A comprehensive guide on staff augmentation
Manpower staffing is no less than a balancing act for any organization. On the one hand, over-staffing can burden the company, while, on the other hand, staff shortage can make the current staff overworked and burned out.
Thus, to fill the gap in the workforce, many organizations are inclining towards one reliable and cost-effective solution – Staff augmentation. To meet the customers’ specific demands, the organizations are intended to stay prepared to deliver the expected and unexpected.
Staff augmentation focuses on an innovative approach to fill the job positions, either temporarily or permanently, without any extra expenses. Moreover, as the organizations aren’t limited within geographical boundaries, they can find the talent and assign the desired tasks.
Staff augmentation is becoming increasingly dynamic by the day. Let’s get deep into its root to understand the process and how it can boost your team’s productivity.
What is staff augmentation?
In simple words, staff augmentation is the process of hiring talented niche specialist candidates for the organization to fulfill a specific need and requirement. Unlike traditional hiring, the augmented staffing services are temporary.
It just fills an evident staffing gap on a contractual basis to maintain the productivity and quality of work without burdening the existing employees. Staff augmentation is a big hit amongst various businesses and startups as it helps to prevent spending budget on hiring full-time employee resources for a short period of time.
Difference between freelancing, outsourcing, and staff augmentation:
From a broader point of view, the concepts may appear similar as they all aim to get a talented resource on board without harming the workflow. However, when zoomed, the key differences are quite visible.
1.Staff augmentation vs. freelancing:
Though freelancing is closely related to staff augmentation, the two services differ in accountability, attitude, competency, cost, project size, integrity, and work dependency.
- Augmented staff is hired from a reliable employment agency like Mount Talent Consulting, under a contract, which can be held accountable for their performance, deliveries and price. On the other hand, freelancers work individually and are accountable to themselves.
- Augmented staff is more or less dependent on the company’s directions for their work, similar to the in-house staff. Talking about freelancers, they are known for independent working after all the instructions are provided to them.
2.Staff augmentation vs. outsourcing:
Another term that is closely related to staff augmentation is outsourcing. It is not a new term, and many reputed organizations rely on it for their needs.
In simple words, outsourcing is the act of bestowing the complete responsibility of executing and managing a project on the chosen 3rd party. This helps the organization to focus on other equally important tasks.
- The basic difference between staff augmentation and outsourcing is that you hardly get control of how the outsourced company is executing your idea in an outsourced process. You are only handed the final desired result.
On the other hand, the augmented staff is an extended part of your organizational team. The augmented staff is more or less oriented towards the company’s culture and vision to maintain maximum transparency.
Types of staff augmentation:
When planning to opt for staff augmentation, it is important to understand its various types:
- Commodity staff augmentation – you need staff, without any specific skill set, to perform the required task
- Skill-based staff augmentation – you require staff with certain specific skills; however, the relative skill level is not much critical
- Highly-skilled staff augmentation –you require staff with specialized skills attained using training. Also, the relative skill level is important
What are the different types of staff augmentation services?
Staff augmentation services are mainly of 2 types –
- Long-term staff augmentation – you need augmented staff for a long period of time
- Short-term staff augmentation – you need augmented staff for a few weeks or a couple of months
| Long-term staff augmentation (when to hire) | Short-term staff augmentation (when to hire) |
| To fulfill the skill gap for a specific project | To accommodate extended work during the peak season |
| To balance long staff requirements | To compensate employees on leaves |
| To cut the overhead operational cost | To get skilled staff for employees on vacation |
The step-by-step process flow of staff augmentation:
Finding the right talent using staff augmentation may appear tough, but it is quite simple. Staff augmentation focuses on a systemic planning and strategic approach to recruit a specialist according to the organization’s needs and requirements.
The complete process flow of staff augmentation is divided into 4 simple steps –
1.Understanding your requirements:
Before beginning the hunt for the right talent, it is important to understand your requirements thoroughly. Knowing what your organization needs will help narrow the search to only the talented candidates.
2.Search and interview:
Once the requirements are clear, the main process of staff augmentation begins. One of the most trusted and reliable ways to proceed with staff augmentation needs is approaching the staffing services of an experienced brand like Mount Talent Consulting.
The staffing agency focuses on searching and interviewing the shortlisted candidates in this step. This step helps the organization get a better idea about the candidates’ qualifications, orientation, skills, and experience to assure their eligibility.
3.Onboarding:
After a candidate is selected, the next step concerns his onboarding formalities. The new team member is introduced to the existing team to learn about the company’s value and processes.
This step is crucial as it ensures that the selected candidate aligns with the organization’s vision. The candidate may be an expert in their field, but it is still needed to settle and be comfortable with the office environment.
4.Continuous support:
After successfully integrating the new member with the in-house team, the final step is to offer continuous support. Focus on the feedback opportunities which can be relied on for improvements and better productivity. It is also important to strengthen the relationship of a new member with the organization.
What are the benefits of staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation attracts many benefits; some of them are as follow –
1.Flexible recruitment:
Staff augmentation is one reliable way to reduce the headcounts within the organization while enhancing the extra hands as and when needed. This helps maintain a much-needed balance between the existing employees and the workload.
Augmented staff can quickly be added to different projects to enhance productivity and add value.
2.Reduced time on recruitment:
Planning and executing a recruitment activity within the organization consumes a lot of the organization’s resources and time. Staff augmentation can save this time that the organization can use on something equally important.
When you choose staff augmentation, finding the experienced and talented manpower staffing is on the staffing agency.
3.Low operational cost:
Staff augmentation is one of the best ways to save the incurred cost of full-time hiring and operational cost. The augmented staff is paid only on a project basis; thus, the full-time perks and additional benefits can be avoided. This ensures minimizing the operational cost to a large extent.
4.Better project control:
Unlike outsourcing and freelancing, staff augmentation ensures better and focused project control. Since the augmented staff works oriented with the organization’s vision and perspective, there is complete control of all the project parameters.
It goes without saying that with better control, the quality and outcome of the project are beneficial for the organization.
5.Better management of talent:
Since the augmented staff is a talented and experienced professional, the organization can easily manage the responsibilities and tasks. It assures that the desired task will be assigned to the right candidate.
6.Access to talented experts:
Staff augmentation doesn’t limit recruitment within the local pool of talented experts; instead, they go global. After identifying the existing skill gaps, the employment agency focusing on staff augmentation can leverage the best talents.
The industry experts recruited using staff augmentation requires minimal training time and effort, boosting the project’s performance and productivity.
Possible drawbacks of staff augmentation:
Just like the 2-sides of the coins, staff augmentation also has certain drawbacks with its amazing benefits. Care enough to know?
- You require time and effort for orienting the augmented professional within your organization; be it just for a shorter period of time
- Augmented staff may be an expert, but they might require specific training
- There is a slight risk of discomfort between the organization and augmented professional
- Even after recruiting the augmented professional, it is your responsibility of using his talents as required
Conclusion:
Staff augmentation is important for any organization to respond to its changing needs actively. It can be relied on to maintain a flexible and scalable talent tool for consistent and continuous workflow and productivity. We hope this article will help you understand what staff augmentation is and how it can help your organization. If you need any other information related to staff augmentation, contact us in the comment section.
Manpower staffing is no less than a balancing act for any organization. On the one hand, over-staffing can burden the…