STAFF AUGMENTATION: WAYS TO SCALE UP YOUR BUSINESS WITH STAFF AUGMENTATION

When IT companies scale up their business, the biggest challenge they face is finding the right talent. After all, putting the perfect team in place is as critical for success as having a high-selling product or a flawless business model.

Modern technology companies have non-static IT needs and falling behind the innovation curve can have costly outcomes. To stay ahead of today’s rapidly evolving customer expectations and business requirements, enterprises need easy and ready access to experienced manpower who specialize in the latest technologies. If organizations don’t have a talent pool waiting to meet their tech work requirements, it can lead to project delays and negative ROI. IT staff augmentation services are emerging as a tailor-made solution that is enabling IT companies to stay on the road to growth without facing any talent glitches.

Staff augmentation solutions allow enterprises to add the right talent to their teams, based on the skill requirements of their projects. It’s emerging as a sure-shot way to ramp up your talent bank to meet changing work demands, without having to take on the costs and liabilities of adding full-time employees. Staff augmentation services enable enterprises to save costs, deliver projects on time, and become future-ready with a skilled workforce.

Why Staff Augmentation services are Gaining Traction

Organizations can expand their team by either deploying traditional in-house hiring or opting for the services of a staff augmentation company. In-house hiring has some glaring pain points:

• The hiring process can be long and tiresome.
• As the technology landscape changes rapidly, a company’s talent needs also keep evolving.
• Hiring is an expensive process.
• Talent is difficult to find and enterprises can’t find the right-fit talent.
• Companies have to grapple with a growing global attrition rate.

Given the many challenges that in-house hiring has started to pose for IT enterprises, staff augmentation services are emerging as a faster and easier alternative for many new-age businesses.

When are Staff Augmentation solutions the right answer for you?

As your business grows, there will be many growth indicators pointing towards a need to expand your workforce quickly, with the right talent, to ensure your organization scales seamlessly. Let’s run through some key criteria:

• You have a team of developers but are looking to expand the squad as new projects are coming in.
• You are developing a new tech product that requires specialized skills from your workforce. If this skilled manpower is not available in the area where you operate, staff augmentation solutions help you reach the right people anywhere across the world.
• You have outsourced a project to a third-party company and do not have any direct contact with the team to ensure they are aligned with your business. This issue is easily resolved with staff augmentation solutions, as your team now reports directly to you.
• Your organization has grown to unprecedented heights and the sudden growth spurt means you are missing project deadlines due to staff shortage. Staff augmentation services can help you meet your talent needs in a quick time.
• You are increasing your product offerings and going global. You need to add more members to your team across different geographies. Staff augmentation companies help you hire talent in any part of the world.

Making Staff Augmentation Services Work for your Business

With staff augmentation, businesses can add a remote team that acts as an extension of their in-house team. Here are some steps to make staff augmentation work seamlessly for your business:

• Know your requirements

Do a thorough stock-taking of the manpower requirements in your enterprises. Unless you know what specific talent you are looking for, you will not be able to add the right, competent members to your team. For instance, if you are looking for mobile app developers, do you need a Flutter, React Native, or a Xamarin expert? It’s also important to note the time period of your requirement – whether you need them on a temporary or long-term basis.

• Connect with a staff augmentation company

Once your business is clear about its talent requirements, you can contact a suitable staff augmentation company that provides the resources that your company needs. The company will then shortlist candidates who are best suited for your roles and send you their work portfolios for whetting. You can conduct interviews and pick the people who you feel are a top fit for you.

• Onboarding of the new team

Once all formalities like signing the contract and the non-disclosure agreement are complete, it’s time for a full-scale onboarding. This can be done either virtually or on-premise and helps the new team members understand your business and work in tandem with their colleagues from the in-house team.

• Scale-up, scale down as per your project needs

When you take up the services of a staff augmentation company, you get instant access to a bench of skilled and qualified developers, who you can hire on an as-per-need basis. When you get new projects, you can scale up easily and quickly.

How to Maximize the Efficiency of Staff Augmentation Services

Staff augmentation solutions help organizations hire talent on an as-per-need basis and also empower them to manage their workforce directly. This outsourcing model offers many benefits to businesses, making it a popular resourcing option across the world. However, there are certain measures that enterprises must take to ensure that the benefits of Staff Augmentation are realized to the fullest. Here are some best practices that companies must follow:

• Define your expectations clearly and candidly: One of the biggest roadblocks that organizations face while working with remote teams is a lack of clarity in relaying the objectives of the company. So communicate your expectations clearly and in no uncertain terms to gain the most out of your resourced team.

• Use effective collaboration and communication tools: Effective communication and seamless collaboration between all team members ensure that work is done faster and smoother and project deadlines are achieved. When one part of a team works remotely, it becomes imperative for organizations to deploy the right communication tools – like VoIP-powered phone systems – to make it easier for their employees to stay connected.

• Document everything: Every small and big task, work assignment, and progress on a project must be documented. When everything is on paper, it increases the accountability and performance of your team members.

• Organize a daily huddle: It’s always a good idea to meet your team face-to-face to discuss the daily progress. You stay turned into the way your project is shaping up and it increases engagement with your team members.

Scale your team to scale your business

If you are looking at growing your business, the first step you will need to take is to build a perfect team. And staff augmentation can play a huge role in helping you put together a team that is made up of experts who are capable of delivering your projects on time. What’s more, you can set up remote teams that suit your work requirements in every way – be it time, talent, or a commitment to deliver on time.