Staff augmentation is an operational strategy that eliminates the challenges in freelancing and permanent employment by outsourcing to staff a project or respond to business objectives. In a job market with stiff competition for highly skilled professionals such as software developers and other IT professionals, staff augmentation is a trending new solution.
For decision makers who are thinking of hiring freelancers or permanent developers, here's a quick outline of possible challenges with corresponding solutions through staff augmentation.
Investments in Software, Equipment and Facilities
Investing in Adobe suite for website development, Mac laptops and other devices for iOS apps along with the office space for permanent developers are hefty investments. They are meant to be good investments but could also end up as a set of very expensive company liabilities. This is what's happening when a company has a high turnover of permanent developers. Software, equipment and facilities become stagnant investments that do not generate profit when there's high employment turnover. High staff renewal rate usually happens in locations where developers are scarce and numerous companies will do whatever it takes to hire the best ones.
To many, the popular immediate solution would be to hire freelancers. However, reliable freelancers with the proper software, devices and adequate work space are also getting rarer than ever. This type of developer will always have bigger opportunities and there's no guarantee how long they'll be able to stay in an organization.
Staff augmentation solves these problems by investing in new technologies, top-of-the-line equipment and proper facilities. It serves as a physical matching point for developers and companies. The developers are provided with benefits, proper work environment and treated as regular employees. When the developer leaves, the staff augmentation company provides a replacement.
Mismatched Developers
Culture, personality and work habits are just some of the factors that result to mismatching. Mismatching is when an employee and its company have opposing stance on one or more issues which causes unbearable tension to their work relationship. Mismatched developers are frequently observed in major cities worldwide, in the freelance scene as well as in staff augmentation. In short, it happens everywhere. The only difference in staff augmentation is that mismatching has less risk for both the company and the developers.
In the staff augmentation setting, a company or client that is incompatible with its developer can be matched to other developers and vice versa.
Geographical Limitations
A high employment turnover is inevitable in an industry where either companies or employees have numerous other options. California, New York, London and other cities with similar settings have very high demand yet less supply of good developers. And companies in these locations are willing to go above and beyond to hire and even pirate the best developers.
Through staff augmentation, companies that experience a shortage of good developers in their own locations can work with equally talented developers from other locations.
These are the basic objectives of staff augmentation for developers. There are more innovative ways for a company to get ahead of the competition in the job market. The key is to have an open mind, prepare for change and welcome it.
Rizza Laplana is a manager at Get Devs, which finds and hires the right developers for companies.
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