In a business environment where circumstances are evolving faster than ever, Agility is key, and hiring the right talent has never been more difficult, businesses need new ways to access the talent they need.
But this comes with enormous challenges. As hiring becomes more difficult and expensive, businesses are struggling to ensure their projects have the right resources at the right time. In this environment, flexibility and adaptability are crucial for success. It’s these factors that have been fueling the increasing use of staff augmentation as a human resource tool.
What is staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation is the process of quickly hiring outsourced workers on a project basis. Usually this is done because it allows companies to easily increase or decrease the workforce on projects like bespoke software development without going through a long and costly hiring or firing process.
What are the different types of staff augmentation?
Depending on your needs, there are a few different ways to approach staff augmentation.
On-ground
In some cases, you may use staff augmentation to bring on people to work on-site. This is less common but useful in cases where your teams generally work together in person and would require the same from any new team members. That said, this type of staff augmentation can be more challenging as the relevant workforce available to work in-person is going to be more limited.
Online
Owing to the greater flexibility it allows, online staff augmentation is the most popular type. This allows you to hire individuals from a variety of locations worldwide to augment your existing workforce on short notice.
Project-based
While you may use staff augmentation to bring on talent for ongoing work, most often this is done to ensure a specific project has the resources it needs. In such cases, you will usually bring on that talent for the duration of the project.
What are the benefits of staff augmentation?
Whichever type you choose, staff augmentation brings a host of benefits capable of really moving the needle on your most important projects.
Cost reduction
The average cost of hiring an employee has already increased 14% since 2019. That’s without mentioning the challenge many businesses face in finding the right talent at all. Often, the cost of hiring reaches nearly $5,000.
By skipping the process of searching for the right talent, staff augmentation enables businesses to invest their resources into actual projects instead of wasting it on hiring. Often this translates into significant cost savings over the life of the project.
Time efficiency
Aside from the cost, it takes around 44 days on average to hire a new employee. That’s without considering the need for onboarding. As a result, getting a new hire fully onboard and functioning as a part of a team can easily take months.
By contrast, staff augmentation companies generally have access to a large pool of qualified talent that can be made available within days. These hires are also experienced at hitting the ground running on new teams, minimizing the time needed to get them fully operational. That time savings has substantial knock-on effects when it comes to ROI as projects avoid costly delays.
Better productivity
By accessing experienced and qualified talent when they’re needed, businesses can avoid the costly process of onboarding new hires. In addition, the ability to ensure you always have precisely the people you need for the task avoids teams being idle.
Ideally, the talent you bring on through staff augmentation can also act as a source of new ideas taken from their experience elsewhere.
Flexibility
Perhaps the single most important advantage offered by staff augmentation is simple flexibility. Knowing you can increase or decrease your headcount to match the needs of your projects can be a transformative asset.
If a client wants to scale a project quickly, you can be ready to do so on short notice. Likewise, if there’s a reason to quickly end a project, that can be done without needing to find new work for the people working on that project.
Overall, this increased level of flexibility empowers businesses to be more Agile, take advantage of emerging opportunities, and reduce costs in the process.
Taking Your Next Steps
Staff augmentation enables businesses to circumvent these challenges and ensure they always have the right talent at the right time. If this is a solution you feel fits your needs, then the next step is to find the right partner who can offer the talent you need at the scale you require.
Author name: Dilyan Dimitrov
Short Author Bio: Tech writer and aficionado with a passion for writing about the latest developments in software and business. With years of experience covering a wide range of topics, from cutting-edge gadgets and software to industry trends and innovations, Dilyan brings a deep understanding to his work at Dreamix. Whether he’s breaking down complex concepts for a general audience or diving into the latest tech trends, he strives to deliver accurate content and thought-provoking insights.
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