Misconceptions about Staff Augmentation

Gimena Aguerreberry
June 9, 2021

Staff Augmentation has become a quite popular way of outsourcing. However, there are still some organizations that don’t see the benefits of this smart and strategic solution to rapidly scale in specific projects.

There are times when staff augmentation is undeniably the best option for your company. You can get the extra help you need without stretching the budget or committing to a long-term project with an extra employee or team and keep control over the project.

Why do companies choose to struggle instead of looking for outside help through staff augmentation? Many people still have misconceptions and don’t exactly understand the idea, or they are simply unaware of the concept entirely. Continue reading to hear about the truth behind these common misconceptions.

Hiring an Augmented Staff is expensive

Many people think that since staff augmentation is usually paid by the hour instead of a salary it turns out to be more expensive, but that’s not true. Some also believe that it does not save the company any money to contract someone just for one project.

Looking at the comparison of the augmented staff’s hourly pay compared to the salary of permanent employees can be deceiving because this does not look at the whole picture.

Staff augmentation is a lower cost than hiring in-house in the long run. Various factors play into this. In the case of staff augmentation, there are internal costs that can be avoided and that in a fixed contract scenario, are needed to seek for, hire and train a new member of the company.

With staff augmentation services you get the quality you deserve with the price that your budget will appreciate.

There’s no control over projects

Another myth among companies is that when hiring a dedicated development team for a project, there will be no control over it and the result won’t be the one expected. It is believed that the company that offers the staff augmentation services will be in charge of the authority in the project and will make the important decisions.

It is true that with traditional outsourcing, you hand your project to the company you hire, which means you lose control. Staff augmentation, on the other hand, is precisely how it sounds, we augment your team. If you don’t have an in-house team, we’ll be your team. We use your resources and follow your plan of action. Staff augmentation builds on your software team, allowing you to keep complete control over the direction and progress of the project.

There will be Communication Issues

When you outsource your project, you may worry about not knowing the status of your project or speaking to the developers for technical answers. You may worry about time-zone differences or language barriers that make it challenging to get the full scope of what’s happening with the project.

When you work with a staff augmentation company, you have control over both the team and the project. There are tons of communication tools that can give a correct direction to this common myth. You or the project manager will always be able to be connected to the staff, leaving that obstacle aside. Communication can be very effective when the right tools are used.

Quality won’t be the same

It is believed that by contracting IT staff augmentation services the productivity will be reduced and the quality of the remote work executed by the developers is not as efficient. Quite the opposite, there’s evidence that staff augmentation can be more effective since the employers that work in a remote way for their project, are found to be more responsible and dedicated to their job.

In staff augmentation agencies the recruitment processes are designed to ensure and demonstrate the quality of the professionals or candidates to augment the hiring company’s team and these processes are based on testing different abilities, not just hard skills.

Remote augmentation teams use agile project management methods that allow transparency at work, providing better results. Since the hired staff are located in their comfortable space, they work better and therefore, obtain better results.

Conclusion - Misconceptions about Staff Augmentation

Put aside your misconceptions about the staff augmentation model. It provides a better way to get a team of developers to build your project while you keep full control. Before hiring, consider looking into staff augmentation as a way of escalating your business quicker and in a more rentable way. Interested in learning more about nearshore staff augmentation? Contact us today!

"Misconceptions about Staff Augmentation" by Gimena Aguerreberry is licensed under CC BY SA. Source code examples are licensed under MIT.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters.

Categorized under software development.

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