The staff augmentation meaning can often be tricky, given its close relation with outsourcing and consulting services. As you search for a better and alternative solution, staff augmentation services have become an indispensable strategy for companies around the world when addressing their skill gaps.
What is augmentation in this context? Let’s kick off the discussion with the basic staff augmentation meaning, before you can take a closer look into its benefits and process to better understand this phenomenon.
Staff augmentation meaning: what’s so special about it?
Staff augmentation is a concept that above all, provides flexibility, efficiency, and productivity. It is an innovative talent acquisition strategy that allows organizations to expand their existing in-house teams by acquiring external talents temporarily on a project basis. Dorota Jasińska of Neontro Custom Solutions establishes that it is generally used in the Tech world as a way to fill in the gaps a compnany has in their talent pool.
As a new-generation hiring model, staff augmentation offers a flexible hiring solution without any strings attached in terms of permanent hiring and the costs associated with it. This outsourcing model “augments” the existing team by bringing in external talents from the dynamic job market.
The practice of staff augmentation services like software team augmentation can be traced back to the IT industry, which has always been hungry for fresh and specialized talents for their projects. From a marketing perspective, Mithun A. Sridharan of ThinkInsights establishes that the most common scenarios for IT support services are support in the event of a security issue or concern, social media or content marketing initiatives, or a brand relaunch for a large marketing campaign.
Nevertheless, the staff augmentation meaning has evolved beyond its alma mater to make its augmented product accessible and applicable to almost any industry.
Now ask yourself this question: if there is a flexible way to hire qualified professionals on a need basis where everybody wins, why bother with the liability of full-time hires?
What is not staff augmentation?
Before we proceed, it is important to know what doesn’t fall within the staff augmentation meaning. It is often easy to get misled by the staff augmentation definition.
Although it might seem similar to other hiring models like project outsourcing, consulting, and sometimes even freelancing, staff augmentation is a different breed.
First and foremost, staff augmentation does not seek to replace the existing talent pool within the organization, but to enhance it by injecting fresh skills from the outside. The approach sets itself apart from other workforce solutions in terms of the locus of control over the project.
Instead of handing over the entire project to an outside team with little to no control over it, the staff augmentation means focusing on collaboration by bringing in additional resources to the existing workforce. Neither does freelancing fall within the definition, as the latter calls for the exclusive integration of external experts for the given project.
Customizing staff augmentation services
The beauty of staff augmentation lies within its customization to meet the specific needs of the projects, whether short-term or long-term. Based on your workforce needs, we can help you decide on the right staff augmentation solution for your company. Mizanur Rahaman of RiseUpLabs expands on several types of services, but here are the three most important ones:
In temporary staff augmentation, a company hires external professionals for a specific duration or seasonal projects. If the project is ongoing, the professionals can be engaged under long-term contracts as required.
Project-based augmentation brings in outside skills and expertise concerning a particular project development cycle that defines their engagement.
Skill-based staff augmentation focuses on hiring experts with niche and specialized skills that could not be found within the existing workforce.
Remember to check out our unbeatable offer for custom staff augmentation services.
We’re always ready to help you define what type of augmentation product is right for your needs.
Closer look into the benefits of staff augmentation
The success, stability, and survivability of your business depends on its ability to respond to the changing market scenarios that call for a flexible workforce with diverse skill sets.
Staff augmentation meaning in a nutshell: more flexibility
As an alternative to the slow and rigid traditional hiring process, a flexible team augmentation allows the scalable workforce to respond to the project demands and workload fluctuations efficiently without affecting the core business process.
Increased efficiency
Hiring full-time employees equals massive overhead costs, specifically with training, benefits, and salaries. Instead of committing your resources to long-term HR engagement, the company can optimize its process by integrating external talents as and when required via team augmentation.
Access to the global talent pool
As the staff augmentation meaning suggests, the sky is the limit. In the age of a dynamic labor market, it is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire and retain all the skills and talents in-house.
But at the same time, it opens up access to a global pool of experts and professionals ready to jumpstart the project in a snap.
Even with high-quality staff augmentation services, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows.
The external professionals will always have a hard time integrating into the norms and cultures of the company. There will be hidden costs associated with the external resources.
While hiring externally might do the trick when it comes to filling the skill set gaps, there will always be some degree of communication discrepancy between teams.
Demystifying the staff augmentation process: how does it work?
Adding a member to your team through the staff augmentation process is not exactly simple, but there are situations where it makes absolute sense, indicates Alan Cooper of ValueCoders. Above all things, you must understand how it works and the proper scenarios to make the most out of it.
The augmentation process resembles contemporary hiring practices, but focus should be given to human factors through seamless integration of the external members within the workforce. This is how you can really decode the true staff augmentation meaning.
First, identify: what skill gap are you trying to fill?
No desired knowledge or skill sets within the existent team undoubtedly increases the need for staff augmentation. This calls for filling the gap in the workforce that can be filled by hiring outside pros.
Then, reel them in: Bring in those skills
Once you identify the skill gap, it’s easier for you to shortlist and pick the external professionals with the right sets of skills required for the project.
Finally, bring them together: Integrating new hires into the workforce
The success of the entire augmentation process depends on how well the external staff integrates into the existing workforce. The challenge lies in coordinating the efforts of internal and external members of your team.
Feedback and support
Staff augmentation is not a perfect science. Don’t expect everything to fall into place the first time. It requires continuous management feedback, support, and realignment from conception to completion of the project.
Expert wisdom: modern problems require modern solutions
Alejandro Fortin, a leading partner in technology consulting, testifies that staff augmentation meaning goes beyond merely compensating for the skill gaps in your workforce. It adds value to your business through innovation and unparalleled flexibility in a competitive landscape today.
Modern-day problems require modern solutions, and it is impossible to find a solution if you look for it in the same place where the problem originated. It is never too late to start thinking out of the box and look for some fresh ideas. Start with Belatrix today!
Final words
The staff augmentation meaning transcends the conventional concept of outsourcing or short-term staffing solutions. It has evolved to be as an indispensable strategic approach for the modern-day business world where flexibility, expertise, and efficiency matter in business projects.
It’s not an overstatement to say that staff augmentation should certainly be on your mind when it comes to fulfilling your HR needs. Feel free to reach out to us, our experts will be happy to help!
