Is IT Staff Augmentation right for my business?

by Jose Jimenez | Mar 4, 2021 | Staff Augmentation

Think back to moving out of your parent’s house for the first time. You finally got your own apartment and have taken full responsibility for yourself. The idea of moving out is exciting and you cannot wait to start. You are determined to start a new life on your own and think you can do it all by yourself.

Once you get to your newly purchased apartment, you start to shop for furniture and find the perfect couch. You purchase the couch and it finally gets delivered, only to find out that the delivery service only drops it off at the bottom of your apartment complex. Now you are forced to try to drag the couch up three flights of stairs and potentially damage it. This is the time to swallow your pride and call some of your friends to help you move it. This task would have been impossible without them, but that is exactly what friends do for each other. In the workplace, we are often faced with the same types of issues that require an extra hand or two. In order to handle special situations, you should consider augmenting your staff.

The help you need in time of growth

The word augment itself is defined by Webster’s dictionary as, “to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense.” The application of staff augmentation has a very wide scope and fits into many scenarios, but not every situation calls for it. Staff augmentation’s categories are typically broken into the time-frame in which they are working, then into the specific needs for each job. Sometimes the gap in your business only needs to be filled because an employee is on vacation or there is a short increase in demand, this would be an example of a business that needs short-term service. Special projects may require an additional set of hands or a skill that you do not have in-house. This would require medium term service because it is still most likely faster than hiring someone to work for you permanently. We can specify these employees further by breaking them into three new groups: commodity, skill-based, and highly-skilled.

Commodity

These workers are typically needed because you have a shortage of reliable employees and/or you need more hands to complete the task. The commodity worker typically deals in manual labor, warehouse, or retail work. 

Skill-based

These workers need to have more skills than the commodity workers, but usually need to have basic skills to be able to work in an office setting. For example, a basic understanding of excel to handle spreadsheets in a basic skill that can transfer over to most office jobs.

Highly-Skilled

These workers have the highest level of skill and usually have lots of training and would be regarded as professionals. The hiring of these workers is based upon the skills that they have, not their overall usefulness. For example, you may be automating certain aspects of your business that require IT experts. 

Companies are using staff augmentation to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Below are the reasons why you should consider augmenting today:

Bridging to Hire

Staff augmentation is a very efficient way to ease the hiring process. While you are currently looking for a qualified candidate for your empty position, you could use staff augmentation to fill the role until you find a permanent new worker. This allows your company to operate at full efficiency without a permanent full-time employee.

Specialization

Sometimes you run into a temporary problem that does not mandate a new full-time position. For example, if you are rebranding your company you can augment an employee that specializes in logo design and development to do it for you instead of using a current employee that may not be as well-versed in that area. 

Increased Capacity

There are often seasonal demands that require more labor during certain times of the year compared to others. Augmenting staff during this time is faster than hiring someone for them to only come in during those seasons. 

Business Strategy

Building a team to complete a certain task that may be out of your company’s niche can allow you to gain the competitive advantage by increasing time to market or being more agile. 

Understanding the Scope of your Request

Staff Augmentation is optimized when utilized in the right scenarios. Identifying your situation will allow you to make the correct staff augmentation choices.

If your projected project time is under 500 hours (generally considered to be a smaller project), you should consider using a small outsourcing firm. Smaller firms typically have a smaller plethora of workers available and generally come at a lower price. Although the work will be less expensive, the work will not be of less quality. These companies work hard to prove themselves and ensure their quality of workers. 

Larger projects that are projected to take more time will require larger companies and often cost more. These companies have a larger portfolio of previous work and are concrete with their work and its quality. 

Staff Augmentation in Today’s World

There are huge advantages to businesses exercising staff augmentation. For example, old or smaller mom-and-pop shops show great potential from utilizing this service. Hiring outside IT staff to automate a businesses activity can improve profits and reduce hassle. Small shops do not usually have the human capital to perform these acts from within, so using staff augmentation makes their lives much easier. Don’t be intimidated by a system or process you are unfamiliar with. Consider staff augmentation to bring your company to the next level. 

In conclusion, just like when you call the right friends to help you get a task done at home or at play. Staff augmentation is the right choice when it comes to a business savvy decision. This specific service is essential to your business during times of growth while saving you both time and money. Let oAppsNet be your partner and first choice when it comes to building out a great team. Contact us and we can help you get started in the right direction.