Staff Augmentation: Best Practices to Help You Succeed
Augmenting in-house teams with contractor help has become common in today’s fast-paced business world. According to the Global Outsourcing Survey 2022, approximately 76% of surveyed executives reported that their IT services were provided through third-party models. Indeed, between new tech, tight deadlines, and constant pressure to evolve, bringing extra hands on deck lets companies flex up as needed. It lets businesses scale up for big initiatives and then scale back down just as easily.
Especially with how fast technology changes these days, having access to an on-demand talent pool is huge for competitiveness. Rather than let promising new projects sit on the shelf due to a lack of in-house resources, technical staff augmentation can help you power through. Maybe your team needs an extra coder to upgrade the website, or some marketing consultants to brainstorm your Instagram strategy. Remote developers often make more logistical sense than full-time hires.
In this post, we’ll cover some best practices that work well for companies launching or expanding their staff augmentation programs. With the right partner firm and management approach, aug can pay off with increased flexibility and agility. Let’s dive in.
Types of Remote Cooperation Models
There are a few different models companies typically use when bringing outside help onto projects:
- Project Outsourcing: Contracting an external firm to fully own a specific project, from start to finish. Often a one-time deal.
- Dedicated Teams: Having a group of remote developers fully dedicated to your company for a set period. Works like an outsourced department. Good choice if you need 24/7 support or continuous R&D efforts.
- Staff Augmentation: Supplementing internal team short-term with temporary “added” help. Effective for areas with limited expertise or high workload.
More Details on Staff Augmentation
The staff augmentation business model sees you hire individual external specialists to supplement your permanent workforce as needed.
It works like this: you partner with an agency that employs relevant experts. When you need extra help, you work with the agency to identify the best developers for your current project or task.
Their work is overseen internally but you only pay the agency an hourly or daily rate for the time contractors spend working for you. No long-term commitments.
It’s perfect for filling temporary skill or staffing gaps. For example, the contractor might help develop a new feature for three months, then wrap it up and let you scale it down again easily.
The typical workflow is:
- You dentify a job or project need;
- You source candidates through an agency;
- You select developers chosen by the agency to work for the duration of the task.
Our programmers have clearly defined scopes of work but are still part of your team. It’s a hybrid model between full outsourcing and traditional full-time hiring.
How You Can Benefit from the Staff Augmentation Model
There are quite a few advantages that come with the team augmentation model:
- Access to skilled and diverse professionals on demand: Attract talent you may not usually have access to locally. Need a Python dev? An AI expert? A phone call or Skype message is all that separates them.
- Lower development costs: Since you only pay developers for the hours they work, there’s no overhead like benefits, equipment, or unused holidays. Just pay for time worked.
- Improved communication: With everyone focused on the same deliverables, clear expectations mean less risk of missed deadlines or scope creep.
- Eliminating skill and headcount gaps: Maybe your team is short on React developers right now. Augmentation fills in that gap until your next hiring cycle.
- Improving the team’s productivity over a short time: Fresh perspectives and dedicated “all hands on deck” support can accelerate complex projects.
- Staying in control of the SDLC (Software development lifecycle) process: As the customer, you call the shots on features, sequencing, timelines, etc.
Overall, properly managing augmentation unlocks serious flexibility while keeping important projects moving full steam ahead. The talent is there when you need it.
When You Should Use the Team Staff Augmentation Services
This cooperation model is a versatile solution that can help you in different scenarios. A staff augmentation example:
- During periods of unpredictable changes in workload. When demand is up and down in an unpredictable way, augmentation gives way more flexibility than hiring permanent staff. That is, bringing on specialists lets you scale your workforce to match the workload without long-term commitments.
- For large projects outside your core competencies. Augmentation also comes as a major clutch for complex tasks that are outside the scope of your team’s expertise. While in-house staff focus on core operations, temp experts come in to help with goals that require specialized skills. Maybe it’s a one-off AI integration or data science – developers fill those specialty needs to keep initiatives on track.
- While recruiting to fill vacant roles. Another perfect time is during those periods when you’ve got open positions but hiring takes a while. Experts can temporarily plug capability gaps until your next round of full-timers comes through the door. So, there will not be any delays in projects while HR does their job.
- To test drive talent before committing to FTE hires. Let’s say you’ve got your eye on some serious talent. Augmentation offers a low-risk way to try people out before a permanent hire. See how candidates perform on client work before signing the contract. It’s a kind of low-risk try-before-you-buy.
- When the existing staff is already very busy. By adding new developers to overworked teams, rock-solid progress continues without burning out your biggest assets.
Practical Methods for Team Growth Through Staff Augmentation
When it comes to practical implementation, here are a few recommended approaches:
- Strategic hiring: Identifying strategic gaps and then recruiting skilled programmers to fill them temporarily.
- Leveraging specialized skill sets: Adding niche skills your existing team may lack.
- Enhancing existing team capabilities: Augmenting key roles (e.g., project managers) to boost an in-house team’s productivity and workflow.
In each case, temporary outside help fills in the gaps and gives you more tools, with no long onboarding needed for new permanent staff.
Pros and Cons of the Staff Augmentation Approach
No solution is complete without its issues, but the benefits of IT staff augmentation can make it a go-to option when done right.
Advantages
- Scaling team headcount is much faster than FTE hiring. With staff augmentation, there are no long lead times that come with full-time recruitment and hiring. Instead of being tied to a permanent headcount, you have ultra-agile access to the exact talent you need. This lets you quickly respond to surprises without over-committing resources.
- Access to specialized talent and expertise not available in-house. Another major win is accessing specialized skills that may simply not exist within your current permanent team. Whether it’s deep knowledge of an industry you don’t usually support or hard-to-find tech expertise, augmentation opens up oceans of talent that otherwise require expensive longshot recruiting.
- It is often more cost-effective than long-term hiring for temporary needs. Developers fill critical niches without the excessive onboarding costs of full-timers. Yes, FTEs stick around, but for time-bound projects sometimes temporary is perfectly suited. This flexibility tends to make augmentation more affordable than building out permanent roles.
So in many ways, remote developers are a super-valuable force multiplier that companies can get up and running much faster than traditional staffing options. The speed and talent reach staff augmentation provides can pay dividends for agile operations.
Drawbacks
- Specilists might take some time to get up to speed with your processes. This can be a pain if you’ve got complex workflows.
- You’re relying on your provider to find the right people. Should they make a mistake, you are left with an individual who’s not a good fit.
However, you can mitigate these cons if you put in some little work first. For example:
- Make sure you’ve got clear onboarding materials and workflows. Not all devs can just figure things out on their own.
- Set clear expectations with your provider. Make sure you’re on the same page.
- Assign a teammate to help developers get up to speed quickly. This can help them feel welcomed and supported in their new roles.
- Make sure your provider screens candidates beforehand – the required skills must be properly vetted.
- Regularly evaluate programmers for performance and cultural match. This is key to making sure they’re a good fit long-term.
The pros of adaptability, talent depth, and cost savings are hard to beat. With upfront planning and ongoing management of expectations, integration challenges are easily overcome.
Mobilunity’s Staff Augmentation Process Flow
Mobilunity specializes in providing IT staff augmentation for 50% of all services ordered. A quick peek behind the scenes at our hiring process:
- Needs Analysis. We at Mobilunity thoroughly discuss your project to fully comprehend the specific skills and qualifications your open roles demand.
- List of Requirements. From there, we work with you to craft a detailed role description covering the main job duties, “must-haves,” and “nice-to-haves.”
- Candidates Selection. Armed with that info, we scour our massive talent database for candidates and provide detailed candidate evaluations. Can’t send you 50 resumes, though, so our experts hand-select a smaller shortlist of total rockstars most qualified for what you need.
- Final Interviews. Our recruiters zoom in on the top prospects. It’s a way to grill them on their abilities while also getting a feel for personality fit and chemistry.
- Hiring. If all signs point to green, a client makes a hiring offer. On average, clients see productivity within a couple of weeks.
Mobilunity’s Got You Covered
Trustworthiness is one of the top qualitative aspects companies most value in a service provider. Mobilunity has earned trust over the years through consistently great outcomes for the clients. This is also supported by a 4.9 review rating from our past clients.
Just look at some of the companies we’ve helped out through augmentation like Klevu, CheMondis, and VetaTek. E-commerce retailers Glopal, OWC, and Buttonorder, too. Even big names in IT service management like ServIT, fintech providers like finX and Pafin, and a former startup turned scale-up in Byg-E chose us for their flex staffing needs. These clients keep coming back because they know our process works.
So, reliability is everything in this business. Our lengthy client roster speaks for itself. Think we’ve proven we can be counted on to deliver top talent any time, any place.
Looking for staffing enhancement services? Mobilunity offers staff augmentation best practices to help you succeed. Choose us for a seamless experience and expert talent.
All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.
