How Does Staff Augmentation Work For Companies?

Businesses rely on IT staff augmentation to supplement their technical staff when they outsource their technical requirements.

If Knowing your vocabulary words might make it easier to figure out what IT staff augmentation is. The term ‘augmentation’ means to increase or make something bigger. The IT guy is the guy who fixes your computer every time a restart or turning it on and off doesn’t work. 

That’s the gist of it, to be honest. Nevertheless, if you are responsible for your company’s staff augmentation process, that won’t suffice. There is no room for cutting corners. 

According to a 2016 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it is difficult to find full-time IT computer specialists. There is a chronic shortage of professionals in the technology industry. 

The addition of IT staff may be a necessary component of running your business smoothly. 

To fill your company’s gaps, you might need to consider IT staff augmentation. What is staff augmentation, and how does it work? Continue reading to learn more!

What Is Staff Augmentation?

In staff augmentation, specialized skill sets are extracted via outsourcing to meet business needs.

Some high-powered corporations hire underpaid employees in the Far East because they do not care to pay their local employees fairly. 

In some cases, this is undoubtedly true, but outsourcing can be much more than meets the eye. Outsourcing IT services is common among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). As a result, small and medium-sized companies often don’t have the resources to hire everyone they need. 

However, that does not mean the company neglects its employees. There is a strong sense of community among small businesses and startups. Management makes it clear that staff members are not taken advantage of, and responsibility isn’t concentrated at the top of the pyramid. 

It is still common for SMBs to lack resources. It is important to note that many startups do not have the budget to host physical infrastructure for their servers and databases, making cloud technology a viable alternative.

Even when the cloud serves its purpose well, all businesses need professionals to manage their information technology departments since computers are such an integral part of their daily operations.

At this point, IT staff augmentation becomes necessary. Businesses can use outsourcing to hire new members for a temporary or prolonged period. 

The Pros and Cons of Staff Augmentation

You should consider many factors before utilizing IT staff augmentation for your business, even though it might sound convenient in theory. An IT staff augmentation’s good points and bad points are listed below. 

The pros

What you’re here for in the first place is the pros of IT staff augmentation. However, there are some ways in which IT staff augmentation can benefit you that aren’t obvious. 

Talent Guaranteed

It is by definition possible to fulfill all your business’s IT needs with an outsourced IT partner. Adding IT staff increases the power of your workforce by ensuring that your new staff members can seamlessly fit in wherever you need them to. 

Consequently, they will stabilize processes experiencing bottlenecks due to short-staffing or under-resourcing. The effectiveness of IT staff augmentation can make you feel satisfied at the end. 

Efficiency in hiring

IT professionals are usually available at the request of an outsourcing agency, which has trained and vetted professionals on hand. They are responsible for meeting the objectives set by their clients, regardless of who they are. 

It is much easier to find IT support this way than to browse dozens of job boards and filter candidates on your own. 

The cost of hiring is also not cheap, averaging over $4000 per hire with nearly a month and a half of a vacant position. Aside from saving time, you also save money with IT staff augmentation. 

Enhanced flexibility 

As many euphemisms are used to describe the singular act of firing someone, it suggests that it has some profound significance. It’s likely that’s because losing a job is never fun, and even the other person probably isn’t too happy either. 

There is no escaping mass layoffs in economic recessions – whether it’s the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009 or the Coronavirus recession beginning in 2020. It is difficult to maintain staff numbers when a business simply goes out of business. 

The unexpected can, however, ruins the lives of permanent employees if you allocate a percentage of your staff to always be temporary through IT staff augmentation. 

Businesses can increase and decrease their workforce as necessary due to such flexibility. As a result, your business will be more stable and you will be able to take some responsibility for supporting your employees. 

Cons

It’s up to you to decide if these cons are deal-breakers or minor inconveniences after learning the pros of IT staff augmentation.

The quality risk

Even though highly qualified professionals usually accomplish outsourced IT staff augmentation, there are still some risks involved. 

The task of getting your augmented staff well-versed in the project, for instance, may be difficult if your IT project requires a high degree of context.

There are times when hiring a dedicated staff member is a better choice. It would be helpful if you were familiar with the topic.

Delays in time

Due to this same reason, meeting deadlines can be challenging. It can take some time to familiarize new employees with your project, but it is essential if you want a quality outcome. 

When your new staff members aren’t even there long, onboarding and training can delay your project. 

Business managers may not find it worthwhile to take on IT staff augmentation because of the management overhead involved. 

Dependencies that last a long time

It is not sustainable to rely on third-party providers on an ongoing basis. Continuously depending on external resources can undercut your own business in some ways. 

Even though you are in charge of your company and IT project, ultimately, your staff is under the control of the outsourcing agency. Your augmented team or outsourcing agency will be vulnerable if something unexpected happens. 

The use of IT staff augmentation is a good way for startups and SMBs to get up and running quickly. You should eventually be able to manage your business’ resources on your own.

Scaling internally should be planned. You’ll be better off in the long run.  

What Are the Different Types of Staff Augmentation?

In terms of staff augmentation, you’ll want to be familiar with several different types.

Staff augmentation can be classified into three types: commodity, skill-based, and highly skilled:

• Commodity: With this type of staff augmentation, you can have reliable workers who can perform manual labor, warehouse work, retail, or event-related work.
• Skill-Based: With skill-based staffing, you can fill your company’s needs for clerical, data processing, transcription, and essential copywriting work.
• High-Skilled Work: Your organization may sometimes require high-skilled work to augment its capabilities. It might include software engineering, brand design, or contract law.

A short-term staff augmentation solution may also be referred to as a long-term staff augmentation solution. The use of short-term staff augmentation services may be appropriate when your in-house specialists are not available for a specific project or when your organization needs specialists or workers only for a short period.

However, long-term staff augmentation can help close operational gaps or fill skill gaps in longer projects. A company might also use staff augmentation to find the right in-house hire promptly if it struggles to find the right candidate in-house.

Conclusion

Your small business or IT startup could benefit significantly from staff augmentation. This well-oiled process can answer all the questions you’ve been asking about getting your business off the ground. 

It’s the right place to look if you want to augment your IT staff with highly-skilled professionals. 

Within the IT industry, Carmatec developers occupy a particular niche. They don’t directly touch computers. You can, however, rely on them to make the application you need to take your business to the next level.