There are various tips for staff augmentation in the software development industry you can hear about. Staff augmentation is an outsourcing strategy that has been around for quite a long time. Many businesses had a chance to try out this strategy with staff augmentation companies.
What is staff augmentation exactly?
Staff augmentation is an outsourcing strategy in which a business hires a qualified resource to join the in-house team in order to meet a specific business objective. These qualified resources can be hired on a short, middle, or long term based on the business’ requirement. Staff augmentation companies are the ones that provide client companies with the required resources (employees).
Staff augmentation is a very well combination of flexibility and reliability. As an example, hiring an additional employee for a couple of months through staff augmentation is much more practical than hiring someone full-time for a short-term task. You can rely on the staff augmentation company to provide you with the experienced individual (or individuals) to jump in and help your team out for as long as it’s needed.
Why is staff augmentation so popular? How does it work? Addria, as a company that offers staff augmentation, is here to present you with tips for staff augmentation in the software development industry.
Scope of work
Before implementing staff augmentation, make sure to identify your requirements. Do this as thoroughly as possible. Talk with experienced individuals, your employees, read about other’s experiences, or contact an IT consulting firm. Maybe staff augmentation is not the right strategy for you. You might find project outsourcing more beneficial.
After you’ve done your research and you’re sure that staff augmentation is right for you, determine what exactly are you looking for. What kind of candidates do you need? How many resources do you need? Clearly define and specify what you need in candidates – qualification, expertise, experience…
Choose the right resource
After defining your requirements, start the search process. Find and contact software development staff augmentation companies, a then review recommended candidates You can conduct interviews or tests to ensure eligibility. When you know what you are looking for and have a well-defined scope of work, you can intuitively choose who will be joining your in-house team.
Besides analyzing potential candidates, make sure to take a look at the company that offers staff augmentation. What are their most significant projects? How much experience do they have? What’s the quality of their products? Who were their partners?
Sometimes companies that offer software development outsourcing also offer staff augmentation. You can learn a lot about potential staff augmentation employees from the company that provides them.
Integration and team-building
No, it is not enough just to sign a contract, place new employee/employees in a team, and have them work. The hard work is not done yet. During the team integration process, it is important to provide full support for your new employees. Help them find the place in your team, instead of just giving them one. Also, make sure they get to meet the company itself. Tell them about the company’s values, procedures, rules, etc. You must ensure they are comfortable in their new workspace. This is necessary if you want to get the best out of this staff augmentation.
Also, do not forget about your current team of employees. Be transparent with them about the whole hiring strategy. Tell them who will be joining them, why, and for how long. Another positive thing about staff augmentation is that in-house employees feel less threatened and more relaxed about new people on board. You are not trying to replace anyone, you just need someone to help you out for some period of time and boost the general productivity of the whole team.
Be nurturing and supporting
Do not stop with the support for your new staff even after the integration phase is over. Talk with them, be open to feedback and criticism in order to build strong relationships and ensure quality cooperation. Your employees can also learn a lot from the new staff if they have more years of or more diverse experience. Actually, hiring someone through staff augmentation for educational and experience-sharing purposes is a common practice.
Save money with good management
This is something closely related to the well-organized scope of work. If you know exactly what you need and have good management, you can easily predict how much money you actually need to invest. One of the biggest benefits of staff augmentation or general outsourcing is cutting costs. Besides good management, another way to save cost is to look for staff augmentation agencies in Eastern Europe or Asia. Yes, Asian countries do have the reputation of being cheap outsourcing options, but the cheapest does not mean the best!
Actually, countries in Eastern Europe such as Croatia or Serbia have become a rather popular general outsourcing destination. They offer high-quality work for a below-average cost for US or Western Europe client companies. This will surely result in a massive amount of financial savings.
Another way staff augmentation saves money is through being more time-efficient. We all know that time is money. Staff augmentation can help you expand your team with experienced professionals faster than through traditional in-house hiring. Also, you are probably aware of all the costs of in-house hiring (taxes, social security fees, employee benefits, etc.)
Another thing you do not need to spend time on with staff augmentation is investing in the education of new employees. Besides helping them to get the know the company, you usually do not need to spend a lot of time teaching them how or what to do. This is because you identified your requirements in the searching process.
Conclusion
Staff augmentation is a great practice for companies that want to save money, expand their team for a defined amount of time, and successfully execute needed work. If you are looking for staff augmentation in the software development industry, your research has brought you to the right place.
Addria's IT staff augmentation services can provide you with the expert help you need. With years of software development through staff augmentation or outsourcing, we have just the right experience and knowledge needed to help your project reach its full potential. Tell us what you need, and let us do the hard work!
Also, if you want to know more about staff augmentation, or need help with implementing it into your business project, make sure to contact us! Our employees with experience in staff augmentation will surely be able to help you through online consultations.
