Is Staff Augmentation the Future of Hiring Experts in the Office?
Staff augmentation may sound like it could garner enough jokes to make any water cooler talk more than a little entertaining. But that term could be one of the most important in how businesses soon operate. That’s because it involves hiring professionals to take care of specific things only when a business needs it. Call augmented staff consultants if you want, but it’s something that could change how employees are going to be hired.
While this might be controversial in not hiring certain people on a regular payroll, businesses have to work this out from their creation to shape a pattern. Shifting to staff augmentation after hiring a full-time staff can run into problems if you have to let some of those regular employees go. Regardless, with businesses needing to save as much money as they can to counter rising costs, staff augmentation may be a permanent process.
You’ll be surprised at how going the consultant route for everything can become a positive experience for everyone in a company.
Helping the Employee and the Employer
Hiring professionals to do something only when you need it helps cut down on your budget considerably. At the same time, hiring a professional to work on just one project allows them to go from one project to another for variety. It’s one reason why being a consultant can be a rewarding career for some based on the ability to go from one job to another to learn different experiences.
The above especially works well in the realm of I.T. where many consultants are now available. Some businesses are starting to delve into hiring I.T. consultants to have them work on things when needed and not paying a permanent in-house team. Even better, hiring I.T. consultants usually brings astute prevention in avoiding tech issues.
Keep in mind that staff augmentation can be applied to any category and not just I.T.
Staff Augmentation Keeps Businesses Ahead of the Curve
As with I.T. consultants, you’re going to get a bevy of experience with those who go from one project to the next. When you need to stay ahead of the curve on the latest technology or other procedures, using an augmented staff will give you an edge. Those who work on a regular payroll may not have time to keep up on the latest developments in their respective departments. In that regard, you can spare them having the pressure of having to deliver on something cutting edge.
You Can Integrate In-House Staff with Augmented Staff
There might be a misconception that this means the end of all employees on a regular payroll. While there might be some trimming, the experts you want to retain as permanent staff can easily integrate with an augmented staff. You’re merely paying for extra experts to come in when something needs to be done in the moment. In some cases, those augmented staff members can just be backup to your regular expert employees.
DataTrend Technologies notes that you never want to outsource every project due to the risk of losing all control of that project to the consultant. Mixing up in-house employees with the augmented staff allows you to steer a project your own way and get what you want.
With some companies already using staff augmentation, it’s worth considering in a new era of business efficiency. Joining this with the cloud and big data, businesses may be able to turn more profitable than they ever have in the history of capitalism.
References:
http://blog.icorps.com/bid/128606/Can-Your-Company-Benefit-From-IT-Staff-Augmentation
