IT Staff Augmentation Made Simple: How It Works and Why Businesses Use It

Reduce IT Costs Without Sacrificing Quality

External IT teams are a great, cost-effective additional asset to your in-house team. A third-party allows you to skip the traditional recruiting process, which is often time-consuming and expensive, and provides the training, benefits, and salaries. They also give you access to specialized talents immediately. What’s even better is that you only need to pay for the services you use, so the team can easily budget for the current and upcoming projects.

Scale Your Team Up or Down Instantly

Growing quickly and receiving new projects consistently is good news. The downside of this, however, is that it’s hard to keep up with customer demands. Sometimes, you don’t have sufficient human power to handle all the project requirements.

In these scenarios, IT staff augmentation services are the ideal solution. Gone are the days of scrambling to hire the right staff in time, while managing complex projects. Staff augmentation services can fill in the gaps almost instantly. In other cases, they can fill in places when an employee is absent from the workplace for a long time.

The third party can also handle the opposite situation. Let’s say your workload decreases and you need to downsize the team. The provider will take care of all the hassle involving offboarding for you.

Access Hard-to-Find Specialized Skills

There are times when a project requires specific skill sets. Finding a niche talent can be challenging, like looking for a grain of sand on the beach. With staff augmentation services, you get immediate access to a global talent pool. Your project will be able to kickstart right away without any unwanted delays.

Improve Project Transparency and Control

Instead of completely handing over a project to a service provider, staff augmentation gives you full transparency and control. Letting an external team, sometimes an offshore team, handle the project can cause concerns regarding data security, communication, or quality deliverables.

This model gives you complete control over the product or service the team is developing to ensure the best outcome.

Lower Risks with Flexible Hiring

Lastly, let’s assume you landed a new client. You want to hire immediately to increase the available resources, but are unsure if the client will still be around. Why not let staff augmentation fill in that temporary gap for you? You only pay for the services you use, and the new staff members can easily offboard should the partnership not work out.

On-Demand Staff Augmentation

In this staff augmentation model, businesses hire contract workers or employees to fill in the workforce gaps temporarily.

Let’s say your company is going through a new project with temporarily increased demands for human power, but the timeline doesn’t allow space for an entire recruitment process. This is when you turn to on-demand staff augmentation.

Skill-based IT professionals

Your workforce might meet current workload demands, but specific skill sets are missing for an upcoming project. Recruiting someone with that specific skill isn’t impossible, but it can take up to months, especially when the said skills are niche. This is when you can utilize another model of staff augmentation, which is the skill-based model.

Imagine there is a software development project for a finance company coming up. Instead of looking for a candidate who has worked with such a specific project before, just reach out to outsourcing companies and have access to skilled professionals in an instant.

Project-based Augmentation

On the surface, this type of staff augmentation is similar to the on-demand model. However, in this model, there is a specific timeframe for the temporary staff members – the duration of a project. This allows firms to hire talent based on project workloads without long-term commitments.

Remote Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation doesn’t have to take place locally – it can happen anywhere. Remote staff augmentation lets companies hire skilled professionals from anywhere in the world, removing geographical barriers. With modern communication and collaboration tools, businesses can seamlessly integrate remote talent into their existing teams. This model is especially valuable for tech startups that often lack the budget or office space for a full in-house team.

Hybrid IT Professionals

The last mention on this list utilizes the best of both worlds – both on-site and remote IT staff members. If communication and data security issues concern you, on-site dedicated IT staff can perform core tasks while remote IT staff perform other, less security-sensitive ones. This model can work with an existing in-house IT team, or you can reach out to a fully augmented team that works both on-site and remotely.

Close Workforce Gaps Faster

One of the top benefits of staff augmentation is quickly filling the gap in the IT workforce. Whether it’s long-term, short-term, or based on specific skill sets, you can rest assured that almost all of your needs are met. This isn’t merely about convenience, but the staff augmented models solve the very real problem of IT talent shortage. According to Deloitte, even with over 150,000 tech layoffs in the US since early 2023, companies are still grappling with a shortage of technical talent. Nearly 9 in 10 tech leaders cite recruiting and retaining skilled workers as a major challenge, especially for roles requiring specialized expertise.

Pay Only for What You Need

Having several types of staff augmentation models to choose from means businesses can budget accordingly. The costs for a temporary extension of staff are consistent and predictable, resulting in long-term savings without compromising quality.

Maintain Control Over Your Projects

One significant advantage staff augmentation holds over other forms of outsourcing is the ability to oversee the entire project in-house. Instead of taking a hands-off approach and potentially facing issues regarding communication or data leaks, you have full control and influence over the project’s current process and outcome. Still, it is worth mentioning that most problems can be overcome with the right approach and rules set very early on.

Speed Up Project Timelines

The clearest time savings from staff augmentation come during the recruiting process. There is no need to spend time creating job postings, interviewing candidates or preparing paperwork for onboarding. In addition, augmented staff typically bring strong expertise, often contributing strategies to enhance efficiency and boost productivity.

Support Innovation with Expert Skills

Bringing in external IT talent provides your team with the boost it needs to try new ideas and move more quickly. Whether it’s a developer, engineer, or security expert, these professionals bring fresh skills that help you test, build, and innovate without slowing down. You get the right expertise at the right time, without the long-term commitment.

Ensuring Cultural Fit

Sudden additions to existing teams can lead to resistance, which is a natural response. The differences in work patterns or communication can lead to temporary disruption to the familiar cohesion, resulting in misunderstandings and even hurt morale.

• Tip: Organize workshops to exchange cultural differences. Hold training sessions between team members to narrow any skill gaps. Encourage open communication to reach mutual respect in a diverse team. Have regular check-ins with team members and celebrate small wins.

Protecting Data Security

Integrating a third-party into a project raises security risks, such as data breaches or misuse of confidential data. The consequences can be detrimental; a company’s reputation might be destroyed, and there might even be legal and financial consequences.

• Tip: Establish security measurements from the get-go. Have the augmented staff sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and make sure they adhere to it. Make sure you have strict security management procedures in place and strictly control access to information. Lastly, regular training sessions should be held for employees to make sure they are aware of the best security practices.

Overcoming Communication Barriers

Communication is key. Still, communication gaps happen, especially when you are trying to integrate an external team. Misunderstandings, misinterpretations and assumptions lead to missed deadlines, late deliverables, and unnecessary complications. Lacking real-time updates is another problem – one team member might be working on an outdated request, as they weren’t kept in the loop.

• Tip: Establish central communication tools and channels, like Slack or Microsoft Teams to keep every team member in the loop. In addition, schedule regular check-ins, have clear expectations and deadlines, while also fostering a culture of transparency.

Quality Assurance with External Staffing

Even working with a credible company sometimes doesn’t guarantee consistent, high-quality deliverables. You might struggle with reliable and consistent oversight over the external staff. It is almost inevitable that there will be a variety in the level of capability, attention to detail, and compliance with company standards. Without reliable feedback loops, augmented staff may not be able to realize that there is a performance gap.

• Tip: Set clear expectations at the beginning with KPIs and benchmarks. Track milestones and progress, and establish regular feedback loops to see if employees meet the expectations. Lastly, encourage open communication and foster a culture where employees aren’t afraid to ask when there are doubts.

Keep Costs Under Control

Staff augmentation can save costs, but poor planning often leads to overspending. Hidden onboarding costs, misaligned budgets, and scope creep are the biggest culprits.

Tips: Make a comprehensive budget and take into account all the potential costs. Thoroughly discuss with your provider all the crucial terms, including costs relating to physical space, employee salaries (often covered by the provider), utilities, etc. Keep track of the expenses in real-time and make timely adjustments.

Staff Augmentation Vs. Project-based Delivery

Staff augmentation gives you extra help while you stay in charge of the work. Project-based delivery, on the other hand, is outcome-driven. You hand over a defined scope to the vendor, and they deliver end-to-end under a set timeline and budget. This model works best for projects with clear requirements and firm deadlines, like migrations or system rebuilds.

Staff Augmentation Vs. Offshore Development Centers

With an offshore development center (ODC), the vendor handles everything from hiring and office space to equipment and setup, then hands it over to you to manage as part of your organization. No need to go through all the hassle of setting up an entire office branch in a different country; let the service provider handle this for you. This service is a long-term investment compared to the flexibility of staff augmentation.

Staff Augmentation Vs. Dedicated Software Development Team

At first, staff augmentation and dedicated teams may seem similar, but the difference lies in who manages the talent. With staff augmentation, you oversee the developers directly, while a dedicated team reports to the vendor. Salary reviews, benefits, and daily oversight fall on the vendor’s side, making it a better fit for companies that prefer less hands-on management.