Staff augmentation is a strategy businesses use to hire exceptional talent, allowing them to improve processes and achieve ambitious goals.

If you’re wondering whether engaging staff augmentation talent is the right approach for your company, read our article to explore the benefits and drawbacks.

What is Staff Augmentation Process?

IT staff augmentation is a strategy where businesses temporarily boost the skills of their core team by adding specialized IT professionals. These experts join existing teams to help with specific tech projects or needs, usually for a short time.

Vendors play a key role in this model by finding skilled engineers who have worked on similar projects before. They send these resumes to your company, and your top managers or C-level executives can interview and hire these candidates based on their skills and fit.

What are Managed services?

Managed services operate a bit differently. In this model, your partner handles the administrative and organizational aspects and manages the entire project. The company takes over the responsibility for overseeing the work process, relieving you of the need to manage it directly.

What is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is a cooperation model in which specific company tasks or processes are delegated to external contractors under a subcontract agreement. Instead of hiring in-house staff, the outsourcing company is responsible for delivering results and often offers a cost-effective solution.

Types of Staff Augmentation Services

These are three of the most common options for staff augmentation companies, where you can hire a high-quality talent pool.

Freelance Platforms

These platforms provide quick access to talent from around the globe. You can hire freelance software engineers on an hourly or fixed-price basis. These platforms often allow you to review developer ratings and feedback from previous clients to ensure you’re hiring professionals.

On-Demand Talent Platforms

These platforms act as a curated community of developers, taking care of finding, vetting, and onboarding software development teams for you. You can find developers with expertise in various technologies and experience levels that meet your project needs.

Depending on availability, you can hire developers part-time or full-time. Each engineer undergoes a rigorous screening, including multiple skill and personality assessments.

Independent Contractors

Another popular cooperation option is hiring an independent contractor for staff augmentation. Instead, you connect directly with the managed service contractor of your choice and negotiate the contract terms. Working with independent external talent requires clear hiring criteria and being prepared to manage risks should issues arise during the collaboration.

Key Benefits of Staff Augmentation Services

Quality Assurance

When you hire a staff augmentation partner, you receive high-quality service delivery, as your partner has previous expertise.

Cost Effectiveness

Unlike full-time employees, you pay only for the specific skills you need, as the team members are selected based on your defined requirements.

Reduced Administrative Work

The staff augmentation company handles taxes, HR management, recruiting, and administrative tasks.

Hiring Flexibility

You can trust the staff augmentation firm to hire the right talent or actively participate in the interview process.

Ongoing Support and Expertise

The experts joining your team bring new skills, insights, and collaboration tips that can quickly improve your project.

Access Specialized Skills

You can choose the professionals with specialized skills needed for your project. For example, if there are gaps in your IT workforce, bringing in new team members with specialized skills can help fill those gaps.

How to Understand if Your Company Needs Staff Augmentation

You Have an In-House Development Team

If your company already has a development team but requires additional skills, resources, or the ability to handle complex tasks, staff augmentation can help. If you hire tech talent, you can scale up your capabilities without the long-term commitment of hiring full-time staff.

You Want to Achieve Better Results with Tech Talent Experts

If your team struggles to meet project goals or lacks specific expertise, staff augmentation providers specialists can be a solution. Bringing in highly skilled tech talent for a particular project can significantly improve quality, speed, and overall outcomes without overloading your existing team.

You Need to Fill Skill Gaps Quickly

If your project requires a specific technology or expertise your in-house team lacks, staff augmentation can provide access to professionals with the right skills.

You’re Working on a Tight Deadline

When a project needs to be completed within a short timeframe, staff augmentation can help.

You Want to Minimize Recruitment Efforts and Project Management

If you’re looking to avoid the time and costs associated with traditional hiring processes, staff augmentation is a great alternative.

What is the Difference Between Staff Augmentation and Outsourcing?

Control Over Projects

• In staff augmentation, the client has a full control over project management.
• Outsourcing allows businesses to delegate full responsibility for the project to a trusted external partner, which can free up internal resources and reduce management overhead.

Team Integration

• With staff augmentation, external professionals work alongside your in-house team, following your processes. This model is beneficial for short-term needs or when you want seamless team collaboration.
• Outsourcing involves a dedicated external team that handles the entire project or function independently.

Talent Selection and Flexibility

• Staff augmentation allows businesses to handpick the right professionals for specific needs, giving you greater flexibility and control.
• Outsourcing offers less direct input into individual talent selection but provides access to fully managed teams with specialized expertise.

Cost Structure

Both models offer cost efficiency but in different ways.

• Staff augmentation helps businesses control costs by temporarily paying for only the skills they need.
• Outsourcing often provides cost savings through economies of scale, as the external provider can deliver entire projects or services at a fixed, predictable rate, making budgeting easier.

Project Management Responsibility

• In staff augmentation, you retain control over day-to-day project management, which is perfect if you want to ensure alignment with internal processes.

• Outsourcing takes this responsibility off your plate, as the external vendor manages the project.

Scope of Work

• Staff augmentation is typically best for short-term projects or when specific skill gaps need to be filled within an existing team.
• Outsourcing is highly effective for long-term projects or when you want to delegate entire functions, such as software development or customer support, to a dedicated external team.

Overall, Staff augmentation strengthens your internal team without diverting attention from your core business. It is ideal for companies that want to scale temporarily or add specific expertise.

Both models help improve business efficiency, depending on your needs.

Staff Augmentation vs. Consulting: Key Differences

Purpose

• Staff Augmentation temporarily fills gaps in your internal team – you invite a tech talent with specific skill sets for a project.
• Consulting involves hiring external experts to offer strategic advice or solutions.

Level of Involvement

• Staff Augmentation integrates external talent into your existing team, where they work alongside your employees to complete tasks or projects.
• Consulting typically involves a higher-level role, where the consultant provides insights, strategies, or solutions to address business challenges.

Control

• Staff Augmentation gives your company complete control over project execution, as the augmented staff follows your internal processes and management.
• Consulting gives the consultant more control in shaping the strategic direction, though they often leave execution to your internal team.

IT Staff Augmentation Challenges

Onboarding and Integration

When you hire external IT professionals, it can be challenging to integrate them smoothly into your existing team. They must quickly adapt to your company’s processes, tools, and culture, which can sometimes slow down project progress.

Communication Barriers

When working with remote or international staff, language differences, time zones, and varying communication styles can create misunderstandings and some delays.

Skill Alignment

Finding the augmented staff with the exact skills and expertise required for your project can be challenging. Misalignment between the team’s needs and the talent provided can lead to delays or suboptimal results.

Dependency on External Talent

Relying too heavily on augmented staff can create a long-term dependency, which may limit the growth and development of your in-house team. Balancing the use of external resources with internal talent development is key.

Despite these challenges, the staff augmentation model is still a great solution. Just look at the statistics: 86% of companies report high levels of satisfaction with staff augmentation services. Moreover, the staff augmentation process helps reduce project costs by up to 40% compared to hiring full-time employees [source: World Metrics report].

Conclusion

Staff augmentation is an excellent choice and offers many solutions that help businesses move faster:

• Access to specialized skills you need
• Achieve goals in shorter time frames
• Cost savings
• Flexibility and less operational overhead

However, if your goals go beyond temporary support and you need a complete solution—from planning and design to development and deployment—our full end-to-end software development services are the perfect fit.

At RewiSoft, we offer comprehensive software development and design solutions. From mobile applications to web platforms and exceptional design, we are ready to handle every aspect of your project.