Staff augmentation has gained importance since COVID-19 hit. Now, remote work and more flexible work arrangements are the new normal. Additionally, we have found that staff augmentation is more than a recruitment strategy to achieve goals. In fact, it’s part of a needed adaptation to provide flexibility, cost reductions, and client and employee satisfaction based on indicators of success while also making the business more effective.
WHAT IS STAFF AUGMENTATION?
Staff augmentation is a business process outsourcing strategy based on hiring external resources to meet needs at specific times. This includes counting on talent to fill the gaps associated with high-demand seasons, product/service launchings, or completing projects.
Among the benefits to hiring these services, there’s an increase in team capabilities and specialisation along with performance improvements. Global Workplace Analytics collected some interesting data from remote teams based on 4,000 studies, reports, and articles from all over the world. There’s a continually increasing trend in remote team productivity of about 35-40%.
From its survey of 1,200 people, FlexJobs (2021) found that professionals felt more productive given fewer interruptions, quieter and more comfortable work environments, more focused time, and reduced or avoidable office politics. Despite some major losses and worldwide economic challenges, organisations like JD Edwards (20-25%), American Express (43%), Compaq (15-45%) and countries like Australia (from 8% to 40%) increased their productivity in 2021.
By counting on outsourcing strategies, you can also start seeing some reductions in the cost and time of delivery. The operational and administrative costs derived from workplace equipment, work benefits, and training are lower given that the provider is the one who carries them.
Instead, you’ll just be focused on explaining to the remote teams the project and business requirements that you want to work on. This will allow you to focus on core business activities and expand into other areas as you have all your needs covered. This will mean that your staff won’t have to take additional workloads, which can also reduce their stress levels and increase their engagement and satisfaction with your company.
Counting on a staff augmentation company as a partner will also reduce blockers and timeouts during recruitment, which makes up most of the hiring talent allowing you to speed up the process; so, you just need to complete the final stages of interviews and selection. The partner you choose will further ensure that you’ll find a quality candidate for you in addition to handling payroll matters. In this strategy, the work modality is based on hours, but with the advantage of a business that supports this type of hiring.
Unlike other outsourcing strategies, with this method, you’ll be the manager of the team. This requires minimum integration with your business culture to deliver products and services as your own company would. In fact, Statista (2021) mentioned that outsourcing strategies like staff augmentation (6.6% in Europe, Middle East, and Africa; 6.3% in Americas; 5.8% in Africa) and managed services (9.6% in Americas; 7.8% in Europe, Middle East, and Africa; 7.6% in Africa), continues to grow.
Staff augmentation then offers you a scaling model that depends on your current needs and not on forecasted scenarios, in which you’ll need more hands to complete these set activities. Additionally, the flexibility afforded here helps you focus on processes instead of just results to enhance your performance.
As an initial step, you should review your business goals in terms of time and tasks. While reducing time will allow you to invest in other critical areas or prioritise activities that lead to scaling your operations, accounting tasks and their business impact will help you reevaluate some of the things that can really bring value to your organisation.
Overall, this suggests developing a more agile mindset in which you and your team are open to continually analysing inputs, outcomes, and delivery values to make the most of the opportune changes. Standups and flexible methods of establishing strategies are just some of the actions that lead to these practices.
Now, if there are other needs that are not being covered as well as talent gaps, redefining resources in terms of high skill-set extra hands could be an appropriate approach. The idea is to receive fresh feedback and put effort where it is needed to enhance processes alongside growing in results.
RESOURCE AND STAFF AUGMENTATION CHALLENGES POST PANDEMIC
Worldwide outsourcing market represented $92.5 billion pre-pandemic (Statista; 2022). However, during COVID-19, the staff augmentation industry grew to $132.9 billion. This is because of changes in work modalities, an increased need for outsourcing recruitment, among other reasons.
Then there’s an expected up in worldwide talent demand and their replacement given the scarcity of resources and the need for more technical job positions in industries like IT, finance, or logistics, for example. When you need to fill talent gaps, add expertise, explore new technologies and methodologies, and reduce candidates’ reviews while saving time and costs, staff augmentation is your option.
In the coming years, employment migration will be on an upward trend, which will be higher given remote conditions and freelance work. However, when you hire third-party services for staff augmentation, you are also investing in a guarantee that your talent will meet your project demands in the required times.
We’ve mentioned before the benefits of outsourced staff recruitment, which takes less time and cuts costs compared to regular hiring times. But this also implies that you’ll have a better chance of finding the right remote team. According to Hired (2020) and Deloitte (2020), businesses that look for more diverse and specialised candidates or scale their operations and resources should look for outsourcing.
By having access to a global talent pool from different locations, you’re also reducing your past limitations in the process. These include taking advantage of time zone differences to meet deadlines, lowering talent retention risks by hiring remote teams, and reducing bad hiring opportunities in highly specialised job positions. In the bigger picture, staff augmentation services will help you reduce uncertainty in current increasingly changing times.
WAYS TO IMPROVE TEAM WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT
We’ve made clear that staff augmentation is an important strategy for achieving specific goals when you need more resources at fewer costs. Therefore, it’s now a necessity that your business learns how to manage these remote teams in the most fruitful and possible way. Here are our recommendations for improving the workflow of these talents based on leadership:
- Understand demand times, metrics and resource allocations to tackle derived challenges.
- Be clear on the specific skills required to succeed in short and long-term projects, as well as on specific business goals.
- Consider the learning curve and workflow adaptations of your remote teams to increase success while the delivery quality and time are less affected.
- Be aware that staff augmentation can become a permanent business process outsourcing hiring approach if you build a strong talent strategy.
- Be opened to receive fresh and new perspectives from your team to enhance your processes. They can share their expertise and knowledge in other industries or methodologies to boost your team and company performance.
Implementing staff augmentation services with an outsourcing company is key to having an ally at every stage of the process. Learn How to Save Money with Staff Augmentation and jump into a remote team.
Author: Sofia Marrero – Content Creator and Growth Hacker/ SEO at Advancio
Photo credit: Olivier Collet on Unsplash