The Importance of Staff Augmentation for Companies

Did you know that most businesses will only last around 2 years before they finally fail? Businesses fail for a variety of reasons, but one of the more prominent reasons has to do with a lack of staff augmentation. If you think that your company’s staff is less than ideal, an augmented staff may be exactly what you need.

But what exactly is staff augmentation and how can it be so beneficial to a tech staff or IT staff? Keep reading and learn more about how this unique practice works and what it can do for you.

Staff augmentation is actually quite a simple process. It mainly consists of adding new employees to your existing staff. But why would you do this, you might ask?

There are several important reasons why this might be a good choice for your company. For example, suppose that your staff is working on a big software project but you find that, at a certain point, the production speed is slower than what you would prefer. You may also find that your current staff is overworked because they have to take on very large workloads in order to hit the necessary quotas or deadlines.

In this case, it’s obvious that your staff is not large enough to tackle such a large project. Having a staff that is too small for a certain project will only slow down productivity and quality. But when you add some new employees to the mix, you can easily fix this problem.

But won’t you have to train the new employees and get them caught up with the current project? Not if you follow the route of staff augmentation. While staff augmentation does involve adding new employees to your existing staff, it only adds a special type of employee.

Specifically, you won’t have to waste time training these employees or getting them caught up because they are adaptable enough to show up and start working at virtually any stage of development. Besides that, these employees are usually temporary. This is because you won’t be hiring these employees in the old-fashioned way you might be used to.

Instead, you would get these employees from an outside source to help your current staff with the project at hand. Once the project is taken care of and your usual staff can handle the responsibilities as usual again, then those temporary employees can leave. That way, you can have an extra pair of helping hands when you really need them and you can part with them once your regular staff has a handle on things again.

As you can imagine, staff augmentation can be very helpful in a variety of different situations. More and more companies are starting to use staff augmentation because they see how useful it is and how it can save them plenty of time and money. But what else should you know about staff augmentation and what are the pros and cons?

There are more pros and cons of staff augmentation than you might expect.

You can explore them in the list below.

One of the biggest benefits that you can experience when you try staff augmentation is that you can save money. This may sound counterintuitive. After all, you have to pay for additional employees to come and work on your project, so how can you save money?

Keep in mind that when you hire augmented staff that the staff isn’t the same as your regular employees. You will only need to pay the staff for as long as they work on your project. Once that’s done, you won’t need to pay them anymore and they’ll be on their way.

In some cases, you might only need to pay your augmented staff for a day or two of work before your regular staff can take the reins again. Besides that, with the help of an augmented staff, you won’t need to hire as many regular employees. This, of course, will also save you quite a lot of money.

But this is not the only benefit of hiring an augmented staff.

The other immediate benefit you will have is that you will have plenty of access to highly-experienced workers. If you find that your current employees are having some trouble dealing with a particular project, all you need to do is augment your staff and bring in some workers who are more experienced and more skilled in whatever problem you need to solve.

This will ensure that your workflow moves as quickly and smoothly as possible. That way, the resulting product can hit the market without wasting any time. Plus, bringing in some new temporary employees can provide solutions to problems that your other employees may not have even thought of.

But what about the cons of hiring an augmented staff? As with anything in life, you will have to deal with the benefits as well as the downsides. Fortunately, staff augmentation doesn’t have that many downsides.

The main con that you’ll need to deal with is the lack of internal knowledge among your augmented staff. When you bring in temporary workers from an outside source, they’re not going to know that much about how your operation usually works. You may need to waste a bit of time showing these workers the ropes before they can get started.

You won’t have to spend too much time on this since augmented workers are meant to be very adaptable and flexible. Another downside has to do with the cost.

While we have seen how staff augmentation can save you money, this is only the case in the short term.

If you use an augmented staff for a long period of time, this will, on the contrary, cost you more money than usual. For that reason, you’ll have to balance out your priorities and figure out what factors are more important to you and the success of your company.

Now that you know all about staff augmentation as well as its pros and cons, you might be wondering if it is the right choice for you and your company. To answer this question, you will have to reflect on the flow of your business and how well it functions on a regular basis. If you find that your business and your staff members are always on top of even the most difficult projects, then you might not need to bother with an augmented staff.

But if you instead find that your staff is often struggling with larger projects or that they are slowing down production due to problems they keep coming across, it may be a very good idea to hire an augmented staff. Remember that an augmented staff is only a temporary fix.

These temporary employees are only to give a boost to your regular staff and once your regular staff gets everything back on track, those temporary workers can leave.

There are also more specific scenarios in which it may be a good idea to hire some temporary workers. For example, if you plan on developing an app that requires new technology that your current staff isn’t very familiar with, it would be a good idea to hire more specialized temporary workers to help with that project.

That way, you can enjoy the extra expertise that these workers have to offer without having to hire them full-time. Another good example of hiring an augmented staff is when your company is in the middle of a peak production period. During such a peak, it can be difficult for your usual staff to keep up with all the demands and fast-paced work that is required.

To fix this problem, all you need to do is toss in some temporary employees to help. Even if you just hire a few, these few extra hands can make everything a lot easier for your entire staff so that your workflow can get back on track. Whatever the case, there are many instances in which hiring an augmented staff is a great idea.

Staff augmentation is something that has become extremely popular among companies in recent years. It simply involves hiring some temporary workers to help out your current staff so that your company can maintain its productivity and speed, even during peak times of the year.

To learn more about staff augmentation, contact us here.