IT Staff Augmentation in US – Advantages & Process

Someone rightly said that technology can’t innovate on its own. It’s the people who drive innovation. 

In this hyper-competitive world, where everyone wants to go on the path of digital transformation. For that, you need access to qualified and skilled candidates who will help you accomplish digital transformation goals. 

When companies fail to get an experienced professional locally, they invest in IT staff augmentation services.  

This is because various technologies (AI &ML) are dominating the workspace, and employers and hiring managers are expecting candidates to have specialized technical knowledge that should match employer requirements. 

In the US, the skills gap is costing a loss of $13 billion per month. This results in project delays, decreased productivity, and reduced customer satisfaction.  

Furthermore, a report from PwC states that this gap is expected to rise in the US causing a loss of $8.5 trillion by 2030. 

But how do companies in the US overcome such challenges?  

It is through staff augmentation in the United States.  

In this blog, we will uncover everything about what IT staff augmentation is, the benefits of staff augmentation, and how you can choose the trusted staff augmentation agency.  

What is IT Staff Augmentation?  

IT staff augmentation is a flexible hiring strategy where you augment your existing workforce with specialized personnel who can fulfill your IT-related needs or handle any kind of development project. 

Of course, these are not your permanent hires, but they can blend with existing IT personnel to contribute to the technical side of things.  

Through the staff augmentation model, clients can meet the project deadlines and avoid any delays that the traditional hiring model comes with. 

Consider a scenario where your in-house staff is bombarded with too many development projects. In that case, they require more developers.

But if they would do the lengthy hiring process to find the best-fit personnel, then it would take months and months.  

This is where IT staff augmentation model can change your hiring game as it provides you direct access to specialized IT personnel who can enhance your team skills capabilities, launch projects quickly, or meet project deadlines.  

On top of that, you’ll pick the tech talent of your choice that will support your existing team and work on your project. 

This model is a perfect fit for you to fill the workforce gaps. It can give you direct control over the staff and you can devote your time to revenue-generation activities.  

One of the significant advantages that staff augmentation provides is that you can scale resources up or down depending on your project needs and consumer demands. Most companies go for this outsourcing model as they only pay for the resources they need.  

A research study by Forrester states that nearly 62% of IT decision-makers face challenges in hiring top-notch talent.   

In this competitive world, every organization wants to go on the ladder of digital transformation, and they won’t be able to find a way to meet their customer demand because of a shortage of available tech talent.  

Here’s what Ryan M Sutton, an executive director of Robert Half says-  

The skill gap in tech will continue to expand.   

Organizations that want to expand their businesses and meet the changing needs of customers struggle with finding skilled technology talent. He further said that US technical hiring managers face a skill gap talent in the following areas such as-  

• Developing software and application  
• Technology process automation  
• Security and compliances  

To prevent such tech shortage challenges, partnering with a company that provides IT staff augmentation services in the United States is a profitable option for you.  

Advantages of IT staff augmentation in the USA  

There are various benefits that US companies get from IT staff augmentation services-  

1. Flexibility in scaling resources 

Staff augmentation is a flexible hiring approach that business firms use to fill skills gaps and manage their workloads. No matter, if you need a bigger or a smaller team, Staff augmentation in IT helps you to scale or downsize resources as per the project requirement.  

A data report from McKinsey talks about companies that adopt flexible working arrangements are likely to draw 2.4 times more revenue.   

By investing in a staff augmentation model, US companies can pick the best technical talent and scale the resources depending on what their projects demand.  

The key benefit of this model lies in its adaptability. It works on your project demand.  

For Instance – If the demand for a project increases during a certain period, you can request additional staff and manage increasing workloads. 

On the contrary, if you feel that the project demand is slower, you can reduce the excess staff and still manage your project with ease. This way, you can achieve cost savings. 

2. Save your recruitment and onboarding time  

Generally, traditional hiring processes take most of your time hiring, recruiting, and training employees, and you go through a lot of paperwork.  

Investing in a staff augmentation agency saves your time by 50% which would have otherwise been spent on creating job postings, interviewing candidates, and bringing them on the job. 

Let’s say you have a project that is of high priority and demands your attention. But your existing IT workforce doesn’t have the requisite skills to manage it, and if you arrange 40-hour training sessions, it’s a costly affair for you both in terms of time and money.  

What would you do in that case?  

You will hire an IT staff augmentation agency in the US that can quickly jumpstart the project which might require months or years to complete.  

3. Access to top-notch personnel  

When you’re competing with global players, then why restrict yourself to finding local talent?   

Sometimes your existing IT team gets complex projects that require someone who specializes in a particular technology or a framework, possesses extensive experience, and has a desire to work on similar projects. 

Investing in IT staff augmentation services in the USA enables you to pick specialized professionals who have hands-on experience in multiple projects.  

At the same time, you must become choosy in finding the right talent whose skillset matches your project requirements. 

4. Cost savings  

Hiring full-time in-house developers digs a hole in your pockets. Right? 

A research study states that US companies spend $4000 on hiring a new employee. Additionally, they pay an average salary of $131000 to software developers.  

If you compare it with developing nations like India, then it would go around $15000-$30000.  

So much difference in the pay itself. Isn’t it? 

With the Staff augmentation model, you can avoid such expenses on recruitment, training, monthly salaries, medical expenses, etc. By Project outsourcing work to countries like India, you can get a chance to work with talented candidates at affordable prices.  

This way, you will be able to make optimum utilization of resources and allocate your budget to other important things.

5. React to market demands quickly  

IT staff augmentation in the US enables companies to quickly respond to market demands.  

Whether your project requires upscaling resources or downsizing the IT team, partnering with a leading staff augmentation company can solve any kind of project challenge and augment existing IT resources. 

6. Risk mitigation  

You can mitigate risks that are associated with traditional hiring processes such as turnover or when you have to let go of underperforming candidates.  

But when you partner with a staff augmentation agency, you get the support of skilled experts who can meet your expectations and deliver quality outcomes.  

Before shortlisting them, make sure that they have a know-how of the latest technologies and frameworks so you can reduce the risks and make the projects more successful.  

Challenges with IT staff augmentation in the United States  

While partnering with an IT staff augmentation company, here are a few challenges you might face- 

1. Finding the best IT Talent  

As the tech industry is becoming more competitive day by day, it becomes challenging for companies to find the best fit who possesses the necessary skills and expertise to manage the projects.  

Such challenges arise when demand for a particular skill is at its peak, such as software development.   

A report from Man power group states that 46% of US employers say that they struggle to find top tech talent.  

As new technologies (AI, ML) are making their pave in the workplace, established companies are thinking of ways to fill these talent gaps.  

Solution – To deal with the scarcity of IT resources, find a reliable IT staff augmentation service provider that constitutes qualified candidates who have extensive exposure in various industry verticals and can suit your project needs. 

They don’t need any training but rather add value to your business.  

2. Integration with existing workforce  

When the existing workforce works with remote teams, communication challenges occur which disrupt the project flow and result in project failure.  

No 2 humans are the same, similarly when hiring augmented staff, it’s not sure whether they will blend with existing resources or not.  

Lack of synchronization between two dampens the quality of work. Internal and external staff need to be on the same page otherwise your business won’t be able to work with full efficiency. 

An obvious case can be that the external resource you hire might not be culturally fit for the organization and they may not use the same language for communication. Such language barriers result in poor communication which calls for more project delays.  

Solution – An effective way to tackle this is to specify the communication channels between the augmented staff and the internal team. Secondly, recruit those candidates who can speak the same language as you and can possess the same work ethics.  

3. Lack of flexibility in the hiring process  

Generally, businesses go for staff augmentation either because they want to meet the project deadline, need a specific skill, react to customer demands, or launch their products faster than their competitors. 

Forrester conducted a study that shows that companies that invest in staff augmentation services can launch their products 20% faster than others. 

In business, there can be a scenario when a client requires a staff augmentation agency to provide more external resources because of a change in project scope.   

If the firm fails to provide more talented staff, then it would result in prolonged project delays and delayed time to market. 

Solution – Partner with a company that provides a flexible hiring process meaning they will scale up the team or downsize it based on your project requirements. 

They should be able to provide the best-fit resources, who can support you 24*7 and help you meet the near-impossible deadlines. 

4. Project knowledge transfer  

While working with an outsourced team, if your project doesn’t transfer the project knowledge to them, they won’t be able to work resourcefully.   

If the internal team at your organization fails to share instructions or assign duties to external resources, then it would result in poor-quality projects and missed deadlines.   

No doubt, the professionals you onboard will bring their unique solutions to handle the project.  

But they can work for a long time when they get learning opportunities on a regular level to add value to an organization. An informal knowledge transfer process is likely to fail when everything is not well planned and documented.  

Solution – Knowledge transfer of a project can happen smoothly by creating a solid strategy that involves – 

• Selecting a few individuals who will transfer the knowledge,  
• Specifying what knowledge needs to be transferred,  
• Conducting Q/A sessions,  
• Deciding the collaboration tools, and  
• Measuring the key metrics/outcome to see how the project is going on.  

5. Security and Compliance  

While partnering with a staff augmentation firm, ensure that a vendor abides by the privacy and legal policy.   

If the remote team gets access to sensitive information just like full-time employees have, then it would lead to privacy breaches. This tarnishes the reputation of the company and exposes you to financial and legal penalties.  

Solution – Create confidential agreements and implement robust security protocols that prevent them from accessing sensitive information. Failure to comply with contractual terms can create penalties for them. 

Keep in mind that before hiring a service provider, do a thorough background check such as verifying their experience, qualifications, and projects they have undertaken in the past.  

How to find the right staff augmentation partner in the US?  

Here’s a step-by-step process of finding the right staff augmentation partner in the US-

1. Define clear requirements  

If you are searching for a staff augmentation firm, be clear about your expectations.  

Create a checklist of questions that will help you pick the right firm for your project-  

• Identify the project goals and define the project timeline.  
• Are you looking to meet project deadlines, or do you lack specialized talent?  
• Define the number of technical resources you need.  
• What skillset do you require from external IT talent?  
• Do you have the required budget to afford staff augmentation services? 

2. Research about IT Augmentation partner  

Do online research about staff augmentation service providers. See whether they possess the necessary experience in the technology domain or not.  Then, shortlist a few companies that fit with your project requirements.  

Do they have a proven track record in delivering similar types of projects? Are they familiar with the latest technologies and frameworks?   

Head over to their website to see what type of clients they dealt with in the past, read their testimonials, and don’t skip checking out their case study section.  

This would give you an idea of whether the vendor can suit your project needs or not.  

3. Interview vendors  

After the research phase is conducted, conduct interviews with companies that you shortlisted so that you can understand their level of expertise and experience.   

But before finalizing them, evaluate them on various factors such as skills, track record, staffing process, how flexible they are in terms of meeting your project needs, do they provide consistent communication support, do they speak the same language, whether can they adapt to your work culture, etc.  

4. Create a Contract  

After you move on with a specific staff augmentation firm, you must draw up a contract. Here, you’ll document every minute detail about the project you discussed. These details include-  

• Project Timeline  
• Delivery Schedule  
• Intellectual property rights  
• Feedback mechanism  
• Collaboration platforms  
• Pricing  
• Penalties (if any)  

5. Manage your team  

The final step involves assigning roles and responsibilities to the augmented team and providing them with the necessary resources and tools they need.  

You can supervise the external professionals you hire by taking regular feedback. This way, you can ensure whether they align with your project expectations or not.   

Choose BigOhTech as your staff augmentation partner in the US  

BigOhTech, being a leading service provider of IT staff augmentation services, provides you with top tech-tier talent that helps you achieve your business goals.   

Our talented professionals have been dealing with various clients for years and they know how to deliver the best project outcomes. We’ll complement your existing IT staff by hiring those candidates that are best fit for your project needs.  

With us, you need not stress about filling up tech talent gaps in your organization. You can effectively utilize your budget on other things as you are paying only for the expertise you need. 

Not sure about us?   

That’s why we don’t speak more as our results speak louder.  

We have recently served a client named “CarWale” who bridges the gap between buyers and sellers by creating an online marketplace. 

Since the company wanted to acquire more customers, they needed to scale up their IT team. So, they collaborated with us where we selected top-notch candidates for them that align with their project requirements. 

From this collaboration, the company achieved cost savings by 2x in the hiring and recruitment process and was able to launch its products faster. 

Wrapping up  

In this fast-paced world, every business wants to become successful and keep themselves up to pace with competitors. However, they can go up the ladder of digital innovation by sourcing qualified candidates.   

As the technology landscape is becoming complex these days, US companies are searching for IT staffing firms that can provide the right talent for the projects.   

A research study from Grandview Research states that the market size of IT staff augmentation is projected to increase by 147.2 billion in 2028.  

This indicates that the demand for staff augmentation is continuing to rise moving forward and companies can take advantage of it to get the maximum return.