What is IT Staff Augmentation and How Does It Work?

In today's fast-paced tech world, agility is key. That's where IT staff augmentation steps in. It's a powerful strategy embraced by Imaginovation to boost business innovation.

But what is it, exactly? And how does it work?

IT staff augmentation is about enriching your team with elite tech talent, precisely when you need it. This approach offers unmatched flexibility, global talent access, and cost savings. It's a game-changer for business owners, VPs of Tech, CTOs, and tech leaders aiming to quickly scale projects.

Join us as we delve into IT staff augmentation. Discover how this method can catapult your business ahead, ensuring you lead, not follow, in your industry.

Understanding IT Staff Augmentation

Companies around the globe are expected to spend over US$1.1 trillion on outsourcing. Further, experts anticipate them to spend around US$81.87 billion on staff augmentation by 2025. The numbers say it all, and without a doubt, staff augmentation will evolve to shape the business landscape in the coming years? Let's walkthrough to understand staff augmentation.

Picture this—let's say you are developing an AI-based healthcare app. However, your in-house development team doesn't have the requisite expertise. You will need a skilled team of developers who can build robust apps. This gap can be well-addressed via staff augmentation.

Staff augmentation means outsourcing workers for projects aligned with the organization’s current staffing needs and objectives. It is a hiring practice where one can bring in outside talent to complement a company's existing staff. With staff augmentation, it is easy to hire developers and fill any skill gaps they may have without the need to hire full-time professionals. Further, it enables quicker project completion and product launch.

Thus, when your organization faces a sudden increase in the demand for a specific skill set, you don't wish to get into a lengthy hiring process. IT staff augmentation is the most suitable approach in such scenarios.

How IT Staff Augmentation Works

IT staff augmentation today has become a buzzword. According to research, revenue in the software market is projected to reach US$698.80 billion in 2024. Further, the revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 5.27%, resulting in a market volume of US$858.10 billion by 2028. The figures speak volumes of the strong revenue growth for the upcoming years.

Here's the thing: IT staff augmentation is not restricted to hiring technical specialists specifically. Staff augmentation is an excellent solution for companies that have aggressive project requirements.

How does staff augmentation work? It is essential to start with the identification of needs. You can begin by examining:

• The resources needed by your organization
• The benefits derived from such resources
• The expertise or specialization required to achieve your project goals or deadlines

Next, look at your existing staff to fulfill your organization’s needs. You may choose to augment your staff on your own.

However, many prominent organizations prefer staff augmentation services to provide the needed resources because it is the most time and cost-effective method of boosting their staff.

It is essential to walk the candidates through an onboarding process. Thus, the temporary employees, with the support of the onboarding process, can be successfully integrated into the project at hand.

Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation

The staff augmentation model is one of the most effective hiring models that can help bridge the talent gap. According to a study, there is a significant shortage of global talent, and by 2030, the number of unfilled jobs may reach 85.2 million. In such a scenario, staff augmentation has a significant role to play. Let’s take a look at some of its exciting benefits.

1. Opens Doors to a Global Pool of Talent

Staff augmentation offers access to an immense pool of experienced professionals. Augmented employees need very little training. You get excellent choices with domain-centric talents that generate outstanding results based on your needs. Plus, since they are experienced professionals in their area, they can quickly adapt to the company culture and bring in great value. With minimum time and cost, you are assured of high-quality results from the augmented personnel.

2. Cost-savings

Think about it - when you hire a new employee, they will need to be trained. Studies have highlighted that recruiting an expert engineer could take around 43 days. Further, the new employees typically function at about 25% productivity.

What does this mean for you? The cost of lost productivity is 75% of the employee's salary. Thus, when you hire temporary staff via staff augmentation, you can reduce employee expenses and save human resource expenses in recruiting, interviewing, and training staff. The plus side is getting experienced professionals who can immediately plug in to work.

3. Quickly Scaling Resources Up or Down

Many organizations scale their operations. However, they may face risks of failure or shortage of capital. With changing work requirements, staff augmentation helps to scale resources quickly and efficiently. Further, you can alter your team of developers from time to time to ensure that they meet your standards.

4. Ensures Better Operational Efficiency

High operational costs could adversely impact startups and small businesses. At the stage where such companies are still struggling to achieve a desirable return on investment, staff augmentation helps achieve operational efficiency. It reduces operating costs and can grow your productivity to achieve better profitability.

5. Better Project Visibility

The mantra to accomplishing project goals and milestones is simple: having transparent project visibility. Companies need to pay attention to this aspect, to ensure good project planning, setting realistic expectations, and clear objectives.

Staff augmentation teams can help ensure timely project updates and work progress in such scenarios. The augmented personnel are experienced in managing, completing, and informing about the work progress. Ultimately, it leads to enhanced execution and a boost in productivity.

6. Result-centric Outlook

Companies have various IT cooperation models to meet their IT development needs. The models include managed services, staff outsourcing, independent (self-employed) contractors, and staff augmentation. When compared to other models, staff augmentation offers a result-centric approach. It helps reduce risks as the augmented staff are accountable for the work process, and you can achieve meeting your project goals and deadlines.

7. Embrace an Objective Voice

When you have short-term personnel in your company or project, it helps with an objective opinion. You get a fresh perspective on things at work. The experienced augmented staff is much less likely to get involved in office politics, leading to a healthier work environment.

Challenges of IT Staff Augmentation

Companies find it challenging to obtain the expertise that is the right fit. Though staff augmentation can help, there are some areas where there are obstacles. Here are some common problems associated with IT staff augmentation.

1. Finding the Best Possible Talent

The shortage of talent in the US has become a serious concern. With increased competition in the business landscape, there is a strong demand for talent with specific abilities. It sometimes makes it challenging to discover talent because of skill gaps.

Many firms are increasingly switching to IT staff augmentation services and hiring dedicated offshore developers. The popular IT outsourcing destinations include Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Solution: Utilizing the services of the most fitting staff augmentation agency that is focused on your unique project needs is one option for overcoming this obstacle. You can start by compiling a vendor list and checking their reviews, references, and success stories to select a staff augmentation vendor. You must ensure your partner complies with security standards such as ISO, PCI DSS, & HIPAA.

2. Connecting Existing Team with Augmented Workforce

Once you onboard augmented personnel, they must be connected with your current team. If the two distinct entities aren't effectively integrated, it will result in friction, impacting the quality of work.

Solution: It is vital to open lines of communication between the existing team and the augmented workforce. Consequently, you may arrange frequent meetings and activities to foster teamwork. The initiatives will help with a crystal clear grasp of the project goals and assigned tasks.

3. Quality of Work

Monitoring and supervising work is tricky when depending on contractors or collaborating with teams from abroad. It may sometimes result in delays or low quality of work, which could impact your brand image.

Solution: Use effective project management tools that can help monitor the progress of the work and ensure that project deadlines are met.

4. Different Time Zones

Onboarding an augmented workforce from different time zones can make coordinating schedules a nightmare. Further, there are several other challenges from working in remote settings, including a need for real-time communication, etc.

Solution: Use time management tools to address such challenges and ensure greater productivity.

5. Transferring Project Knowledge

Knowledge transmission that's unplanned or inconsistent can generate confusion. It is critical to have proper lines of communication from the project initiation to planning to deployment. Ultimately, inadequately structured knowledge transfer plans can result in wasted resources, time, and investments.

Solution: Invest in resources and solutions that expedite knowledge exchange. It is essential to partner with a reputable staffing firm that excels at effective knowledge transfer practices on a global scale.

6. Compliance Violations

An unplanned or poorly assembled contract can significantly impact your business. It can have detrimental consequences, resulting in unexpected outsourcing expenses, legal fines, compliance violations, breached security, and other staffing challenges.

Solution: Start with in-depth background investigations and establish stringent security standards. You must ensure that the contract is well-aligned to specific business goals. Plus, ensure that your contract covers facets of non-compliance, clearly defines the limits of responsibility for your partner, non-solicitation clauses prohibiting the poaching of experts, and so on.

7. Security Risks

Security threats are increasingly riddling IT staff augmentation. Thus, when you consider bringing in an external team into your internal procedures and you are handling confidential information, it can lead to security challenges.

Solution: Firstly, make sure you partner with someone who aligns with your safety needs and prioritizes the safety of your clients. Ensure that the augmentation firms you select cooperate under NDA standards, which will reduce the risk of data breaches and fraud violations.

Best Practices of IT Staff Augmentation

Identify talent gaps: When you starting with staff augmentation, you must begin with clearly defined goals and objectives. It is essential to have crystal clear KPIs, goals, and purposes. The clarity will help you rope in the right augmented workforce.

Strategic planning: It is necessary to have a well-planned staff augmentation strategy in place. You can identify the numerous roles or tasks that require augmentation. Next, remember to work on a timeline for implementation. The plan will help you use your time and resources efficiently, essential for the team’s optimal performance.

Clear communication: Once you have established your objectives and selected the augmented service provider. It is essential to have open and transparent communication channels with the augmented staff. Undoubtedly, communication is the key to successful project completion. Plus, it will help foster collaboration and build communication with the augmented staff.

Performance metrics: The set key performance indicators (KPIs) are a great way to track the progress of the augmented staff. When hiring, the KPIs must be communicated to the potential staff. Communicating and tracking KPIs with disruptive technologies such as AI isn't tricky today. Further, it will help to regularly assess the performance of the workforce to make informed decisions.

Data security and legal compliances: Consult legal experts or choose to have a proficient staff augmentation service provider who can help comply with all legal and regulatory requirements.

Yet another critical facet is to prioritize data security. It would help if you implemented robust security software to safeguard the organization’s data and sensitive information.

Training and onboarding: The augmented staff can contribute effectively to the projects when adequate training and onboarding are offered. Further, the augmented workforce must be constantly reevaluated to ensure their growth with the team.

Also Read: How to Create an IT Budget in 2024?

Wrapping Up

Staff augmentation, outsourcing, and consulting are popular options today in the business landscape. The models cater to adding expertise or resources to your organization. Many organizations are increasingly benefitting from staff augmentation to fill the skills gap within their organization. It is a quick and cost-effective solution for short-term projects.

For companies facing a shortage of tech talent, staff augmentation services can help in a big way. A suitable staff augmentation model can help your business stay ahead of potential competitors. With IT staff augmentation, prepare to take your business to the next level!

Eliminate Sourcing Overhead with Imaginovation

The key to securing the appropriate talent lies with a proficient partner. For companies looking to enhance the team's ability to deliver projects on time and eliminate sourcing overheads, talk to us.

We are an award-winning web and mobile app development company in Raleigh with remarkable experience of developing high-quality digital solutions. We can help you bridge the shortage of experts and offer a pool of experienced tech-savvy talent.

Let’s talk.