What is IT Staff Augmentation? How it Works

When a company chooses to undertake in-house recruitment to hire medium or senior-level developers or specialists in the software development field, the company is investing time and money to search for the right candidate.

It doesn’t guarantee that the company will get the perfect candidate in time.

Furthermore, following this strategy would not be a suitable alternative if the company requires an expert team player on a short-term basis.

Here, you’ll need to make a wise decision based on an optimal recruiting approach, namely
IT staff augmentation. It focuses on growing your in-house team so you may hire pros for
your project without wasting a lot of time.

This article will go over the basics of IT staff augmentation, including types of staff
augmentation, staff augmentation services, benefits, how they function, problems, pros and
cons, and more.

What is Staff Augmentation?

To staff their projects and fulfil submission deadlines, the organisations employ an outsourcing technique. This procedure involves assessing present staff and determining additional skills.

To put it simply, staff augmentation is the utilisation of outside professionals to augment an organisation’s capacity without raising liabilities. Yes, expanding capacity without incurring liabilities.

As with staff augmentation, companies get the dedicated resources from a partner IT Staff augmentation company who work on the partner company’s payroll.

Brands can also save money on payroll, recruitment, and project implementation by adopting staff augmentation services. This hiring strategy is simply scalable, which means that even if an employment contract is terminated, it’s rather simple to cease this type of cooperation.

Types of Staff Augmentation

Before we further learn more about staff augmentation, we should know the types of staff augmentation.
There are three types of staff augmentation:

Skill-Based – This type of job necessitates a specific skill set, such as data processing, clerical work, basic copywriting, transcription, and so on, although it is not required.

commodity – You need a dependable person to complete duties such as warehouse work, events, retail or manual labour, but not necessarily someone with a specific skill set.

Highly-Skilled – Contract law, software engineering, and brand design are examples of very complex abilities that can only be acquired by experience or training. A certain amount of expertise is also required.

When Should You Hire a Staff Augmentation Company? 

Now we’ll discuss the instances in which companies prefer to use staff augmentation. When you find yourself in one of the following situations, you can use staff augmentation:

•  When you want an add-on to your in-house team

Employee augmentation, as we all know, entails expanding an existing in-house team to add more employees to do workflow tasks or filling the expertise gap by recruiting individuals who are proficient in specific tech stacks in specialised IT fields.

• When you need to augment your team quickly

If you need a local worker with expertise in a specific product, such as ERP software or anything similar, you can use staff augmentation. This strategy helps us save time spent looking for a professional. All you have to do now is connect with the vendor, look over the candidates’ resumes, and interview them.

• You are looking for high-level skills

Software engineers hold skills that demand training, time, and experience to gain expertise. The skill level also holds significance as the workforce augmentation projects mainly include experienced developers; juniors are rare as they don’t have time to train them. It’s a faster and more straightforward way to adapt an adept engineer to the project working ambiance.

•  When your project is in the hand of a tech-savvy manager

When choosing a resource augmentation model, you must consider the management aspect. You are solely responsible for the management of your team and the development of your product. It specifies that you must be tech-savvy as well as a good manager.

• When you need to work successfully with your colleagues

You will meet your project needs and have complete control over your project if you choose an IT Staff augmentation plan.

In addition, every member of your team would be expected to report to you. They will also be a member of your in-house team.

What are the Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation?

IT Staff augmentation comes with various advantages. Let’s look at a few below:

• Flexibility

With team augmentation, you may recruit as many IT specialists as you desire. You can also scale that team up or down. You can start with two QA engineers, iOS developers, and a UX/UI designer, but later on, you can focus solely on Android or iOS developers.

• Resource Saving

The definition of IT Staff augmentation that is based on your business needs may help you save money on hiring. Although, in order to get personnel for your project, you must follow the vendor’s schedule. The amount of time it takes to hire augmented employees is solely decided by the level of expertise of the IT Staff augmentation firm.

•  Direct Communication

If you outsource software development or web development, the vendor will account for every detail. Although, when it comes to a IT Staff augmentation selection, you hold the authority to assign the jobs, plan sprints, and ultimately control the process through
corporate project management tools, like Trello, Jira, etc. Being constantly in touch with you, the developers will directly report to you only.

•  Growth and Adaptability

Flexible hiring permits brands to expand their operations on trial with no investment loss or risk of failure or full-time workforce. IT Staff augmentation services offer growing businesses various options by permitting them to hire as per the project.

• High Productivity

To expand IT Staff, one needs to consider high productivity. In simple terms, the team you hire needs to be focused on the project, dedicating their effort and time. So, accordingly, their efficiency level should also be higher than an outsourcing team that can handle various projects at a time.

• Affordable Prices

If you find hiring full-time employment quite expensive, you can go for an augmented team. It charges hourly, including hardware expenses, software, training, and office rent. In comparison to the expense of in-house development, this service is often economical.

Types of IT Staff Augmentation Services

Well, there are varied options for accurate IT Staff augmentation talent. Picking the right and apt relies on the particular requirements of the organisation.

•  Onsite Augmentation

When companies engage technical IT Staffing vendors to supplement their full-time workforce, one of the easiest and most convenient alternatives to deploy is onsite, which means the IT Staffing agency will send qualified technical experts to work in the client’s
office for a predetermined period of time.

• • Pros:
    •  Your augmented personnel will be physically available in the workplace, allowing for natural and simple interaction with your management team and assisting temporary hires in fast integrating with your existing workforce.
    • Onsite augmentation frequently avoids any potential conflict between contractors and your permanent workers. In most circumstances, your employees will be more likely to collaborate with additional staff onsite since they will be able to contact them in person.
    •  You will have total control and face-to-face communication with your temporary people while working with in-house augmented staff. There will be no communication latency, allowing you to take a more “hands on” approach to evaluating and managing your new team members.
•  Cons:
  • If you choose the onsite option, the costs of direct staff assistance, such as extra office space, desks, phones, parking spots, and so on, may be more than if your augmented team worked away.
  • Employees who have been supplemented will still need to be taught on internal business regulations and corporate culture, which can take up a lot of time and raise your onboarding expenses
  • You’ll need to make sure you have enough managers to supervise your supplemental workers (depending on the size and duration of the project).
  • As augmented personnel arrive at your office, it’s feasible that your company’s business plan and methods may be disclosed, causing the company’s bottom line to suffer.

• Onshore Augmentation

Onshore software development means choosing a provider that is close to your office(located in your hometown). There are many advantages like working culture similarities; common language; same time zone; fast direct interactions; skilled teams from your town.

Disadvantages like frequent turnover of augmented employees, and cost is comparatively high.

•  Pros
  • Because onshore employees are based in the same nation as your company, there should be no significant language or cultural hurdles, which is advantageous when you need to swiftly assemble a strong team to move a project ahead.
  • With the onshore approach, you’ll have access to a wider selection of technical talent because your IT staffing agency will be able to get skilled labour from throughout the country rather than from a single, limited geographic region.
• Cons
  • Managers will not have direct, in-person oversight of distant additional workers.
  • When choosing the onshore option, integration with onsite staff may take longer, as distance and time can alter how individuals cooperate and engage with one another, even with excellent communication protocols and technology in place.

• Nearshore Augmentation

Nearshore outsourcing means working with a provider that is located in a neighbouring
country to yours. Its advantages are the same time zones; good cost-quality ratio;
transferred liability; fast direct interactions.

• Pros
  • By definition, nearshore means your augmented staff is physically closer to your central headquarters, which reduces any time zone lag, making it simpler to communicate and coordinate tasks during standard business hours.
  • Nearshore software developers usually cost less than onsite or onshore talent, yet still give your firm access to technical talent graduating from top Latin American universities, as well as tech schools located in other countries.
•  Cons
  • While hiring engineers nearshore is typically less expensive than onsite or onshore labour, yet it can still cost more than working with offshore teams.
  • You will encounter some time zone differences (a few hours) when selecting the nearshore model. If every hour counts, especially when you’re on a tight delivery
  • schedule, these differences can potentially lead to some marginal productivity losses.
  • Lack of pool availability is one of the main issues while going with it.

• Offshore Augmentation

Offshore means working with a software development provider outside your country, usually from a different time zone. Some of its benefits are significantly reduced costs; full disponibility; transferred liability; wide-range of skills; great cost-quality balance; higher
scalability.

• Pros
  • While the cost of working with software developers overseas can vary significantly depending on a variety of factors such as the strength of the local (overseas) economy, foreign business regulations, the number and availability of skilled workers, and more, as a general rule, when augmenting your IT staff to work simultaneously on multiple projects, offshore destinations tend to cost significantly less (compared to
    other staffing options) and quite productive as you can increase the number in the less cost.
  • Because of their geographical time differences (which can also be a disadvantage), offshore personnel can code and issue solutions when your local crew is out of the office for the day if you need to work around the clock on a certain task.
  • Wide availability of technically sound resources, a country like India has a huge pool of technically sound and experienced software engineers so you can get the wide choice for the same. Working with Fortune Infosys you get complete control on the resources from selection to task allocation.
  • Flexibility to ramp up or narrow down the team size based on the project’s requirement. Plus, all these flexibilities without investing in a long-term in-house resource.
  • Once you sign up with us as your offshore partner then all you need is to focus on your core strength i.e., bringing more clients and sales. The complexity of development, project management, task allocation, R&D and resource management is all taken care of by the offshore Team.
• Cons
  • Communication challenges between team members working in various places might arise as a result of cultural and language disparities, as well as difficult-to-understand accents. Fortune Infosys have developers who are very fluent in English communication which effectively work to overcome this issue.
  • When coordinating with offshore personnel, contact can be limited (due to time variations), which can reduce productivity during the workday and frustrate expectations in terms of production. Companies like Fortune Infosys are providing common working hours, in that coordination with the team is easily possible. Moreover, Fortune’s availability in New Jersey, (Head Office) ensures easy accessibility and reduced cultural gaps which will add extra value to each and every engagement.
  • Payment issues, due to offshore companies belonging to different countries, create a headache for hiring companies for making a payment in foreign currency and maintaining the records for the same. But Fortune Infosys has a presence in the US so the US clients have the benefit of paying directly to the company USD and reduce the operational hassle.

How to Choose the Right IT Staff Augmentation Model?

Many businesses employ a variety of providers at the same time, depending on their requirements. When thinking about hiring more people, it’s important to keep in mind your goals and priorities.

Furthermore, before deciding on a model, you should consider the benefits and drawbacks
(which we will explain later in this text).

How Does Staff Augmentation Work?

For a better understanding, consider the following scenario.

Assume you have an internal CRM system that has to be updated. In addition, your present
IT Staff lacks experience or specialists who can improve your product.

So, despite opting for the usual recruiting procedure of exploring, interviewing, and
onboarding, you choose an outsourced software development provider.

The vendor selects qualified engineers with similar project experience and shares their CVs
with you. You can interview the experts and, if chosen, sign a contract with them.

Short-term initiatives benefit from this type of staffing and resource augmentation because
they require less time to complete.

One more is likely to happen in which you require to change a current engineer as he’s on
leave. So, here, the vendor will help you find the right programmers for a decided time and
stuff in the gap of experts in the team.

• Need to expand the team fast

If you’re seeking for a skilled applicant in a specific field, the IT Staff augmentation approach
can save you time while providing you with the greatest option. All you have to do now is
connect with a vendor, evaluate the candidates’ CVs, and interview them.

• Having an in-house staff is a good idea.

When you need to expand your present in-house workforce, you can use employee
augmentation to acquire extra employees who are qualified to perform specific workflow
tasks.

• You should have a tech-savvy manager on your team.

Using a resource augmentation model necessitates self-management. You retain complete
control over team and product management in this scenario. It necessitates that you be both tech-savvy and a smart manager.

• Need better communication with the team

Hiring an augmented team will perfectly meet your business needs when you want complete control over your project. That team will also be a part of your in-house team placed for you.

• Need people with high-level skills

Software engineers hold the skills that demand training, time, and experience to be experts.
The skill level also has significance. Human resources augmentation projects hardly include
junior developers as they need time to train. It’s faster and easier to adapt a skilled engineer
to the working environment and project.

What are the Challenges of IT Staff Augmentation?

Well, the IT Staff augmentation role will not prove beneficial for you if you don’t remember
the key challenges that a company can face.

• Quality Control

Companies looking for specialists for their projects should analyse their previous work and
collect feedback from previous clients to verify their calibre and experience.
Furthermore, they must confirm that the candidate’s skills match their IT Staffing
requirements.

They may cause project delays, end-user security issues, and cost overruns if they fail to do
so.

• Technical Expertise

You’ll need to go through a careful screening process that allows you to study the
candidates’ profiles and maintain track of their experience in the domain you’re looking for.
If you discover that your augmented team’s performance falls short of your expectations, the sooner you acquire more professionals, the longer your project will be delayed.

• Language & Time Barriers

This is the most common issue that clients have with IT Staff augmentation. Because of the
different levels of English, you may misunderstand during the development procedure.
However, you may avoid this problem by checking your vendor’s English skills by speaking
with its representatives or communicating with its employees.

• Security Issues

Because the IT Staffing business model necessitates third-party integration for internal
processes, security is a major concern. The safety of the project and its clients is critical and
should not be jeopardised.

IT Staff augmentation companies should conduct security audits on a regular basis to
identify security vulnerabilities and threats. They must also adhere to strict standards in
order to obtain signed NDAs following the use of electronic signatures.

What are the Pros & Cons of IT Staff Augmentation?

Now, we will check out the pros and cons of IT Staff augmentation that every brand needs to
know before using its services.

Pros of IT Staff Augmentation

• Complete Control Over the Staff

IT Staff augmentation will allow you to expand your team while maintaining complete control over their working hours, processes, and tasks, among other things. It also helps you to manage the outcomes of a given project or assignment.

• Remove the Recruitment HR & Overhead Management

The vendor will handle the HR and recruitment management for you if you use IT Staff augmentation services. It allows you to save time and money on the recruiting process.

• Reduced Costs

As various IT Staff augmentation organisations use resources from worldwide; they hold the calibre to offer personnel at a comparatively lower price.

To provide you with an idea about the average savings that staff augmentation can offer, the following are some of the positions along with associated savings that a vendor can offer to its clients:

• Systems Engineer: About 48.77% Cost Savings
• QA Specialists: Around 55% Cost Savings
• Help Desk: Approx. 46.14% Cost Savings
• Software Developer: over 52% Cost Savings
• Additionally, to reduce salary costs, one needs to save on expenses relevant to an
  office computer, space, and equipment as the IT Staff will be performing remotely.
• Reduce or Increase IT Staff On-Demand

IT Staff augmentation enables you to swiftly reduce or increase resources based on your
company’s needs. IT Staff augmentation can be used to temporarily increase resources and
then removed once the project is completed.

Because you don’t need to hire full-time staff, this strategy allows you to scale your firm at a
lower cost and with less risk.

• Access to a Big Pool of Trained Professionals

Because many IT Staffing firms have offices around the world, you may tap into a vast pool
of talent regardless of location. It enables you to hire specialist skills more quickly and
achieve your deadlines.

Furthermore, countries and localities frequently encourage and grow specialised abilities,
giving you the opportunity to attract top individuals with specific knowledge and ability.
Cons of IT Staff Augmentation

• Miscommunication

However, while the majority of countries speak English, each has its own dialect, which
might lead to miscommunications.

To avoid this, important instructions should be carefully explained to guarantee that the
message is comprehended.

It will reduce communication errors and, in some cases,
eliminate time wastage.

• Reduced Accessibility Because of Remote IT Staff

To cut expenses, providers use resources from nations with a lower cost of living for IT Staff
augmentation.

As a result, the employees hired will be working remotely, which means they may not be as
available as someone who works in the same office.

• Different Cultural Backgrounds

Different cultural backgrounds influence the management of a person.

Moreover, language, religion, and history may affect an individual’s mindset and work
habits.

So, it’s usually recommended that one read books and articles relevant to learn how to
manage people from certain countries to which your IT Staff augmentation provider belongs.

Conclusion

To summarise, IT Staff augmentation is the most cost-effective way for businesses to reduce costs while maintaining critical resources for business efficiency.

Moreover, IT Staff augmentation gives you the freedom to scale up or down workers based
on business needs. So, be aware of the benefits and drawbacks of IT Staff augmentation,
since it may prove to be cost-effective for your company if implemented correctly.

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