Introduction to staff augmentation

Staff augmentation is defined as a business strategy that lets you supplement your existing team with qualified experts in an efficient manner. In some cases, staff augmentation is also referred to as staff enhancement, staffing services, resource augmentation, etc.

This alternative hiring method is in place in various industries from the tech world to health care, construction and so much more. It is a quicker way to gain extra hands to work at a moment’s notice.

The augmented experts become a part of your internal team and work with your employees for specific projects and periods of time. Once their role is complete, they move on to new projects and you carry on business as usual.

Why is staff augmentation the right solution for your business?

So have you ever wondered, if staff augmentation services would be the right solution for your business? How it could help you meet your business needs? Staff augmentation services enable you to hire augmented employees on a project-to-project basis.

This alternative hiring model allows you to avoid certain pitfalls that arise with normal recruitment. Some of those pitfalls include poor new hires and long & expensive recruitment. Also, it can lead to being short-staffed, incompleted projects, and more. Let’s dive into some more details.

The new hire is not the right fit

When you hire a software developer using the traditional hiring method, the truth is you do not know who you will get. They may seem fantastic on paper. They may have even impressed you during the interview. But until they join your team and start work, you truly don’t know if they are the right fit for your company.

After a few days or weeks, you may learn that your newly hired programmer is a poor fit because:

• their technical expertise in reality is not as strong as you need them to be
• they are a toxic presence in the workplace
• they are not trustworthy because they do not meet their deadlines, they do not attend meetings, etc.

So now, you have a tough choice.

Do you try to make things work with this developer, perhaps give him or her additional training? Perhaps discuss the importance of meeting deadlines, attending meetings, etc.

Or, do you have to let them go and start the recruitment process all over again?

When you use staff augmentation services you can avoid this conundrum. Hiring new developers from a staff augmentation firm, you gain pre-vetted candidates. Moreover, most staff augmentation companies will offer you a risk-free trial period.

During that trial period, you can switch developers in case something changes. Also, throughout the use of IT staffing, you can always add, switch, or decrease the number of programmers you use.

Long & expensive recruitment

Traditional recruitment is time-consuming and can take a strain on a company’s resources.

When you have an HR department and hiring managers that take on the task of recruiting new team members. Their process may look a little something like this:

1. They create job descriptions to post online on various platforms for individuals to apply.
2. Now they have to wait a certain period of time for software developers to apply and send their resumes. Once they compile a group of resumes, they have to vet each one and pick the ones that fit the specialized skills required.
3. After they pick potential candidates for interviews and set those up. In addition to a standard interview, they will also book technical skill tests. This way programmers can prove their expertise.
4. Now, you can possibly extend an offer to someone who you think is the right fit for your business.

This whole process may take up to 3 to 6 weeks. However, this is assuming you are lucky to not have a good candidate drop out because they got an offer elsewhere.

You may also decide to go the route of paying an HR agency to find you a software developer that can join your team. Now, this may seem like a great solution at first glance but the truth is HR companies are expensive.

Let me give you an example:

If they find you a programmer who will make around $6000 per month, then the HR agency will charge you one or two months’ worth of that individual’s salary. Crazy expensive right?

You can avoid this cost by hiring someone via staff augmentation. Moreover, candidates that come through an HR agency may be problematic in the workplace for a few reasons:

• they are motivated strictly by a higher salary than they have now
• they may be difficult to work with, communicate with, etc. during the recruitment process and while on your team.

Short staffed

Do you constantly find yourself short-staffed? Whether it be due to a limited hiring budget, someone who is constantly on vacation/ sick leave, or growing market demands. This can take a toll on your company as a whole. The inability to expand and collapse your team as needed can limit the scalability of your business.

You can meet your staffing needs by taking advantage of staff augmentation services. You can add additional working hands without adding them to your list of full-time employees. Moreover, they can replace someone on a project who for example is on maternity leave, sick leave, etc.

Incomplete projects

Do you have projects that are incomplete because you do not have enough IT experts to help move them along? Team augmentation services can help you hire additional talent to move projects along. Moreover, they can help finish them in time to meet your deadlines.

Losing money

Are you sick of your company losing money? This could be for a variety of reasons such as:

• not completing projects on time
• not scaling your business fast enough to meet customer demand

You can avoid these scenarios by hiring additional developers using staff augmentation. The additional augmented staff will not only help you complete projects on time but will also grow your business. So essentially you kill two birds with one stone.

In what scenarios should I use IT staff augmentation services?

There are a number of scenarios where using IT staff augmentation services for your business is an excellent solution.

Scenario #1:

The first one is if you have an in-house team of software developers but are still short-staffed. Therefore, you need additional team members to complete a project. You can add additional technical expertise to your existing team of developers, QA testers, project managers, etc.

Scenario #2:

The second scenario where you might use staff augmentation is you have a software development project that needs a specific set of technical skills to even start. Finding such programming skills may be time-consuming.

In many circumstances, you just can’t afford to wait that long. Using staff augmentation allows you to hire a developer with these skills very quickly. They can help get the project started & support your team in its completion.

Scenario #3:

Another example of when to use staff augmentation to hire a software development team is if you come upon a project that may not meet the specifications of your business. So let’s say that you are a company that specializes in web application development. But you receive a project that has to do with creating a smart door lock. You want to take on this project because it will increase your revenue.

However, at the same time, you do not want to waste valuable in-house staff. You can hire skilled developers via staff augmentation to complete this project. All while leaving your full-time employees to go on with their regular tasks.

Staff augmentation vs. in-house recruitment 

So, you may be wondering what are some key differences between staff augmentation and in-house recruitment. Let me outline them for you.

For starters, every company will have an in-house recruitment process. Regardless of how many people they are employing, whether it be 5 people, 50 people, or +1000 people. To carry out this process a company will typically have an HR department. This department will have a hiring manager, a headhunter, etc.

Programmers hired via traditional recruitment typically become long-term employees who bond with other staff. Moreover, they are readily available to jump on various tasks. Additionally, they learn the ins and outs of your development company.

However, when we look at the staff augmentation model, you have more flexibility in terms of hiring additional coders. You have the ability to hire a software developer for a limited period of time. This could be for a project that lasts 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, etc. This is clearly stated in the contract. So, it’s easy for the coder and the company to separate once the project is done.

Additionally, programmers hired via IT staffing do not get attached to internal staff. This is because they are only there on a project basis. Lastly, this hiring model enables you to switch or add developers really easy in comparison to traditional hiring.

How do I choose the right staff augmentation model?

There are three options to choose from when hiring coders using the staff augmentation model. First, you can hire developers onsite. The second you hire programmers that are in close proximity to your business. The third option is you hire developers that are much further away from your in-house team.

Onsite

The first option is to choose augmented staff onsite. This would be developers from the same country as your local team. However, they would work remotely on your projects. This eliminates the need for additional office space.

Moreover, they can work with your in-house team throughout the entire business day. Lastly, they can be available for team meetings that can take place via tools such as Google Meet, Zoom, etc.

Nearshoring

If you want to hire a dedicated team using augmentation services you may decide to gain expertise from countries that are near you. You may hire dedicated software developers from countries that are ‘next to you.’

For example, if your company is based in Germany, you may decide to hire developers from Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, etc.

Offshoring

While offshoring allows you to reach parts of the globe that are much further from you and gain expertise that is miles and miles away.

Some examples of offshoring include a North American, British, or Asian-based company hiring coders from Europe. These could be software engineers from locations such as Poland, Germany, Netherlands, etc.

Types of staff augmentation services

It is possible to hire staff augmentation experts from different backgrounds. It is important to select a suitable solution to meet specific needs in an organizational environment. We’d like to look at just a few of the options available on market.

Master vendor staffing providers

This is an individualized program for staff working on the part of a vendor. It is a commodities class and it is best for high-commodity labor requirements, where costs can be low and scale is substantial.

Gig platforms

Gig platforms allow you to hire software developers that work freelance. They usually post their availability, rates, and other details on-demand talent platforms. Some popular online platforms include Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, etc.

HR & recruiting agencies

IT recruiting companies are staffing providers. They hire people for critical and noncritical work for clients. They receive compensation for finding suitable candidates for jobs. These candidates either join the company full-time or for an allotted period of time. It depends on the needs of the company looking for employees.

The benefits of staff augmentation

Using staff augmentation can benefit your business in numerous ways. Some of these include accelerating your team’s productivity & gaining valuable expertise. While also being able to grow your business in order to keep up with demand. Let’s discuss these three advantages in more detail below.

Accelerate your team’s productivity

So, we recognize that you have team members who work faster or slower. Slower team members may take a toll on your productivity & cause a domino effect that leads to incomplete projects.

However, we also understand situations in which you have developers, who have too many responsibilities. Therefore, they cannot keep up. When you hire additional programmers using staff augmentation you can even the workload. This will increase overall productivity.

Also, a fun fact when you hire Swyply developers for a long-term project. They can really sink their teeth into it, and they become more productive due to familiarity alone.

Gain valuable expertise

Augmented staff can help to fill software and IT skill gaps. They can provide the required technical knowledge to accomplish projects and tasks in an efficient way.

For example, if you have a team of Back-End Developers but are missing a Front-End Developer to create the user interface, staffing solutions can help. Staff augmentation can help find you a suitable Front-End Developer to create the user interface you desire for your project.

Once the project is complete, the developer moves on or you may decide to keep him or her for a new project. You may also decide to add other valuable experts to your team based on project requirements.

Scale your business faster

When you use staff augmentation to hire additional talent, you are able to scale your business faster. You gain more hands to work on important products meaning:

• the time to market is faster
• you can serve more customers
• you can meet your deadlines

Your business will grow faster to keep up with market demands.

Increase company revenue

Using staff augmentation you gain more working hands meaning that you can complete more projects and satisfy more customers.

All these aspects allow you to increase your company’s revenue because you are taking on more than you would be able to with just your existing in-house team.

5 Tips for success with staff augmentation

So you have decided to take advantage of the staff augmentation model to hire new developers onto your team. Now you may be wondering how to make this work so that your team is happy and your business strategy is successful. Well, we have a few tips for you, that may make integrating augmented staff with your in-house team a lot easier.

1. Make remote developers feel the effects of being with your local team

You may need to modify your management style in order to develop good relationships with your remote team. Moreover, communications must be ongoing. This is to ensure synchronism between the in-office teams and the remotely operated teams.

A great way to integrate both teams with each other is via Zoom meetings. This can be used to discuss project-specific matters, but it is great to allow room for a little bit of small talk.

2. Embrace tools & technology

Using tools such as Slack, Asana, Jira, and more to encourage the exchange of ideas and valuable information. The lack of communication & organizational tools could result in miscommunications. Moreover, it can lead to the loss of valuable information. All this can be detrimental to the software development process.

Communication & organizational tools can improve operational efficiency. Additionally, they can help simplify long-term software development processes.

3. Identify your skill gap

Each company possesses its own skills gap. When you are planning to expand and enhance your current software development team it is important to know which skills you lack. The identification of this skill gap may be done in numerous ways. It can be done via interviewing, surveys, or even simply monitoring your current IT talent.

Once you have a clear understanding of the skills that you are missing. The next step is considering whether this is a short-term or long-term need. Then you can fill this gap accordingly using staff augmentation services. Here at Swyply, we can lend out software developers for a minimum of 3 months.

4. Ensure clear communication

Clear communication increases profitability. Your in-house team & augmented team should have a good understanding of the development process. They should understand all project requirements. Also, they must know the overall vision and purpose of the project.

It is important to have a high level of communication during the development process. This way everyone is able to take on necessary tasks to complete the project successfully.

5. Having effective leaders

A key element to the success of any company is good leadership. You along with your project managers should be able to find a good way to manage your onsite team and your remote team.

We know from experience micromanagement is not the answer. Giving your employees a bit of freedom to show initiative and bring about creative solutions is not only great for them but also for you. You and your managers should guide, monitor, and support your staff to achieve the best overall results.

TL;DR – Summary of what is staff augmentation

Let’s quickly summarize what staff augmentation is all about. Staff augmentation is an outsourcing model where temporary software developers fill job positions for your company on a project-by-project basis. This option is popular in various industries and provides an alternative hiring method to traditional recruitment.

The biggest advantage of staff augmentation services is being able to fill the skill gap that exists in your in-house team. You can do so rather quickly, and therefore complete projects on time and scale your business. Another advantage of this hiring model it can help you even out the workload in your company and increase overall productivity.

There are many options within the staff augmentation model this includes hiring additional working hands onsite, nearshoring, or offshoring. It really all just depends on where you want to find additional talent and do they need to be close by.

Some key tips to make augmented staff work in your business include using technology and tools that are available to you. This makes communicating and organizing an in-house team with a remote team a whole lot easier. Plus it makes integrating co-workers easier too when you allow for a little bit of small talk on video chats via Zoom or Google Meets.

If you want to learn more about 👉 IT staff augmentation services 👈 or you can connect with us for a 👉 free consultation 👈 to see how this hiring model can truly benefit your business.