Hiring an experienced candidate for an urgent project can be a brain-draining process for any organization. Many a time, organizations get stuck with a project that requires an urgent need for industry experts to join the team and help them to identify the loopholes and increase productivity. These are generally project-based short-term openings and conducting in-house recruitment for these posts can become a lengthy and time-consuming process and could affect the overall strategy of the project. While for a well-established company, this matter can be solved by a direct hiring process, for small and medium-scale organizations it becomes difficult. In such cases, a different approach to hiring: staff augmentation emerges as a game solver.

It is generally known as IT staff augmentation as the IT sector mostly utilizes this strategy, however, other sectors can also use this strategy to increase the productivity and profitability of their organization. This framework is a perfect alternative for direct hiring methods for such short-term roles and allows organizations to hire a niche specialist temporarily for any project without being worried. 

This post will help you understand the concept in detail and will make you aware of its benefits, pros, and cons.

What is Staff Augmentation?

Staff Augmentation is a process of involving an external panel of experts temporarily in a project or assignment to fill the gaps and increase the potential of an in-house team of any organization. It is an outsourcing strategy where industry experts are hired to serve the project and help the already present in-house team to achieve the goal. The experts are hired based on the skills needed for the project and can work for short or long-term with the client. It is a hybrid model where both the in-house team and the external expert work on the same project however they usually work independently on separate areas.

This framework requires a detailed assessment of the current team and project at hand to determine the potential gaps which are then filled with the required right skill sets. This can be done either way by independent contracts or with the help of a service agency.

Types of Staff Augmentation 

A project is thoroughly analyzed before choosing the right type of staff augmentation. There are three different types based on the requirements of the project at hand.

• Skills-Based
  When the project demands a unique skill set like data processing, copywriting, clerical work, transcription, etc. but the level of the relevant skill is not that critical.
• Commodity Based
  When the project demands to have a trustable and reliable employee to conduct a specific task like event management, warehouse work, or manual labor and they need not have any specific skill set.
• Specialization Based
  When the project requires specialization like data analysis, brand design, and software engineering that can only be attained through experience and training and requires persons with highly advanced skill sets to join the team.

How Does Staff Augmentation Work?

Let’s take an example to understand how the process of staff augmentation works.

Suppose you own an e-commerce website and are about to launch a new product range. For that, you need a skilled person who can help you with creating attractive product display pages. Your current team includes web developers, marketing persons, and content writers but lacks the presence of designers that can help you modify the designs on your website and can create new product page designs. So, you opt for project outsourcing and ask the staff augmentation service provider to help you find a talented and enthusiastic UI/UX designer to complete the project. The service provider then handles all the recruitment processes like exploring and interviewing the talent pool and presents you with selected candidates that match your requirements. You can then interview them and make the final call and sign the contract.

Any staff augmentation model follows a 4-step procedure:

• Analyzing and reviewing the project
  The service provider will analyze and review the project requirements and make a list of your expectations from the external resources that will assist you with the project. This step will help them to determine the skill sets that the right candidate would be required to have. This will ease their further process of recruitment.
• Talent sourcing
  Here is where the magic happens. The recruitment firm starts sourcing the candidates. They look for the best talent to fulfill your requirements, and perform technical interviews and compatibility tests to shortlist the candidates. The final candidates are then presented to you for the final interview round and once you are satisfied with their skills and knowledge and find them the right fit, the candidate is finalized.
• Onboarding
  It is the responsibility of the service provider to handle all the legal issues. The candidate is briefed about all the requirements, responsibilities, and expectations of the job profile, and after completing all the required documentation processes, he is onboarded to the organization.
• Ongoing Support
  The responsibility of the service provider doesn’t end after the candidate joins the team. They account for all the required support to manage the services. Generally, an HR manager or an account manager is assigned to help with all the matters until the contract terminates.

Advantages of Staff Augmentation

It serves both the organization that incorporates this approach and the outsourced employees that become part of the strategy with tons of advantages. Some of them are listed below:

• Flexibility
  Every project has different requirements, for some projects you need to increase the potential of your web developers so that to complete the project on time, while others may require a marketing specialist to help your product reach the right audience base. Staff augmentation allows you to get a perfect team assemblage by giving you the opportunity to hire ‘n’ number of specialists based on your current project requirement. These short-term role openings increase the productivity of the organization and can be terminated at the end of the project.
• Cost-effective
  The mid-level and small-scale organizations generally work on a tight budget and if in the middle of any project, a staff up-gradation is required, it can affect the overall cost of the project. The hiring process would take time, energy as well as would require a monetary investment. On the other hand, a staff augmentation service provider like BRIDGENTECH offers you a wide variety of services to outsource the right candidate at a reasonable price.
• Hassle-free Onboarding
  The organization providing these services leads the process until the candidate is onboarded. It is responsible for all the recruitment processes like searching the candidate, interviewing, and handling the legal paperwork. The time and efforts to hire an augmented employee directly depend upon the proficiency level of the service-providing company. Once the candidate onboards, the company takes the command in its hand and employs the candidate on the project.
• High Productivity
  The sole purpose of hiring temporary external experts is to make way for high efficiency and productivity levels. The outsourced team focuses on a specific task or project and dedicates all their efforts and time to the same. So accordingly, this allows the organization to optimize its talent to get high-efficiency levels.

When and Why Choose Staff Augmentation Services?

Some points that can help you decide if your business needs an outsourced staff augmentation service are discussed below:

• Project Length
  The project length ultimately decides the type of hiring services required by an organization. For long-term projects, it is more economical to hire employees on a permanent basis and upscale the current team, while for short-term projects the other hiring options can be beneficial. Staff augmentation is an ideal outsourcing strategy for projects with a duration of about 3 to 12 months.
• High-level skill requirements
  The outsourced augmented employees hold a high level of skill sets and are specialists in their respective fields. They have already worked on several projects and hold the significant experience and can help your organizations to gain constructive perspective to achieve the goals. They tend to adapt faster to the working environment of the project.
• Need to expand team fast
  When you have a well-established in-house team but urgently need a proficient candidate in a particular stream to join your team, staff augmentation can be the right answer to all your queries. This hiring model can save you time and energy and can emerge with a suitable and best fit for you. You just need to connect to a mediator and explain to them your skill requirements and he would take care of all the processes to find you your gem.
• Decreased Project cost
  The service provider manages and administers the process from the front seat and hence covers all the management and administrative cost. This includes the cost of sourcing and training the candidate. You just need to pay a fixed amount based on the number of staff you require and the charges the provider applies. 

Wrapping Up

To conclude everything, I would say staff augmentation is the most cost-effective way for businesses to reduce costs while maintaining critical resources for short-term projects.

Furthermore, It gives you the freedom to scale up or down workers based on business needs and increase productivity. For any further queries, you can contact us at info@bridgentech.com

Frequently Asked Questions

What is staff augmentation?

It is the process of outsourcing experts to work alongside your in-house team on short-term projects.

How to contact Bridgentech for staff augmentation services?

You can mail us at info@bridgentech.com or call us at +91 8179096900 to enquire about our services.