Many software companies these days are engaging in staff augmentation or contingent staffing. Staff augmentation is adding staff to augment a company’s personnel capacity. Companies that want to employ only a few long-term employees will often utilize staff augmentation for large projects. Software companies need to know as much as possible about staff augmentation to use the strategy correctly and get the best returns.
Difference Between Staff Augmentation and Outsourcing
When most managers hear about staff augmentation, they confuse it with outsourcing. Outsourcing is the process of hiring external labor to perform various business tasks. Staff augmentation differs from outsourcing mainly because the former involves bringing staff in, whereas the latter involves hiring external staff.
Moreover, with staff augmentation, a company retains complete control over a project, which it typically cedes when outsourcing. However, there is a gray area as a firm can hire another firm to provide the staff for augmentation while still retaining control over the project. This stuff is hybrid staffing, a middle-ground between the two processes.
Benefits of Staff Augmentation
There are several benefits to a company augmenting its staff, including:
Cost Effective
Contingent staffing is cheap and cost-effective, increasing a company’s profitability. Augmenting the staff is more affordable than outsourcing as the companies can charge high fees despite the cheap labor. Contingent staffing also saves money by not hiring employees and paying them year-round. You only pay them when you need their work.
Skill Supplementation
You may be involved in a project where you only need various skills, and your employees do not have them. Contingent staffing can ensure you get the necessary skill supplementation without hiring new employees. Moreover, specialized skills like those are often provided by freelancers, which makes the staffing favorable to your firm as you may not get the skills otherwise.
Quicker Results
Staff augmentation provides a speed edge for completing software development projects. Your staff may be able to complete the project, but you can do it faster by hiring additional personnel and speeding up the process. When you have a faster turnaround with the same results, you get more jobs that you complete immediately, and so on.
Better Quality
By hiring contingent staff, you may get skills you could otherwise not get. You will bring experts from other fields that you can only employ for a while. Therefore, the project will likely be of higher quality than if you did it alone.
Why You Need Staff Augmentation
Software companies must determine why and when they need contingent hiring. If a company is drastically growing and taking on ever more demanding projects, augmenting the staff for large projects is an excellent idea. Firms can hence quickly increase production or complete a task they would otherwise be unable to.
You may also hire extra personnel if you need to gain the requisite skills for a particular project at the firm. Experts may prefer to work as freelancers, or employing them may be impossible. You can hire them on a contingent basis until you finish a product or project.
Contingent hiring is often the best choice if you need extra people on a project but still want to retain control over it. Outsourcing the work to a foreign company may be cheaper, but more is required to guarantee high-quality results. Control is the primary reason for augmenting the staff and utilizing the process.
What Is An Augmentation Engineer?
An augmentation engineer is a professional who specializes in contingent hiring for companies. They will evaluate a company and determine its staff augmentation needs. The engineer will then find the best personnel to complete the work according to the firm’s capacity. Every company that wants to do contingent hiring should consider an augmentation engineer.
Contingent hiring can help software development companies in several ways. There are benefits to staff augmentation if you have good reasons to do it. An augmentation engineer will be beneficial for augmenting the staff. Consider your company’s augmentation needs and determine whether you need it for a project.
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