7 Ways Staff Augmentation Benefits Your Business

The need for IT specialists and qualified software developers is more significant than ever before. And, after steadily increasing over the previous two decades, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the rate exponentially.

For the past few years, the world has been subjected to intermittent lockdowns, resulting in an already digital-first age becoming even more digital. As a result, many consumer-facing businesses that hadn't already adapted to the Internet era faced an existential threat, forcing most of them to scramble to establish an Internet presence.

These circumstances have proven to be an ideal breeding ground for more adaptable staffing solutions. Among these, the staff augmentation model has gained popularity. And if you're not sure how it can help you quickly grow your business, don't worry — we'll explain everything you need to know about staff augmentation and how it can benefit your company.

What is Staff Augmentation?

Staff augmentation, as the term implies, allows businesses of any size to add skilled professionals to their existing workforce. Because of their seasonal and project-based needs, IT companies use this recruitment principle the most. Companies typically collaborate with supplying organizations to gain access to a temporary workforce for a set time. Staff augmentation services can take various forms depending on the needs of the organization, ranging from the increased on-site workforce to remotely located professionals. Because of the numerous benefits that staff augmentation companies provide, IT companies are increasingly preferring them over other traditional forms of staffing.

While small businesses prefer to supplement their entire workforce with a very small percentage of permanent employees, large businesses supplement their stable employees with project-based personnel to maintain an efficient balance. The benefits of IT staff augmentation have become increasingly associated with IT firms, as both acts as ideal demand and supply partners for effective project delivery.

Advantages Of Staff Augmentation Services

Among the numerous advantages of this employee structure are:

1) Operational Efficiency

Most small businesses have high operational costs, especially during lean times, with a negligible return on investment. Staffing firms promote operational efficiency by allowing for flexible working platforms. Companies that collaborate with supplying organizations do not have to bear the infrastructure costs of establishing and operating in a new location. The professionals either work remotely or from the supply organizations' workspaces. Regardless of their location, employees are fully accountable to their employer and management. In addition to infrastructure savings, the costs of operating offshore are significantly reduced. As a result, staff augmentation services reduce not only the cost of hiring skilled professionals but also the cost of operation. Such savings are easily converted into profits.

2) Transparency

A typical outsourcing relationship is based on an opaque and untrustworthy process:

Staff augmentation enables you to easily contact others and control your virtual members of the team. They can work seamlessly with your existing team, enabling you to change on a dime, assign specific tasks, and alter course as necessary.

3) Cost Effectiveness

One of the most important advantages of staff augmentation is cost savings. Assume you have a business in a country where the standard of living is prohibitively high. If you hire a candidate in such a country, you must pay high taxes, social security, insurance coverage, and a variety of other costs. Instead, if you hire a candidate from a country with a lower standard of living, you can get the best talent at a low cost.

Aside from that, staff augmentation lowers the training costs of newly hired employees because the company hires augmentation candidates for their expertise in a specific segment and they require little acclimatization training.

4) Flexibility

Access to the rare software engineers and non-technical experts should not be regarded as the most valuable asset of IT staff augmentation. Aside from additional expertise, a larger team provides another important benefit: flexibility. This means that employers are free to select the team size and skill set required.

Furthermore, remote staff outsourcing gives you greater geographical and time flexibility. If, for example, an urgent technical issue arises, your Ukrainian developers can handle it while local American coders are still sleeping. Some clients believe that remote teams put their businesses at risk. The reality, however, demonstrates the inverse. They make you more flexible and stronger over time.

5) Expansion and Adaption

Flexible hiring enables businesses to expand their operations on a trial basis without committing to a full-time workforce. Firms frequently want to expand their operations and capitalize on market conditions. However, the associated risks of failure and investment drowning serve as a roadblock to such scaling. Such businesses benefit from staff augmentation. Staff augmentation opens up new avenues for firms looking to expand by allowing them to hire on a project basis to test their acceptability in new markets.

In addition to growth, such flexible hiring allows businesses to adapt to changing market conditions. With millennials gaining new skills and abilities daily, market demand is rapidly changing. Companies that are unable to respond to such transformations will fail. As a result, staff augmentation provides companies with responsiveness. This enables them to respond to changing circumstances by meeting new demands with a project-specific workforce.

6) Maintained Control and Management

Firms retain control over their work and management while leveraging the professionals of supplying organizations. Unlike project outsourcing, which transfers the entire workings of a project to an external unit, the benefits of staff augmentation ensure that only human resourcing is outsourced to an external agency. The management is still in charge. This control over management enables businesses to maintain a firm grip on their projects and shape them in any way they see fit. Project outsourcing frequently excludes parent companies from project management and execution. Staff augmentation solutions for IT companies prevent this anomaly by allowing parent companies to retain control of the final decision.

7) No Difficult Hiring Process

A staffing company undertakes all of the operations of a traditional staffing agency, such as hiring, mentoring, and vouching for the staff members who will assist you with bringing your software to the sector. These employees are full-fledged members of your team, available to you for as long as you need them. And if you need more of them, they are easier to hire than in-house employees.

Overstaffing can also be solved with augmentation. Once a project is completed, you may not require the same roster of talent in the future, forcing you to lay off otherwise talented employees. Staff augmentation allows you to temporarily augment your lineup on a project-by-project basis.

Final Thoughts

Many ongoing IT projects have clogged the current IT industry. As a result, the availability of temporary positions (#HiresOnContract) in IT firms is increasing. As a result, the demand for staff augmentation solutions in the IT industry is increasing.

Though staff augmentation is not yet widely used, most businesses are beginning to invest in it. However, IT firms investing in staff augmentation are evaluating the differences between traditional staffing and modern staff augmentation methods.

If you're looking forward to staff augmentation for your ongoing project, check out the Amplifyre OpenBench. You can select individuals based on their experience, role, and expertise. Once you find the right fit, just click on the 'Contact' button to get in touch with the software provider for further discussions!