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How To Find a Staff Augmentation Partner

It’s said that for the average corporate position, over 250 people apply. Of course, this number is skewed by location, the economy, and the position itself. That means some jobs attract over a thousand resumes! What does that mean for you? As an employer, it means that finding staff is a massive challenge. Depending on the economical climate, it’s feast or famine when it comes to the pile of resumes on your table. It takes time to find the right candidates. It takes even more time to interview, onboard, and train properly. Before you can even push new hires out of the nest, you may feel exhausted! Even after this rigorous process, some poor picks will still slip through the cracks. You may end up letting some new hires go, which is a waste of time. If you’re at your wit’s end as an employer, what can you do? The answer might be finding a staff augmentation partner.

What Is Staff Augmentation?

You’ve likely heard of offshore staffing. This usually happens in customer service scenarios, when companies have their customer relations team based in another country. Often, this process is unfairly associated with low-quality work. Instead, it’s a golden opportunity for new ideas and talent to come to your company, with low risk and training costs. Here’s how it works. You identify that you have a need, and staffing augmentation is exactly what will fill that gap. How do you make this determination?

The Value of Curiosity

Start by conducting an assessment of your current needs. This will help you dictate whether you need staff outsourcing.

  • Temporary or permanent
  • Project or company based
  • Staff distractions
  • New staff integrations

This audit begins with asking the question: is this a short-term band-aid solution, or are these new hires meant to be permanent? Staff augmentation services are great for either solution. However, this option has a particular edge when it comes to short-term hires. For short projects, traditional wisdom is to bring on summer hires or an intern. Other options include bringing on a freelancer for a ninety-day contract, or a similar length of time. With that approach, though, you waste valuable time. By the time you get a freelancer trained and onboarded, their contract is partly over. This will limit their productivity and make everything more difficult for you. It’s also important to judge whether you need someone for your company, or for your project. Say you’re doing a push to launch a new eCommerce portion of your website. This is a great goal, but crunch time will only last for a few months. Once the site has been pushed out of the nest and is functioning, it might be time to cut extraneous staff. Instead of planning layoffs, try staff augmentation. This will allow a highly trained individual to bring their expertise to your project, without having to train them for the long-term. However, you shouldn’t write off staff augmentation for long-term offers. Sometimes, all you need is to give someone a trial run. Then, once you find the perfect person, you can see if you’d like to extend a full-time offer. What about your full-time team, though?

Consider Your Team

Consider the responsibilities your staff already carries. Do they have time to help onboard someone else? Staff augmentation eliminates that need. Does your current team have time to take on a new project? If not, staff augmentation services providing off-site staff members can be the perfect solution. That way, the project gets done without overloading team members that have no bandwidth to take this on. Integrating new team members is crucial. After all, you’ll be putting your project and brand in their hands. You need to find a reputable staff outsourcing partner. That way, production stays high without compromising quality or brand. If you’re wondering how to find a staff augmentation partner, we’ve got you covered!

How to Find A Staff Augmentation Partner

How can you find a staff augmentation service? Start by running potential choices through the checklist outlined above. It’s a great checklist to narrow down on your own needs, but it’s also important to filter out their services, too. If they don’t offer what you need, then they shouldn’t be on your list of potential options. As you start to search for IT staff augmentation, start by checking their reputation and portfolio. What have they accomplished in the past? How have they accomplished it? You can always start by asking around. Other companies in your industry have likely employed staff augmentation services in the past and will be able to provide recommendations. If you can’t find any companies willing to provide recommendations, look on LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Testimonials are your friend, particularly when you’re putting your brand name in someone else’s hands.

Prioritizing Your Needs

What exactly are you looking for? It’s important to apply common sense, of course. But your top priorities should be dependability, experience, and flexibility. There’s nothing quite as terrible as a staff augmentation partner that can’t be relied on. The idea is that outsourced staffing will take the stress off your plate. If you’re spending all of your time chasing down deliverables, you’re worse off than when you began. Experience is also crucial. Of course, you may want to give a new company a try. Their rates are probably cheaper since they’re new, too! Remember the old maxim: you get what you pay for. Saving a few dollars isn’t worth it. Experience means they’ve jumped hurdles and hit goals before, and your company won’t have to be their test subject. Flexibility is important because projects change and morph. Sometimes, the end result is quite different from the initial goal. This indicates growth, but an outsourcing partner will be able to grow with you.

Staff Augmentation Partners

Finding a staff augmentation partner is worth all the time and effort you put in. After all, it’s a great opportunity to expand your offerings and boost your productivity, while still maintaining your brand. If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of our blog!

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