What Is Staff Augmentation? How Can It Benefit Your Team

Businesses need to keep up with rapid changes in the industry to stay competitive and achieve their goals. Any business needs a team that can adapt to changes in order to succeed. Every day, new technology is being developed and it is important that a team is aware of this and develops their skills accordingly. If a company is unable to bridge this skill gap, it can soon lose to its competitors. If you don’t want this to happen to your business, you’ve come to the right place because, in this blog, we will talk in detail about a solution that can be used to keep your team on track. Keep reading to find out:

• What is staff augmentation?
• Importance of staff augmentation
• Benefits of staff augmentation
• Staff augmentation model
• When to use staff augmentation for your business

What is Staff Augmentation

Staff Augmentation is a flexible hiring strategy that can be used to supplement your existing team by outsourcing the required talent for a non-permanent position. Staff augmentation can be used to meet the sudden demand of a project to fill a gap in necessary skills in a company by using external talent.

Importance of Staff Augmentation

The reason why staff augmentation is so important is because many businesses are facing the challenge of a skill gap, especially the IT sector. SpendEdge has predicted that by 2025, the staff augmentation investment around the world would rise up to $81.87 billion! This is definitely a positive trend that businesses need to focus on. They can simply hire for a specific skill without any long-term commitments and adjust the team size based on the project needs. With staff augmentation, you can not only fill the skill gap but also reduce long-term expenses. It allows businesses to quickly respond to changes in their industry.

Benefits of Staff Augmentation

• Specialized talent: When your team is working on an important project but lacks project-specific skills, staff augmentation is the perfect solution. Skills in AI (artificial intelligence) and IT are evolving and staff augmentation can help you find specialized talent in these domains. This hiring solution allows you to easily hire for short-term projects.
• Cost-effective: The most important part of running a business is making sure that the costs don’t affect your operation. Staff augmentation reduces the cost of hiring for permanent roles because you can hire specialized talent without having to spend on training, payrolls, benefits, etc. Staff augmentation reduces fixed costs by hiring only for a specific time.
• Reduced hiring risk: Choosing a good agency for staff augmentation can help your business reduce hiring risks. From the lengthy hiring process to onboarding and payrolls, you can easily reduce hiring tasks in each stage. This is because everything is overseen by the staff augmentation agency, which means you reduce the risk of a bad hire.
• Flexibility: Another benefit of staff augmentation is that you can easily scale your team up or down. There is also flexibility in adjusting your team based on seasonal demand, skill, and project. Staff augmentation also gives you the option to customize your payments based on budget for example weekly, monthly, or hourly rate.
• Productivity: When it comes to keeping up with the market demands, it is important to focus on your teams’ productivity. Staff augmentation provides the right skills at the right time and makes your existing team highly productive. This allows businesses to fully focus on a project without losing time or effort.

Staff Augmentation Model: Find The Right One For Your Business

• On-demand augmentation: On-demand augmentation is where businesses can access talent very quickly as per their needs. Whether companies need to scale up or down as per demand, staff augmentation is very helpful. For example, in tax season, an accounting company can outsource staff to handle the seasonal demands, which helps them easily meet their targets.
• Skill-specific augmentation: This model of staff augmentation bridges the skill gap in the existing team. If a company is designing a website but the team lacks the skill to use a new design technology, then this model of augmentation suits the best. The company can simply hire a designer who is an expert in that specific technology.
• Short-term augmentation: This is a temporary staff augmentation model that allows businesses to hire professionals for a very short time. It is useful when an employee in your team is on vacation, on a sabbatical, or on maternity leave. This model provides support to your existing team, which helps them run smoothly.
• Project-based augmentation: WIth project-based augmentation, you can add external staff to your internal team just to work on a project. This allows you to bring outside talent to your existing team which helps them work together effectively to complete a project. You can even hire an entire team for a non-permanent role until the project is over.
• Long-term augmentation: For a more complex and time-consuming project, you can choose long-term augmentation. If the duration of the project is more an 3 months, you can hire external staff to your team to provide ongoing support for up to 6 months or even a year, which brings specialized skill and knowledge.

When Can You Use Staff Augmentation For Your Business

Staff augmentation strategies can be used for various cases like:

• To handle time-sensitive projects by expanding your team.
• To bridge the gap for in-demand industry skills.
• Addressing the shortage in your team to cover an employee’s absence.
• To meet peak seasonal demands.
• Supporting businesses in their expansion.

Conclusion

Now that you have understood staff augmentation meaning, various models, and their benefits, your business can easily choose the right model for specific needs. Implementing staff augmentation is also very simple. Start by identifying your business needs. Whether it is to complete a project, to support your team when during the absence of an employee, to meet seasonal demands, etc. Next, choose a top agency to help you onboard external talent to your team. You can then easily adjust your team as per the changes or needs.

Are you ready to choose staff augmentation services for your business? Contact Spigot Software today to bring specialized talent to your team.