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Recruiting and retaining exceptional talent is challenging and takes a lot of time, especially when companies in the tech space demand experienced developers and engineers.
Moreover, filling in the gaps due to a lack of resources or specialists can be challenging and time-consuming at the same time, especially for high-tech roles like iOS developers or machine learning engineers, for which the demands have been escalating since the great resignation.
This is where the model of staff augmentation comes into play! In this article, we will discuss the concept of staff augmentation, its increasing demand and why enterprises need to focus on in-house team expansion for quick hiring.
Related: 10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees
Staff augmentation
Staff augmentation is a type of cooperation model where businesses, from startups to corporate enterprises, source talent via staffing agencies to work with them temporarily to fill the talent gaps promptly.
Today, staff augmentation has turned mainstream, with nearly $500 billion annual spending on global IT staffing services alone.
Businesses now prefer partnering with staff augmentation service providers to boost the competency of their internal teams and accelerate the development process rather than spending weeks prospecting ideal candidates, conducting interviews and shortlisting candidates to fill an immediate talent gap.
Related: 6 Ways to Effectively Navigate Market Turbulence in the IT World
Why is staff augmentation surging in popularity?
The staff augmentation model has been successful over recent years due to the following three reasons:
1. It is suited for a hybrid work environment
People willing to switch to low-paying remote jobs rather than continuing on-prem work in their previous settings indicate that the future of work is remote. Remote work is the new normal, especially in the technology and digital transformation sectors.
Staff augmentation services are suited to cater to the needs of a remote-first global economy that still needs to prepare to let go of all the advantages of on-prem work. With this setting, businesses can extend support to their internal teams by partnering with staff augmentation service providers to cater to bridge talent gaps and meet deadlines faster.
2. It is low risk compared to other outsourcing models
The staff augmentation model triumphs over all the outsourcing models regarding flexibility, affordability and quality. Compared to other outsourcing models, the risks involved with staff augmentation services are zero to none due to constant collaboration with the internal teams.
The augmented team or resource operates either as mere extensions of the internal teams or under the supervision of the in-house managers. Uninterrupted collaboration and seamless integrations of both teams eliminate any possibility of errors.
Thus, the risk involved in this model is considerably lower than the other project outsourcing models like offshoring or managed services.
3. Staff augmentation is flexible to scale without compromising sustainability
As the global recession started knocking on the doors, the results of aggressive hiring and fierce spending started becoming more evident. Consequently, most businesses either stopped or at least cut-down spending on scaling by considerable margins.
This phenomenon has kept thousands of global entrepreneurs from putting all the stakes in and investing aggressively in scaling their businesses. However, things have started to take quite an exciting turn as IT staffing, and resource augmentation services became mainstream.
With IT staff augmentation, businesses no longer remain prone to compromising sustainability, as they can end contracts with external teams if things start going south.
This model enables entrepreneurs to fuel their desires to achieve exponential growth and scalability without worrying about laying off permanent employees or (in the worst case scenario) signing up for bankruptcy.
Related: 6 Ways to Effectively Navigate Market Turbulence in the IT World
Why you need to start implementing the staff augmentation model
The following facts and figures are clear evidence that the staff augmentation model is here to stay:
1. The great resignation and the wake-up call
The quiet quitting culture has been disturbing the workflow of organizations since the epidemic. Even amidst the global recession session, where companies like Meta and Amazon are forced to lay off a considerable part of their workforce, the culture of quiet quitting has not stopped.
People silently leave their well-paying jobs due to a lack of serenity, toxic work environments, pay disparity or other reasons. As an entrepreneur, you should be prepared to deal with such cases within your organization.
Although you must prioritize fostering a culture of collaboration and encouragement, you should also be prepared to fill in talent gaps in case a team member resigns on short notice rather than compromising on the resource quality to fill the gaps.
2. Going above and beyond to fill talent gaps
The onshore, offshore and nearshore markets could provide more diversity in IT skills and expertise your company needs, depending on your location. With staff augmentation services, you can access a broader universal talent pool, including from regions acknowledged for having the finest IT talents, such as Europe and Asia.
Building external teams to bridge the talent gap using staff augmentation services can also help you save the time and cost of setting up dedicated workspaces and recruiting highly-skilled teams.
3. Increasing cyber attacks
As businesses switch to fully remote and hybrid working models, they become prone to cyber-attacks and data breaches. According to Statista, the data breaches in the third quarter of 2022 were at the all-time highest, with businesses reporting approximately 15 million data breaches.
Although businesses are now setting up dedicated networking teams to safeguard confidential information from hackers and intruders, not all of them can afford it. Thus, they eventually recruit network engineers via an augmented staffing model to stay protected from potential cyber threats and data breaches.
Related: 4 Best Practices When Choosing a Staffing Agency
Final thoughts
Using staff augmentation to address the talent gaps instead of outsourcing or managed services models let business owners keep the charge of the project. As a business owner, you get to choose the talent you deem fit for the role and maintain authority over the project to get things done your way.
With staffing services, you not only eliminate the recruitment time and cost but also access a global talent of highly-skilled developers and engineers to work alongside your in-house teams to optimize overall competencies and boost productivity.
