With the exponential rise in the number of global teams, the concept of staff augmentation has become increasingly popular. In this piece, we’ll talk about what staff augmentation actually means, and the pros and cons of augmenting your existing workforce.
What is IT staff augmentation?
Best described as a flexible outsourcing strategy, IT staff augmentation is when a business evaluates their staff and analyses the additional skills that they require to successfully complete a project/task. This allows them to hire external employees with specialized skills on a contract basis to ‘augment’ their existing workforce.
Why are businesses considering staff augmentation?
Today, the world is experiencing one of the largest tech talent shortages in history. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Manpower Group, over 54% of companies across the globe reported an acute shortage of skills in 2020.
In such a scenario, finding the right IT experts with experience in cutting-edge technologies is becoming increasingly challenging. And that’s why companies are looking to hire external staff to keep their business afloat.
The pros and IT staff augmentation
Some of the tangible benefits of augmenting your existing tech workforce include:
- The flexibility to hire employees on a contract basis and only pay them for the work they do.
- With little to no investment in training, businesses can access on-demand tech talent at a cost-effective price.
- Because organisations collaborate with external vendors, they don’t have to worry about all the administrative responsibilities of handling the augmented team.
The cons of IT staff augmentation
Despite having its advantages, staff augmentation also has its own set of disadvantages. Some of them include:
- Because this is a one-off solution, it isn’t sustainable over the long term.
- Since IT staff augmentation is a service that is billed on a time-and-materials model, many hidden costs need to be considered.
- Staff augmentation is often associated with a high turnover rate because of the short-term contracts. This means that businesses may often find themselves working with different engineers, leading to discrepancies in quality.
IT staff augmentation: a conclusion
If you’re looking for support for one-off projects, then IT staff augmentation can work for your business. However, for a long-term sustainable route, offshoring is a better solution.