5 Considerations and Misunderstandings about Staffing Augmentation

Staffing augmentation has proven its importance in business management. It is a solid tool for organizations seeking to improve their abilities cost-effectively and rapidly. But unfortunately, there is still a lot of confusion about this working model that needs to be rectified. So, this article takes you into the world of staff augmentation by unveiling the reality behind this infamous strategy.
You will learn about the 5 common misconceptions about augmentation staffing to gain a transparent and clearer comprehension of its essentiality. Beyond talking about these myths, you will also explore the staffing augmentation meaning and why it has become a necessity in today’s rapidly growing marketplace. Moreover, to clarify the concept, the article also shows an easy and brief example of staff augmentation.
Let’s begin.

Table of Contents

Why Use Staffing Augmentation?

Before you know why staffing augmentation is vital, let’s focus on understanding the concept. Staffing augmentation is a strategic approach to workforce management. Companies extend their staff by hiring external consultants or professionals to increase or fill the gap in their in-house teams.
In software development, this practice is usually utilized to fill temporary roles. However, many organizations use this approach even for the long term, as it helps bring specialized software designers and developers to complete the projects. Staffing augmentation has different forms, such as contractors, freelancers, and temporary employees on a project basis.
The main reason for using IT staffing augmentation services is to scale the workforce quickly to meet changing demands without long-term commitments, which are mostly associated with in-house or full-time employees. Moreover, it allows organizations to access experienced software engineers without the expense of training and permanent employment.
Staffing augmentation helps enhance your overall productivity, permits you to build solutions within deadlines, and adds versatility to your digital products according to evolving market demands.
Also Read: 6 Important Things to Follow in Your Digital Product Strategy

There are many misunderstandings about staffing augmentation companies. So, let’s dig into the 5 most common myths about this hiring model.

1. Staff Augmentation Services are Similar to Technical Support

In the field of Information Technology, there’s a common misconception that staffing augmentation and technical support are the same services. Although both services indeed require expert individuals, they have a different purpose.
Staffing augmentation consists of an expert team that orderly integrates with your in-house staff to fulfill particular roles as needed. Also, this integration is remote-based, where hired professionals work with your team from a different area, place, or location. This is also one of the main differences between staff augmentation vs staffing, where teams physically work from your company.
Contrarily, tech support focuses on helping users solve problems related to a specific product or service they already have. In other words, staffing augmentation helps your in-house teams through specialized skills. At the same time, technical support is only related to existing customers.

2. Staffing Augmentation is Not Cost-Effective

In most scenarios, outsourcing staff augmentation services is more cost-saving than hiring an in-house IT team. From the cost reduction point of view, staffing augmentation saves your various direct and indirect expenses related to an in-house team. This includes insurance, compensation, retirement benefits, office supply maintenance, and legal procedures.
Apart from the financial advantages, staffing augmentation plays a key role in risk management. Nevertheless, you must ensure that your tech vendor maintains a meticulous hiring process to make sure you are provided with top talent.
Also Read: 10 Strategies to Choose the Right Tech Vendor for Your Business
This reduces the risk of hiring the wrong candidate and allows you to source a highly skilled professional without wasting your time and resources. These cost and time savings enable your business to focus on the core functionality and improve your digital product’s quality.

3. There is No Advantage of Staff Augmentation in the Long Run

Staffing augmentation teams have specialized skills but don’t assume them as one-trick ponies. Once their main tasks are completed, many tech partners offer ongoing post-project completion services.
From the providers’ perspective, this service permits them to examine their work performance and improve their skills. And your in-house team can savor great advantages from this collaboration in terms of knowledge sharing and learning problem-solving techniques.
Remember, the real deal of staffing augmentation lies in its scalability. Moreover, it enhances your company’s speed and efficiency, enabling you to launch software solutions quickly in the market without compromising the software quality. So, if you think staffing augmentation is a one-time job, you’ve got the answer,

4. Staff Augmentation Only Favors Large Enterprises

Staffing augmentation isn’t just for large, fancy organizations with huge teams. Augmentation services benefit all types of companies regardless of size. So whether you are a small startup or a multinational business, staff augmentation can help you procure the best IT talent.
In fact, smaller companies can relish more advantages from software engineering staffing augmentation since they don’t have complete human resources to make a brilliant in-house team. Therefore, including contract IT consultants in your team can help you use their cleverness without making them your permanent employees.

5. Staff Augmentation Teams are Difficult to Manage

Unless your company can’t schedule meetings, such as daily scrums, and keep an eye on the key metrics, it will be inaccurate to say that teams hired through staffing augmentation are hard to handle.
Keep in mind that these teams are trained to be adaptable to new environments immediately. The team members can easily mold themselves into your company’s workflow and project processes regardless of distance and location. But, it is suggested to document all the matters and always use clear communication channels to administer the team.

Example of Good Staffing Augmentation

Imagine a company in the US is looking to expand its IT staff to develop a SaaS product using best practices. But, its in-house team lacks the required talent. So, in order to find affordable service, the company searches for staff augmentation staffing services in Singapore and quickly hires proficient foreign workers through the agency. The hired team completes and delivers the project before the due date, and the company launches the product in the market—a win-win situation for both parties.
Also Read: 5 Secrets on How to Find Foreign Worker Agency Singapore

Conclusion

Staffing augmentation can help you build great digital products without letting you pay for additional expenses. Nonetheless, there are various misunderstandings and considerations attached to this model. Some companies believe these services are just another name for tech support and are not cost-saving. Likewise, staff augmentation agencies only help for a short period, mostly to large organizations, and the teams are also difficult to manage. But the reality is evidently the opposite of these myths.
At Slash, we have the privilege to provide staffing augmentation services from startups to giant enterprises. With an expert, experienced, and highly professional team of software engineers, we can help create winning digital products according to your requirements. Contact us to get in touch with our brilliant tech squads.

FAQs – Staffing Augmentation

Q1. Why do companies use staff augmentation?

Companies prefer staff augmentation services to access expert professionals without hiring them as permanent employees.

Q2. What is the difference between managed teams and staff augmentation?

Managed teams are service providers to whom the company gives an entire project, while staff augmentation is temporary hiring to aid your existing in-house team.

Q3. How do you offer staff augmentation services?

You can offer staff augmentation services by providing expert individuals to companies to fulfill particular tasks. This provision is temporary and highly scalable.

Q4. What is another word for staff augmentation?

Staff augmentation is also called team augmentation or staffing augmentation.

Q5. Is staff augmentation prohibited?

Staff augmentation is a legal model.