An imperative aspect for a business that is given a task with a strict deadline is to have the necessary number of employees with the appropriate skill set. Yet, it can be challenging to instantly find the right talent with the required competencies without incurring considerable financial expenses.
For companies looking to accelerate their time to market, staff augmentation has become an increasingly popular approach. This involves outsourcing work to a third-party organisation, or ‘staff augmentation business’, that can provide additional personnel to achieve a specific objective. By adopting this staffing method, companies can access specialist professionals, whose expertise can be tailored to the project’s requirements, facilitating the achievement of the desired outcomes more efficiently.
Below are some key indicators that suggest staff augmentation could be the most suitable option for a company with short-term staffing requirements.
Insufficient scalability within your organisation.
Given the uncertain times, many businesses are adopting lean strategies to sustain and enhance their profit margins. The companies that stay ahead of the competition are those with the agility to adapt rapidly to the ever-evolving market conditions.
One of the fundamental principles of Lean is “Just-in-Time,” which enables businesses to efficiently fulfil their customers’ requirements by offering the exact product or service when needed. This principle can also be applied to staff recruitment; having the capabilities to call upon the expertise of the most qualified professionals when required will give your organisation a significant edge over its rivals.
Staff augmentation can be an excellent option for your company to swiftly and effortlessly boost productivity without hiring additional personnel. This allows you to maintain your core teams for daily operations while bringing in specialists as and when required for ambitious projects. Ultimately, this enables your organisation to scale up rapidly in response to changing demands.Your company is facing a strict deadline that must be met.
Meeting a challenging deadline requires allocating the appropriate resources at the right time. Sadly, even prosperous companies can fail to meet their deadlines. For instance, IBM discovered that only 40% of their projects were completed within the predefined timeframe, budget, and quality requirements.
In order to ensure the successful completion of a project within the specified timeframe, staff augmentation offers the possibility of acquiring additional resources. This service involves recruiting highly skilled IT professionals who can be brought in as and when required and retained for as long as necessary.
A recent report by Harvey Nash/KPMG indicates that Chief Information Officers are currently facing one of the most severe shortages of computer talent since 2007. 65% of CIOs surveyed revealed that a shortage of skills is hindering their ability to keep pace with the constantly evolving technological developments. To equip their teams with the necessary skills that may not be available in-house, CIOs should contemplate hiring specialists on an as-needed basis.Your company requires a system that can seamlessly integrate into your existing processes.
Compared to outsourcing, staff augmentation enables your company to have complete control over which tasks are assigned to whom. This implies that you will have full authority over the final outcome and direction of the project at all times.
Introducing temporary team members should not make permanent employees feel intimidated or threatened, as everyone is working towards the same project-related goal. Hence, they will be more inclined to work alongside the temporary staff, assisting them in becoming familiar with the necessary procedures swiftly.Key Indicator: Your Company has a Budget
Hiring a new employee entails more than just their annual salary. It is estimated that the total cost of recruiting a new employee could be 1.5 to 3 times their salary when considering all the associated expenses. This includes recruitment costs, training and induction, as well as other expenses such as equipment, office space, and insurance.
Recruiting the right candidate for a full-time position necessitates a significant amount of effort and time to evaluate potential employees and create a comprehensive compensation package that caters to their individual demands. Additionally, there is a possibility that the chosen candidate may not meet the organisation’s expectations, necessitating additional resources to get them up to speed.
To avoid potential issues when recruiting, one solution could be to expand the current team’s size. This might involve engaging contract workers instead of employing new workers, which could save the company resources. If the necessary skillset for a specific role is known, it may be feasible to hire a contract worker to perform the role for a specific period and pay them only for the tasks completed. This could provide the company with long-term financial benefits.
Lastly, if you are contemplating staff augmentation as a means of addressing your business needs, it could be beneficial to partner with a company that provides both staff augmentation and project outsourcing services. For businesses whose demands exceed the capabilities of either staff augmentation or outsourcing independently, this could provide a suitable alternative resolution.
