Business Technology

Why More Companies are Choosing Staff Augmentation to Grow Their Businesses

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The successful completion of any IT project requires the right talent on-hand during each development phase. While your in-house team is undoubtedly skilled and well-trained, there are times when projects come along that require specialized skills and are due within a short period of time. When these projects arise, it’s difficult for IT managers to request staff to take on additional tasks if they already have a full workload or must learn complex skills quickly.

To achieve the desired outcomes during each development cycle, project managers are using staff augmentation to utilize the expertise of a highly-skilled individual or team for set periods of time.

There are many reasons more companies are augmenting their staff to grow their business. Here are some of the primary benefits to keep in mind when considering staff augmentation.

Competitive Advantages and Higher Quality of Work

Augmented staff members have specialized skill sets and can offer creative solutions that will make your product more innovative before it hits the market. As you introduce these experienced and talented professionals to your project, your in-house team members will have the time they need to utilize their unique skills fully, resulting in a shorter time to launch and a more competitive product. 

The collaborative nature of staff augmentation allows workers to meet pressing deadlines without the additional stress that often leads to faulty products. By assigning too many tasks to a small team, critical details are often overlooked in favor of meeting tight deadlines. If teams aren’t performing comprehensive testing measures, quality cannot be assured. Augmented staff members will have the time to test and assure quality, resulting in a secure and functional product that will protect company data and consumers.

Businesses Save Time and Money 

How long will it take to interview candidates? How much longer will it take to check their references and background? What about negotiating pay and benefits? Managers can eliminate these time-consuming processes through staff augmentation.

Augmenting staff saves time and money because your staffing partners have already brought the best talent together, and they take on the additional responsibilities of training and meeting other requirements that result in additional overhead costs.

Consider the cost of advertising an open position, training new hires, and packaging their benefits while meeting salary requirements. These tasks are costly enough, and if these new team members quit, companies lose a great deal of money and time.

Saving money is the primary reason companies choose to augment their staff when additional team members are needed for a project. While saving money provides extra flexibility and doesn’t exceed the company budget, saving time is a benefit that is equally important. As IT managers go through recruitment and hiring phases when selecting new talent, they have less time to lead their team as a project is being pushed forward. 

Once the new team member has completed the hiring and onboarding process, they must also acclimate to your company’s culture. This will require the help of your in-house team which takes more time away from the project.

The Risk of Attrition is Lower

A high attrition rate is a nightmare for any project manager, and it has a negative effect on team members. When new hires leave unexpectedly, the flow of a project is disrupted and these delays ultimately lower team morale. Staff augmentation lowers the risk of losing new hires unexpectedly. If an employee is lost without warning, the staffing company takes on the responsibility of quickly replacing the team member.

Predicting the loss of a new hire is nearly impossible because it’s difficult to determine the reasons an employee may leave a company. Personal circumstances may cause new hires to quit unexpectedly while others may not perform well within a given working environment.

Because the IT industry is hyper-competitive, some companies are willing to pay more to attract top talent. If your new hire possesses specialized skills and an impressive resume, there’s the risk of losing the new team member to an offer of higher pay or better benefits by another company after your business has hired them.

Managers and Staff Will Both Benefit from Staff Augmentation

Because augmented staff is hired on a temporary basis and already possess the necessary knowledge to get the job done, IT managers benefit because there’s no need for the process of vetting the right candidates, training, and onboarding new hires before moving forward with the project. 

Staff augmentation mitigates risks during development because in-house teams can remain focused on specific tasks and meet tight deadlines without overlooking critical steps, which often results in a faulty product. Augmenting staff further provides the control project managers need for quickly transitioning teams into each development phase. All of this is done without risking quality because tasks can be delegated according to each team members’ strengths and the available time for executing each task effectively.

About the author

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Nacho De Marco

Nacho De Marco is the CEO of BairesDev. His background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Systems Engineering, as well as a Masters of Business Administration.