What Is Staff Augmentation in IT or Ways of Closing the Recruitment Gap

What Is Staff Augmentation in IT or Ways of Closing the Recruitment Gap

Nick   |    11 Apr 2023   |    5 Mins Read

What exactly is IT staff augmentation? In a nutshell, it's a strategy for enhancing an organization's capability by adding outside expertise to an inside team. Businesses may hire the best developers, designers, testers, and marketers from staff augmentation firms to satisfy their needs.

Staff augmentation vs product outsourcing

Staff augmentation and product outsourcing are the companies' go-to options when they can't find the workers they need within. With project outsourcing, businesses give the development team of a third-party vendor complete control over the software development process. Afterwards, this certified team uses their own internal QA engineers, designers, developers, DevOps, project managers, etc. to complete all of the assigned development services.

Contrarily, companies who have their own internal teams but lack specialized expertise and technological abilities choose to choose staff augmentation. Businesses may add professionals to their current teams through IT staff augmentation. To finish a predetermined scope of work, contractors are employed for a specific amount of time. Contractors perform as internal team members throughout this period and are supervised by internal supervisors.

Technical staff augmentation use cases

Services for staff augmentation assist companies in cutting recruiting costs and avoiding development holdups. There are five situations where hiring more workers could be a good idea.

1- You must strengthen your internal team.

Even though you have a team of developers on staff, expanding your knowledge is now necessary when starting a new project or providing support for applications you already have.

2- You don't have time for hiring

Whether you sign a short- or long-term arrangement, IT staff augmentation businesses can quickly adapt to your demands. With access to a vast pool of software engineers, a staff augmentation team may deliver skills within weeks, whereas recruitment and hiring take between one to two months.

3- You require advanced abilities.

You don't have time to mentor a bright young engineer. What your team requires is an experienced middle to senior software engineer who can jump into the project right immediately and bring high-level development expertise.

Five ways staff augmentation benefits your business

1- Better Control

You can't completely track the development process when you outsource project development, which makes you reliant on your outsourcing team. The staff augmentation approach allows for real-time monitoring of both employee activities and the development process. Also, you may act right away.

2- Increased scalability and flexibility

Businesses may grow their workforces and enterprises more quickly with the help of staff augmentation than they could by hiring and training internal workers. You may take on new clients with the help of IT outsourcing services without compromising the progress of your ongoing project.

3- Access top-tier talents

To cover project shortages, staff augmentation services hand-select experts at the top in their areas. Your project will remain on track if you use this recruiting methodology.

4- Minimum legal requirements

Conventional employment comes with a slew of legal obligations: taxes, wages, and health insurance. The staffing vendor becomes the developer's formal employer under a staff augmentation approach. As a result, the vendor assumes all legal responsibility and handles all documentation.

How to choose a staff augmentation partner

1- Assess your team’s gaps 

To hire an IT staff augmentation service provider, determine what experience and skill set you need. Seek advice from your tech leads and HR executives to see where your projects need a boost. Based on this internal research, create a staffing blueprint that defines essential employee requirements.

2- Explore what markets your potential vendor serves

Confirm that an IT outstaffing company has contacts in your market. If your business is global, working with multiple vendors can add complexity to the recruitment process. Choose an IT augmentation company with a global reach. If your business is local, hire a vendor that has resources in your key market.

3- Assess your contract

Avoid working with companies offering one-size-fits-all contracts. This kind of contract shows that a vendor lacks the experience to handle specific staffing requirements. Instead, choose agencies that offer to tailor all work agreements to meet your needs. 

IT staff augmentation services at iShore Software Solutions

iShore Software Solutions has been providing information technology staff augmentation services for a decade and pays particular attention to industry-specific requirements.

With iShore as their strategic staff augmentation vendor, businesses benefit from transparency, quick recruitment for critical positions, scalability to handle any load, ad-hoc services, and lower operating costs.

We bridge the software development demand–supply gap through a three-step hiring process and quick onboarding. This allows our clients to ramp up their teams within weeks, not months. Send us a request for details and we’ll get back to you with more information about IT outstaffing with iShore Software Solutions.