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As an organization have you ever been in a situation where you’ve bagged a great project but are facing a shortage of skilled talent required for its execution? We’re fairly sure you have. Whether you are looking for extra hands to accommodate a seasonal workload or require candidates with specific skill sets to complete a project, companies across the globe have reaped the benefits of the staff augmentation model.
Despite the outlook on the staff augmentation model being expensive, it is quite cost-efficient compared to the traditional staffing method, especially for companies with a limited budget and cannot afford to hire permanent staff when a project situation or a workload situation arises.
Staff Augmentation Meaning
The staff augmentation process allows organizations to hire skilled candidates from outside for a certain period to fit their requirements. It is one of the most effective to acquire skilled individuals swiftly, on a short-term basis to accommodate an organization’s project needs, to handle seasonal workload, better customer satisfaction, or a sudden boost in development needs and consumer demands.
However, with the skilled talent shortage looming over us, it isn’t all that easy to find skilled candidates to fill roles in organizations.
What is the Staff Augmentation Process?
Staff Augmentation involves outsourcing the hiring process to a third-party staffing agency. The staffing agency then sources, assesses, and hires experienced, skilled professionals to work in your organization on-site or remotely with your existing team as per requirements. The staff augmentation process typically involves the following steps-
- The client organization must identify the number of staff they need, the skills required, and the project timelines
- Once the needs are established, look for a reputed staffing agency specializing in staff augmentation
- Your choice of staffing agency will then understand your staffing requirements and provide you with a list of candidates that match your requirements post the process of attracting, sourcing, and assessing the candidates.
- You can interview the shortlisted candidates and choose the one that best fits your needs.
- Once you onboard them, you can start by giving them a brief of your expectations from them and their role in the project as well as provide them with the resources they require for the task at hand.
- In the final step, you evaluate the performance of the augmented staff by the staffing agency and provide them with feedback that can help improve their staff augmentation services.
What are the Benefits of Staff Augmentation?
Let’s take a look at the benefits of staff augmentation services and how it can help your organization find the best candidates and boost company productivity.
1. Save costs without affecting the quality of work
Many times, you may find a shortage of workers, but you only require them for a specific period and not permanently. In such cases hiring temporary staff via staff augmentation is much more cost-efficient than hiring full-time employees. Hiring augmented staff on a short-term basis can save you a ton of human resources in recruiting, interviewing, and training staff.
Augmented staff are professionals who are experienced, so they do not need a lot of training. Another significant cost saving is the overheads that businesses would have to otherwise spend like office space, hardware, and other infrastructure. You only pay them on a contract basis for a specific project hence reducing other employee expenses like
- Benefits
- Tax expenses
- Health insurance
- Retirement benefits
- Commute
- Social security
2. Access to an experienced pool of candidates
When you hire candidates permanently, often, there is a certain level of training you must provide them with to seamlessly integrate them into your organization. But with staff augmentation services you get access to professional, trained, skilled candidates who are ready to work on your project as soon as they come on board. They do not need any prior training most time. With the staff augmentation model, you get specific talent that can result in greater productivity.
Another advantage is as the employer, you’ll have peace of mind after assigning tasks to the augmented staff as they need not overlook their work because they are talented professionals who understand how to work on the given tasks. With minimum time and cost, you yield more results from the augmented staff.
3. High Scalability
Staff augmentation is the best solution for small-scale and medium-sized businesses to help keep within their budget in terms of recruitment solutions and achieve high productivity. Why so? Small-scale firms usually have to change workforce requirements but must work on a limited budget, unlike large-scale corporations. With staff augmentation services the small-scale industries need not invest in a full workforce but still acquire the talent they need and work at full steam and achieve their goals.
4. Better control over a company
High operational costs can be disastrous for startups and small businesses, especially when they have yet to achieve a desirable return on investment. At this stage, hiring full-time internal teams can boost productivity but also significantly increase expenses, presenting a dilemma for businesses.
To address this challenge, staff augmentation offers a solution by enhancing operational efficiency while reducing costs. You don’t need to allocate tasks to permanent staff or continuously provide training to upskill them. This approach saves time and effort in team management and gives you better control over your company’s operations.
5. Fresh new perspectives
While a full-time worker does bring more stability as they intend to stay long-term with the organization, with time it can get quite challenging to nurture innovation or push new ideas through with the same people.
Staff augmentation presents you with individuals who are not just skilled professionals but also hail from diverse backgrounds with unique experiences. Naturally, they are bound to bring in a fresh perspective and foster creativity in the team which can be a game changer for your projects. Also, organizations must remember that a third person allows you to assess your situation better without any pre biases resulting in innovative ideas and operational efficiencies.
6. Better project planning and execution
Most times, poor project planning, undefined objectives, and no proper project timelines are the reasons why a project fails. With staff augmentation services you can quickly hire a team of skilled professionals with the exact talent and skill sets the project needs. It also helps that the augmented staff would have prior experience in managing, completing, and giving updates from time to time on the work progress ensuring quality work and completion.
The right staff-augmented team working on a project promotes productivity, enhances execution, and contributes to better resource management.
7. Result Centric
Staff augmentation offers an ideal, result-oriented approach compared to other staffing models. It is especially beneficial if you need additional talent for a specific project, whether due to skill gaps or tight deadlines.
- The company you outsource the staff augmentation services to handles all the tasks right from implementation to delivery yet allows you to have control over the team.
- You can easily track the progress of the augmented employees from time to time
- You get to work with professionals who take full responsibility for deliver the best outcomes.
This approach allows for better management of the work process and close monitoring of the team. It also helps reduce risks by shifting responsibility to the augmented talents, rather than relying solely on the existing experience of your current staff.
The numerous benefits of staff augmentation make it a powerful tool for enhancing flexibility and scalability, enabling companies to adapt to ever-changing market trends and internal shifts. By leveraging the right professionals through staff augmentation, filling vacancies, and acquiring necessary skills become more efficient, as it bypasses the time-consuming processes of sourcing, onboarding, training, and retention.
Looking for the Best Staff Augmentation Services?
Alp Consulting has helped companies of all sizes, regardless of the nature of the industry with exceptional staff augmentation services. If you are looking for top-notch staff augmentation services in India to boost capacity while being cost-efficient, we have got you covered. With years of experience in the staffing industry we house some of the best recruiters in the industry. With a thorough screening process, they ensure you get the best talents for your needs and provide you with tailored staff augmentation solutions that will result in greater productivity for your organization.