How to Scale up your team with Staff Augmentation

Staff shortages are a daily occurrence in the IT landscape. Because of the fast-paced and dynamic nature of the digital world, there is an increased demand for experienced IT personnel, and the in-house team's efforts are almost always insufficient. Did you know that even the most powerful tech companies, such as Google, outsource more than half of their work to freelancers?

Instead of going through the hassle of hiring multiple freelancers, today's technology companies rely on modern outsourcing models, particularly staff augmentation. This model enables organizations to meet their increasing work demands without wasting too much effort or money. It is a fantastic opportunity for businesses looking to hire top talent without breaking the bank.

We'll walk you through the finer details of staff augmentation — the what and how? — before you begin your search for an augmented team. Continue reading!

What is Staff Augmentation?

Outsourcing projects is a phenomenon that has been around for a while in the digital world. To compensate for staff shortages or inadequacies, an IT company can effectively use various outsourcing models.

Staff augmentation outsourcing is a service in which a company hires external software developers to supplement its in-house team's efforts. The augmented staff does not work on their own. Instead, they act as an extension of the local team, collaborating to complete a specific project.

A remote staff augmentation contract is a short-term agreement between your company and an IT Staff Augmentation Provider. The provider is in charge of assembling a team based on the outsourcer's specifications. This relieves your company of the stress of a potentially expensive and time-consuming recruitment process.

The augmented staff can be sourced from anywhere in the world. The type of staff augmentation model your company employs is determined by its geographical location.

How To Scale Up with Staff Augmentation?

Let's look at why it's a good staffing practice and how it can help you:

A potential IT outsourcing partner has launched multiple apps while your internal team has been working on a single product for months or years.

Outsourcing firms' extensive experience is one of their competitive advantages. Outsourcing specialists work in a wide range of domains and with a wide range of apps and development tools. They must not dedicate decades to a specific product, more so than in-house specialists. They jump from project to project, creating solutions from scratch and making unique architectural decisions that add to their overall experience.

If you require specialized knowledge and experience, IT staff augmentation may be the best option for you. Your pool of candidates in the local market is limited. When you combine that with post-COVID hiring challenges, you can get a never-ending hiring cycle.

IT staff augmentation allows you to hire the most experienced professionals in the world to take your company to the next level.

Managing employees in the workplace can be difficult. You will be responsible for employee attendance, infrastructure, and operational costs. These can quickly add up and put a strain on your project's budget.

However, with team augmentation services, you will not have to bear the infrastructure and operational costs of hiring new employees. Your new hires can work from home, and you can manage these services using online collaboration tools and platforms. Remote teams will help you save money and stay within your budget.

An internal product development team may have a well-defined roadmap and plans, but it lacks agility. They devote eight hours a day to growing your business and assisting you with any engineering needs.

However, if an unexpected obstacle arises, they may be unable to deal with it promptly.

Product development teams typically follow a balanced and calm work routine. The rhythm that these teams have maintained for years enables them to deliver great features and contribute to amazing products. However, the need to react quickly and meet tight deadlines may prove difficult for them.

Team augmentation specialists are accustomed to working in a fast-paced environment. They will prioritize critical tasks and devote as much time as is required to complete them before the deadline. Furthermore, their extensive experience enables them to anticipate pitfalls and discuss issues and risks with you before you set the release date.

When you're in the middle of a software development project, you need to add developers quickly and make sure they start contributing as soon as possible.

With augmented teams, it will take less time to integrate new specialists because they will be integrated within specific development teams and tasks.

At the same time, it takes less time than traditional hiring. Instead of spending weeks or months searching for suitable specialists, reviewing numerous CVs, and conducting dozens of interviews, you could begin with a few negotiations and interviews with the developers themselves.

It is possible to add new developers to your existing team through an augmentation in a matter of weeks, whereas other options may take months.

Scaling quickly is critical in a world of fierce competition.

If a potential competitor launches an app similar to yours before you, your chances of success will be reduced.

The sooner you identify a market gap, hire a team, work on app improvements, and launch desired functionality, the easier it will be to capture users' attention.

This is why it is unreasonable to wait several months to hire a single employee. While you are wasting time with CVs and interviews, your competitors are hiring, coding, and growing.

Staff augmentation is a method of saving time on hiring and finding new employees quickly and with minimal effort. Simultaneously, specialists obtained through staff augmentation will most likely have the required skills and deep expertise.

Furthermore, with staff augmentation, you can not only scale up quickly but also scale down. You can reduce contractors' work hours without penalty once the job is completed. Meanwhile, if you hire an in-house developer, you are contractually required to pay them even if there are no tasks in the backlog.

With IT staff augmentation, you hire only when needed, regulate capacity based on the needs of your project, and pay only for hours worked.

One of the most significant advantages of staff augmentation is hiring flexibility. Your project may take a few months to complete, or it may take years. You will also need committed individuals to ensure the project's smooth and transparent progress.

Staff augmentation provides an excellent opportunity to hire on a contract basis. You can choose which projects to involve your new hires in by using such services. You will also determine how long the new hires will work on your project.

Final Thoughts

Whatever method you choose to scale your team, you are embarking on a difficult but rewarding journey. To get the most out of it, make sure you hire the best people available and lead them to success as a team, whether they work in-house as your employees or remotely as outsourced specialists.

The good news is that if you choose a team augmentation model, you won't have to go it alone in finding the right people. You can easily benefit from fast team composition and more if you have access to top global talents as well as proven processes and practices from established and award-winning IT outsourcing companies.

Want to outsource, but don't know where to start? Head to the Amplifyre OpenBench and scale up your team with the right fit for your business.