What is IT Staff Augmentation? Everything You Need to Know

Building a top-notch development team from scratch can be tough for businesses in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. In fact, as per research conducted by PwC, the skills gap and talent shortage in the U.S. is expected to result in a staggering loss of $8.5 trillion by the year 2030. 

Such huge losses have resulted in more and more businesses considering IT staff augmentation as an effective strategy for scaling IT operations and accessing specialized skills to supplement their existing teams.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the benefits of staff augmentation, discuss some key considerations, and provide some practical tips for selecting the right augmentation model. Thus, by the end of this blog, you will be able to garner adequate knowledge to make informed decisions and achieve your IT goals. 

So let’s begin by dissecting the meaning of IT staff augmentation and how it works.

What is IT Staff Augmentation?

Technically speaking IT staff augmentation is a strategic outsourcing model that allows organizations to hire external IT professionals who can supplement their existing workforce temporarily. The reason why this approach is revered by many businesses is because it is designed to fill specific skill gaps, meet project deadlines, and enhance the capabilities of their existing teams. All that without having the long-term commitment associated with the model.

Some of the key features of staff augmentation are:

• Control:

One of the most important aspects when it comes to project oversight is the amount of control one can have over or exercise. Staff augmentation enables businesses to control and manage all the crucial elements of the project. This ensures that project deadlines are met timely. 

• Scalability: 

With the flexible nature of this model, it becomes easier than ever for businesses to scale up and scale down with convenience.

• No-long term commitments:

Unlike the traditional hiring model, the augmentation frees the businesses away from long-term commitment formalities of employees. Whenever it is required they can reach out to skilled specialists and get their work done.

How Does IT Staff Augmentation Work?

There is a very simple and basic mechanism on which the model of staff augmentation operates. Let’s understand this with the help of this breakdown.

1. Identify your Staffing Needs:

The process begins when a business realizes and identifies its staffing needs. These can be either due to a specific project requirement or a skill gap that has been identified lately. Once a need has been detected then the cycle of talent hunting begins.

2. Begin the Talent Hunt:

Selecting the right talent for the role is as essential as choosing a cardiologist over a physician at the time of a cardiac arrest. This is because if you don’t have specialists by your side when you most need them then things can go haywire any moment. Thus, selecting the right candidate becomes very important. To ease this process one can also rely on reputed IT Staff Augmentation Services providers like Cyntexa who have been mastering the art and helping businesses transform their journeys.

3. The Onboarding Process:

Since the hired candidate won’t be privy to your organization’s ethics, virtues and work culture an elaborate onboarding process comes to the rescue. This helps the new candidates and existing ones to exchange dialogue and get comfortable with each other’s presence for a certain period.

4. Project Commencement and Completion:

The only step left after onboarding the newly augmented staff is to get started with the project. During the commencement and completion phase of the project, the businesses can continue to evaluate and statically align the staff members with IT goals to achieve the results faster. 

Moving ahead let us explore the various kinds of staff augmentation models. 

Understanding IT Staff Augmentation Models

1. On-demand Staff Augmentation

On-demand staff augmentation is a flexible staffing solution where businesses hire temporary or contract workers to supplement their already present workforce on an as-per-need basis.

2. Skill-based Staff Augmentation

This mode focuses on augmenting professionals with specific and relevant skill sets. This is the best suited for projects that require niche guidance and knowledge.

3. Project-based Staff Augmentation

Sometimes augmentation of staff is done and determined based on the type of project. This mode allows flexibility to the business so that they can adhere to their project needs and along with that without a permanent hiring can leverage the right candidate for the right work.

4. Remote Staff Augmentation

Hiring remote professionals to nullify the geographical distances is a part of this model. Wherein connectivity and communication are the two basic factors. This mode ensures that your business to conveniently scale up your existing teams.

5. Hybrid Staff Augmentation

As the name suggests, hybrid staff augmentation means an organization leverages both on-site and remote augmented staff. This allows businesses to maintain a specified in-house team that performs all the core tasks and regulates a remote team for other tasks and cost benefits.

6. Duration-based Staff Augmentation

This is a duration-specific model thus, It involves hiring third-party IT professionals for a set period. The duration can vary on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis depending on the project requirements.

7. Location-specific Staff Augmentation

Location-specific staff augmentation refers to the practice of hiring external talent based on geographical considerations. Based on this there are further sub-categories of this type of augmentation; on-shore, off-shore, and near-shore augmentation.

• An on-shore augmentation of staff refers to hiring staff from a local geographical location to avoid any cultural appropriation conflicts. 
• While off-shore augmentation enables businesses to access a talent pool of skilled developers from all over the world. 
• Lastly, there is near-shore augmentation, which is hiring IT professionals from nearby geographical locations, which can often be neighboring countries. 

Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation  

If there are doubts in your mind as to why staff augmentation? Here are some advantages that can make you understand its vitality; 

1.  Access to Specialized Skills and Expertise:

This mode allows businesses to access specific IT skills and expertise on demand, ensuring that projects are staffed with the right people for the job.

 2. Cost-Effective:

This model provides a flexible staffing solution. This ensures that the businesses can avoid the overhead costs associated with hiring full-time employees.

3. Speed Of Project Delivery:

Lastly, the augmented staff can be quickly deployed to projects. Which can immensely impact the project timelines and ensure that critical deadlines are met on time.

IT Staff Augmentation Challenges & Considerations

Some IT staff augmentation challenges can act as a roadblock and hinder your operational efficiencies, let us take a look at them closely;

• Selecting the Right Talent: One of the most common challenges that comes along is the difficulty in finding candidates with the exact skills and experience required. Along with that sometimes cultural appropriateness is also missing making it difficult for the augmented staff to align with the company’s culture and values. 
• Striking a Balance Between New and Existing Teams: Next up is the challenge of striking the right balance between the new and existing teams/ staff members. This introduction can sometimes disrupt existing dynamics and communication. Plus, also evokes feelings of insecurity among the existing ones and hostility among the new ones eventually making the collaboration difficult.
• Transfer of Knowledge: When the collaboration between teams is disrupted from the beginning the transfer of critical knowledge can also be delayed leading to further delays in the delivery of the projects.
• Quality and Security Considerations: Lastly, maintaining consistent quality standards and ensuring that augmented staff meet expectations can be challenging sometimes. However, with trust, planning, and clear communication, these challenges can be addressed.

IT Staff Augmentation Vs. Other IT Service Models

Considering the comparisons among different hiring solutions can be difficult to comprehend; here is a simple breakdown for a better understanding;

Staff Augmentation vs. Independent Contractors (Freelancers)

• When you hire a freelancer, you take on responsibilities like communication, management, and payroll. In contrast, with IT staff augmentation, a vendor handles these tasks for you.
• Hiring independent contractors can save you from vendor commissions since you hire them directly. However, you won’t need to provide employee benefits or cover overhead costs for contractors. They might also have limited access to company information compared to augmented staff.

Staff Augmentation vs. Managed Services

• The main difference between IT staff augmentation and managed services is how much control you give to the vendor. Managed services, involve the vendor taking charge of your non-core systems and overall operations, allowing you to focus on strategic priorities.
• Managed service providers usually have teams ready to start working right away, eliminating the wait for new hires.

Staff Augmentation vs. Outsourcing

• Outsourcing Involves contracting out a specific business process or function to an external provider. This provider takes full responsibility for delivering the service.   
• However, when you need to maintain control over the work, integrate the augmented staff into your team, and build internal capacity you should opt for IT staff augmentation without a doubt.

Staff Augmentation vs. Consulting

• Going by the literal sense of these terms they are both closely associated with getting external sources of experience and expertise to get the work done. However, while they are similar in approach they differ in proximity. 
• While staff augmentation assists with additional IT resources to lend help to existing operations and projects, consulting on the other hand comes in handy with recommendations, reports, strategies, and problem-solving in some specified areas.

Staff Augmentation vs. IT Staffing

• Both IT staffing and staff augmentation are methods used for hiring talented IT individuals. However, the difference lies in the duration and scope of the methods.
• Like in IT staffing the commitment to hiring is permanent for occupancy of full-time job roles in organizations. Where as staff augmentation is concerned the hiring is done keeping in mind the temporary nature of work and commitment. Thus, the engagement of augmented staff is for a fixed or limited period.

Staff Augmentation vs. Statement of Work (SOW)

• Let us first understand what a Statement of Work is. So it is a formally curated document that creates an outline for all the project-related information like expectations, delivery timelines, and other special requirements.
• Rather than having a comparison between SOW and IT staff augmentation, we can highlight a symbiotic relationship between the two. SOW is an important component of all the staff augmentation projects so that all the parties involved i.e. the client and the contractors are on the same page and have the same information.

Staff Augmentation vs. Time and Material Approach

• In the time and material approach, the contractual structure of the involved parties works based on time devoted and materials utilized which are not predominantly decided beforehand. This method is best suited for projects that have an uncertain scope or maybe longer durations with a high frequency of changes.
• Meanwhile, in staff augmentation, the hiring costs, time, and contracts are predetermined for a project with a well-defined scope.

When To Consider Staff Augmentation? 

Here are some factors to consider when you are in doubt about whether or not augmented staff will be good for your business.

• Talent Gap: When a company cannot find the necessary skills internally, staff augmentation can provide access to specialized expertise.
• Time-to-Market: By quickly adding resources, staff augmentation can accelerate project timelines and reduce time-to-market.
• Scalability: It allows companies to scale their teams up or down based on project demands without the overhead of permanent hiring.
• Cost-Efficiency: Staff augmentation can be more cost-effective than hiring full-time employees, especially for short-term projects.
• Flexibility: It offers flexibility in terms of project duration and skill requirements.

Overall, staff augmentation provides a solution to the challenges of building and maintaining a skilled workforce in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Conclusion

In essence, IT staff augmentation offers a flexible and efficient solution for businesses seeking to scale their IT operations, access specialized skills, or bridge temporary resource gaps. Thus, through IT staff augmentation your business can achieve desired goals in no time. However, if you are confused about where to get started with your staff augmentation journey you can get in touch with Cyntexa. Through our diligent IT Staff Augmentation Services, your business can drive more innovation and growth.