Today, we live in a digitalized world where everything depends on technology. From purchasing clothes to ordering food and managing finances, it’s just one click away! As a result, the need for IT staff augmentation has boomed greatly; however, 54% of businesses are experiencing a mere shortage of talented professionals.
Although there are millions of job openings in the IT sector, not many skilled professionals can handle the role better. Thus, companies are preferring IT staff augmentation services. This article is a complete guide about staff augmentation, its types, benefits, and more. So, without any further ado, let’s dive in!
What is IT Staff Augmentation?
It is a popular hiring practice or an outsourcing strategy where professionals are hired outside their in-house staff to offer excellent services. These professionals are trained and qualified experts with years of experience in the field, allowing employers to fill the gap without offering additional incentives.
If you are a business owner who experiences a sudden rise in demand for a specified period, relying on staff augmentation services is an excellent choice without going through the complex hiring process or incurring the cost.
For example, if you are developing a mobile application for which you require five mobile app developers for six months. It is an excellent solution as the IT sector is most likely to grow and generate a revenue of $1,570.00 billion by 2027. Also, staff augmentation eliminates the upfront hiring cost and offers the best services.
Types of IT Staff Augmentation
1. Project-based Augmentation
When a company requires professionals like software developers or engineers for a specified period and a particular project, it is called Project-based augmentation.
2. Skill-based Augmentation
Hiring professional software developers in custom software development companies because of their skill sets, like healthcare or Fintech, to meet the expectations is referred to as Skill-based augmentation.
3. Time-based Augmentation
If you want to hire a third-party developer to offer their services for a particular period, it is referred to as a Time-based augmentation.
4. Hybrid-based Augmentation
It is a methodology that includes the benefits of both outsourcing and augmentation to create solutions and customized resources.
5. Onshore Augmentation
In this type of augmentation, the IT professionals are hired from the same country where the organization is situated. If you need to collaborate and communicate with your team regularly, It is a great option.
6. Nearshore Augmentation
Hiring professionals like developers or engineers from closely related countries, typically from similar cultural backgrounds and time zones, is known as Nearshore augmentation.
7. Offshore Augmentation
When your organization and the professionals are based in different countries with absolutely no connection, it is known as the Offshoreprocess. Hiring offshore developers is highly cost-efficient.
8. Dedicated Team Augmentation
When you hire a dedicated team of professionals who work majorly for your organization, it is referred to as dedicated team augmentation.
Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation
1. Highly Scalable
Generally, IT companies experience an ever-evolving and changing marketing environment and working conditions. That’s when IT staff augmentation acts as a potential solution where you hire experienced professionals for a particular project or a time. Additionally, it includes minimum cost and eliminates the lengthy hiring process.
2. Cost-effective
Hiring full-time and in-house developers, engineers, or IT professionals involves a lot of cost. As a result, It is regarded as a cost-effective alternative where companies can hire experts without any cost involved for a short period of time. Above all, these professionals are not liable for any incentives, reducing overall expenses. Some of the significant expenses reduced include Salary, Staff benefits, Tax expenses, Social security, Parking benefits, Health insurance, Retirement benefits, and Commuting benefits.
3. Access To Specialized Skills
The world is full of highly skilled professionals you can find through IT staff augmentation services. The best part is these professionals can handle niche-specific projects. There are several renowned platforms where you can find these professionals and make the most of their abilities to get success.
4. Increased Efficiency
When you hire an IT staff augmentation workforce, you can enjoy faster project delivery and increased efficiency as these professionals work to the best of their abilities to deliver quality and timely services.
5. Mitigate Project Risks
Every IT project is prone to certain risk factors that can result in big losses. Staff augmentation companies offer you easy access to experienced professionals; they analyze all risk-causing factors and eliminate any chances of project failure. This ensures that the project is successfully and timely completed while achieving the end goal.
How Does the Staff Augmentation Process Work?
Step 1: Identify the Requirements
First and foremost, identify why you need an IT professional. There are several reasons, such as a lack of the required skills, an upcoming project that needs more people, or a lack of experience and expertise in a particular area.
Step 2: Determine the Scope
Understanding the scope of the role is essential, which includes the responsibility of the upcoming IT professionals, the specific skill set required, the total engagement time, and the overall expertise required.
Step 3: Choose Qualified Candidates
Choosing qualified candidates through different channels like referrals, recruitment agencies, and job postings is important. Ensure that the candidate goes through a rigorous screening and interview session.
Step 4: Smooth Onboarding
Another important step is onboarding the selected professionals and integrating them into the existing staff smoothly. You must offer them access to all tools, software, technologies, and resources.
Step 5: Management and Oversight
Once you have boarded the candidate, you must manage and oversee their operations to ensure all tasks are performed and delivered timely without backlogs
Some Drawbacks of the Staff Augmentation Model
1. Increased Cost
Hiring IT staff professionals sometimes costs more than the permanent employees or staff.
2. Lack of Knowledge
Since no rigorous recruitment procedure is followed while onboarding these professionals, new staff may not have the required knowledge. Also, they take time to catch up with existing professionals.
3. Project Management
It can contribute to management workload and overall project cost.
4. Loss of Control
Risks such as cultural fit, loss of control, and data security always exist when hiring professional staff.
5. Short-term Focus
At times, augmented professionals overlook a company’s overall objective and focus only on short-term tasks.
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