IT Staff Augmentation: Expectations vs reality

Are you looking to hire more developers to join your internal team temporarily? Well, let’s explore the option of using IT staff augmentation. More specifically let’s explore IT staff augmentation: expectations vs reality.

What are staff augmentation services?

Staff augmentation involves hiring companies to cover gaps in your workforce. It can be relatively simple: You call the hiring company and discuss your needs. Staffing increases allow you to hire developers at your company’s expense on a project-to-project basis. This helps to fill the team’s capacity when a project requires additional expertise. While also being cost-effective due to the fact that you only pay developers while you use them. Once their role is done, you no longer pay them.

Staff augmentation model

The 👉 staff augmentation process flow 👈 looks a little something like this:

1. Let us know what software developer you are looking for to meet your project requirements
2. The staff augmentation provider will look for suitable software developers and give you Blind CVs to review.
3. Pick candidates you would like to interview based on the CVs you receive. You will meet them virtually and can request a technical skills test.
4. After the interview process, you can pick which temporary staff you want to hire.
5. The developers will work remotely with your development team to finish a specific project.

A staff augmentation company can help you with hiring staff in the blink of an eye. Here at Swyply, we can provide you with programmers in as little as one week.

What are some inaccurate expectations you may have while IT staff augmentation?

Let’s explore some expectations that you may have when using IT staff augmentation services. You may expect things such as:

• being able to offload the entire project development process onto the developer(s) hired via staff augmentation
• it’s a one-time stop-hiring service
• the hiring process & partnership is very rigid
• and more

Let’s bring these expectations down to earth and clarify 👉 how staff augmentation services work 👈.

You don’t need to manage a project and developers

When you use the staff augmentation process you can hire developers to help with your project. Many project managers think they can offload the development process onto the augmented staff without much involvement. This is simply not the case.

Developers from a staff augmentation partner are meant to be an addition to your dedicated team. Or as a supplementary part of your IT department. They are meant to empower your team. And help your project manager even out the workload.

However, this is not outsourcing or managed services where they take over the software development project from start to finish. You need an in-house team to help carry out the project with the assistants of augmented software developers.

You also need the involvement of your project manager to assign tasks, manage tasks and keep the project moving forward.

It’s a one-time hiring developer service

Many companies assume that staff augmentation services are a one-time hiring agency. They do not see it as a long-term partnership. This is a big 👉 misconception with staff augmentation 👈. You can use staff augmentation for long-term projects and as a long-term solution.

You can hire a developer to work on a project for 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, or more. This hiring model does not need to be a short-term solution. Here at Swyply, we have a minimum of 3 months of cooperation.

Moreover, you can always go back to this hiring solution, at a later date in order to hire more staff when your company needs it. You can use IT staff augmentation to fill your skill gap over and over again. This is not a one-time thing.

It’s not a flexible formula and structure

Many people expect that staff augmentation services offer a rigid and structured solution. This is not the case. In fact, staff augmentation offers you flexibility in terms of hiring specialists to fill your skill gap. It gives you more wiggle room than traditional in-house recruitment or managed services or even the 👉 outsourcing model 👈.

It offers you flexibility because you can hire as many or as few software engineers as you need. Plus you can hire developers for the period of time you need. The IT staff augmentation model also allows you to switch, add, or remove developers as your project requirements change.

You are not limited to the number of developers you can hire, there is no time limit for how long a developer can work for you. The only limit you may have is the minimum time a developer must be on your team. Like, at Swyply, we require a developer to work on a project for a minimum of 3 months.

Another way in which this solution is flexible is the types of developers you can hire to join your team. You are able to find someone who will fit your exact needs and skillset. The developer you hire using staff augmentation is tailored to suit your job description.

The only cost I will have to pay is the daily rate of the augmented developer

Many tech companies turn to staff augmentation services thinking that they will save money. They think the only cost they will pay is the daily of the developer, they are looking to hire. Not true. You have to also cover the costs associated with onboarding the developer. Along with costs such as access to various software and tools.

However, the 👉 price of staff augmentation 👈 is still cost-effective. Because you do not have to pay things like health insurance, taxes, retirement funds, etc.

The software engineer will work in my office

An inaccurate expectation is that hired staff via the augmentation model will work in your office. Here at Swyply, 99.99% of the time coders will work remotely. This is not to say that you cannot come to an arrangement with our developer(s) to come to your office. The company and the developer both need to agree. Plus the company needs to cover the costs associated with that type of arrangement.

Also, think about it this way if a developer works remotely, you save money on renting out additional office space for that person. Not to mention remote work in the IT industry is pretty standard.

The developer hired from a staff augmentation service provider will be less engaged than my in-house team

Many businesses fear that when hiring developers from a staff augmentation company they will be less engaged. This is not the case, many augmented team members are more engaged as they are not jaded by the project. They have a fresh perspective and want to work, which may not always be true of your permanent employees.

Plus engagement levels are more dependent on individual personalities than anything else. You may be an in-house developer who is super engaged just like an augmented team member. Or you may have in-house staff who is disengaged but a team of remote developers who is eager to work. There truly is no formula to guarantee who will be more or less engaged in your development project.

The tech expert will teach my in-house team of developers how to code

You may think that programmers hired from a team augmentation service will teach your in-house teams how to code. This is not the case. While certain remote developers may be a mentor for your IT team, they are not there to teach.

If you hire a developer that has a higher seniority level and is a tech leader or team leader they can add a new perspective. They can push your project forward in an interesting and better direction. They may also check on code clarity and the cleanliness of the code. But again they will not sit and teach your developers to code.

Software developer retention will drop

Another inaccurate expectation is that augmented team members will want to leave your project quickly. You may think that they will want to leave your project because they do not have a bond with your in-house team. In the beginning, a developer may not understand your company culture and therefore want to leave. Even the fact that they can find a different project if they do not like this one because they are not hired by you permanently. This is not the case, staff augmentation is actually used as a 👉 solution for employee retention 👈.

Developers hired via staff augmentation tend to stay around for the duration of their contract to help with your project. Especially, if the developer feels comfortable with your team and working on your project.

But if an augmented software developer leaves your project, the staff augmentation vendor will replace them with someone else as soon as possible. You won’t have to worry about an empty employee slot. Staff augmentation has got you covered when it comes to programmer retention.

What is the reality of using IT staff augmentation?

Let’s take a look at the reality of working with IT staff augmentation providers to hire software engineers on a project-by-project basis.

Successful tech staff augmentation is a collaboration

When hiring with the help of a staff augmentation partner, to gain the most success in this model it’s important for your in-house development team to collaborate with the augmented staff.

The augmented staff should work with your dedicated development team to complete a project. They should be under the guidance of a project manager and assigned tasks to complete.

There should not be a situation in which a temporary developer is dropped into a dedicated team and left to figure things out for themselves. You should always assign augmented staff a buddy to help them navigate their way in a new company. Also, this way you allow for discussion, feedback, and collaboration.

Also, you should have consistent contact with your staff augmentation service provider. At Swyply, we reach out to our customers once every few weeks to make sure that our cooperation is heading in the right direction. We want to know that you are happy with the developer or developers that you hired. Also, we want to ensure that you do not have additional needs at this time. We can always add more developers, switch developers, etc.

We do the same thing in terms of the developer that we have rented out to another company. Our Head of HR will check in with them to make sure that they are happy with the project and if there are any issues we can tackle them right away.

No one is an island when you use IT staff augmentation services, this is a collaboration. And you will have more success if you treat it as such.

IT staff augmentation can be a long-term hiring solution

Believe it or not, staff augmentation can be used to help you complete long-term projects. There are different types of IT staff augmentation services. Therefore, it’s not just suitable for short-term projects. Here at Swyply, our developers love long-term projects so anything longer than 6 months. But we do take on projects that last a minimum of 3 months.

Plus you can always return to staff augmentation to hire developers, even after a specific contract is done. This is a great way to fill your employment slot when you need it and not be solely dependent on in-house recruitment procedures.

You gain access to a wider talent pool

Staff augmentation services can give you a boost by giving you access to a vast staff pool. This enables you to select the very best developers for your projects. Regardless of location and timezone.

You can gain the help of an offshore development team to have work done around the clock on your project. Another option is to use nearshore developers to help with your software development and sync working hours. You can overlap your team’s working hours with the augmented staff. Making collaboration super simple.

Also, you may decide to use onsite developers, which is basically renting our developers from the same location but they work with you remotely instead of at the office.

You can hire pre-vetted top-notch developers

The IT industry may be saturated with coders. But not all of them are the top-notch developers, they say they are. When you use staff augmentation you have a greater success rate of hiring the right developer the first time.

At Swyply, all our developers are pre-vetted. We run them through a 👉 recruitment process 👈to make sure that their hard skills or soft skills are top-notch. Plus we enable our customers to run an accelerated interview process with programmer candidates so that they are not buying a sheep in wolf’s clothing. We want to full transparency.

You can hire niche programmers on demand

Finding programmers with niche talent can be tricky. As coders with niche skills are few and far in between. Staff augmentation can help you find developers with advanced skills such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc.

Using staff augmentation services can help you hire niche coders in as little as one week. Whereas with traditional recruitment you may be waiting 3 to 6 weeks.

You can scale your business quickly

If you need many developers and quickly to grow your business then staff augmentation will be the right solution. A staff augmentation company will be able to provide a developer or an entire remote development team to help grow your business.

Another way staff augmentation can help you scale your business, is if you are short on tasks. For example, you do not have enough projects to go around so you can let augmented staff go. While keeping your in-house developers to go about the everyday tasks.

You have complete control over project development & software developers

When you use an IT staff augmentation company you get to keep the software development project in-house. You hire developers to supplement your in-house team to help complete a project. This gives you full control

When an augmented team member joins your company, they are under the control of your project manager. They are exclusively available to you and your team. This is just one of many 👉 benefits of using staff augmentation 👈.

14-day risk-free trial period

New employees hired by skill-based staff augmentation come with a trial period. Here at Swyply, we give you 2 weeks to test out developers. If you are unhappy with them after that period you do not pay a cent. During this time you also have the option of switching the software developer for another one. Or you can end the cooperation to try a different solution.

IT staff augmentation expectation vs reality – where do they meet?

Check out this table to learn what are your expectations and what is the reality of the staff augmentation model.

IT Staff Augmentation	Expectation vs Reality
You don’t need to manage a project and developers	Expectation
Working with augmented staff is a collaboration	Reality
It’s a one-time hiring developer service	Expectation
Long-term hiring solution	Reality
It’s not flexible formula and structure	Expectation
It’s flexible and offers a 14-day risk-free trial period	Reality
The only cost I will have to pay is the daily rate of the augmented developer	Expectation
Gives you access to a wider talent pool	Reality
Helps you hire pre-vetted top-notch developers	Reality
Software developer retention will drop	Expectation
A tech expert will teach my in-house team of developers how to code	Expectation
Developers hired via staff augmentation will be less engaged than my in-house team	Expectation
Helps you scale your business quickly	Reality
Gives you access to a wider talent pool	Reality
The software engineer will work in my office	Expectation
Gives you niche programmers on demand	Reality
Gives you control over project development & software developers	Reality

The Future of IT Staff Augmentation in Organizations

The future of IT staff augmentation in organizations is an important discussion for companies to consider. As technology advances, organizations must assess how to stay competitive in a tech-driven world. IT staff augmentation provides organizations with skilled workers to supplement existing personnel. And help meet the demands of the marketplace. Utilizing IT staff augmentation can help organizations develop effective strategies to meet the challenges of the future.

IT staff augmentation can help organizations take advantage of new technologies. And gain a competitive edge. Companies that choose to use IT staff augmentation can leverage the expertise of external professionals to improve their operations. This can include developing new applications and systems. They can also help with improving existing processes. And lastly, help to create more efficient workflow solutions. By having access to skilled personnel, companies can quickly devise solutions to emerging challenges. Plus they can ensure that they are well-prepared to face future needs.

For tech companies, IT staff augmentation is particularly beneficial. By accessing the skills of external personnel, tech firms can quickly and efficiently develop and deploy new applications, systems, and processes. This helps them keep up with competitors and meet customer demands. Furthermore, IT staff augmentation can help tech companies stay ahead of the curve. It does so by identifying potential issues and implementing solutions. While also allowing them to remain competitive in the tech industry.

In the future, IT staff augmentation will become increasingly important for many organizations. Companies that use IT staff augmentation can stay ahead of the competition and remain competitive in the marketplace. It will help businesses stay agile in the ever-changing digital landscape.

TL;DR: IT staff augmentation: expectation versus reality summary

Let’s break down the expectations vs reality of IT staff augmentation. Some inaccurate expectations of the IT staff augmentation model include:

• You don’t need to manage a project and developers
• It’s a one-time hiring developer service
• It’s not flexible formula and structure
• The only cost I will have to pay is the daily rate of the augmented developer
• The software engineer will work in my office
• Developers hired from a staff augmentation service provider will be less engaged than my in-house team
• A tech expert will teach my in-house team of developers how to code
• Software developer retention will drop

Now let’s look at some of the realities of IT staff augmentation:

• it is a collaboration
• can be a long-term hiring solution
• gives you access to a wider talent pool
• helps you hire pre-vetted top-notch developers
• gives you niche programmers on demand
• helps you scale your business quickly
• gives you control over project development & software developers
• gives you a 14-day risk-free trial period

If you like the reality of using IT staff augmentation, 👉 drop us a line 👈, and let’s chat. We can have a no-obligation discussion on how you can use IT staff augmentation to fill the skill gap in your company.