks based on simple data processing, simple copywriting, and clerical work.
- Commodity.
This strategy is best when you just need a reliable worker to complete some not skill-related tasks, e.g., retail, event labor, and basic sales.
- Highly-skilled.
This type comes in handy when you require an experienced and knowledgeable person to perform complex tasks (e.g., multilingual translation, web development, site construction, etc.). This can only be achieved when a worker gets thorough preparation and training and polishes up their skills to a high level.
If you search for new workers with the main purpose in mind, you might have already defined the necessary type.
Whom Will Staff Augmentation Fit?
Employing augmented workers is meaningful in one of these cases, in particular, if you:
- Already have an in-house team and would like to expand it quickly.
If you have a full-time team, outsourced talents will just be a bonus to it, and you will be able to bridge the gap between the expertise of other workers and their experience.
- Have an excellent manager.
Searching for staff, finding resources, and trailing takes a lot of management, so don’t even start if there’s no manager by your side.
- Hired a tech-savvy.
Make sure this person has tech at their fingertips since most managers need to master tech tools for reporting and data interpretation.
These are must-do rules for everyone who longs to incorporate the technique.
Choosing Worthy Talent Augmentation Services for Your Business’ Blooming
Here are the options to engage augmented staff.
- Traditional providers are usually skill-based and needed for temporary labor.
- Specialized staffing & consulting firms. These can be small firms aimed at skillful talents to fill in your gaps when you need specific skill sets. The service is usually costly.
- Gig platforms. Many online platforms can open access to independent workers who fit into a commodity, skill-based, and highly skilled types. They are great for one-project jobs and offer high speed and flexibility. However, large marketplaces for freelancer job seekers can be challenging, especially in singling out worthy candidates for performing your work.
If you are at a loss about the services to use, check out staff augmentation services by Avenga. This platform gives you custom help in permanent recruiting, team leasing, and talent augmentation, particularly in the IT sphere.
