What is Resource Augmentation? and why is it Important?

Frequently Asked Questions About What is Resource Augmentation? and why is it Important?

Resource development augmentation services is also called contracting. Companies hire development employees services on a contract basis because they only require their services for a certain period depending on the project’s length. An excellent example of resource augmentation services happened in the health sector during the rise of the Covid-9 pandemic. Many healthcare service providers were understaffed at the height of the pandemic due to the overwhelming number of clients. It would have been complicated for the facilities to operate with their average staff. Therefore, the health facilities hired more nurses services and health professionals services on a contract basis because the problems at hand were temporary.

Employment agencies are very crucial in the resource augmentation process. They are agencies that wholly specialize in contract workers and act as intermediaries between the company and the augmented workers. A software development company might, for example, need additional members for the development of cloud solutions in the company for one month. Taking the time to look for specifically qualified personnel to hire on a contract basis is strenuous and time-wasting. Employment agencies, therefore, act on behalf of the companies to conduct the necessary procedure that includes: screening candidates, organizing interviews, and leading the interviews. Therefore, companies seeking to augment their resources would call the employment agency and request additional staff members. The agency thus takes the burden of sieving these workers from the shoulders of the company and ensures that they provide high-quality contract employees.

When Do You Need Resource staff augmentation services?

The following are a company’s scenarios that would necessitate resource augmentation. If you’re interested in using staff augmentation for a software development project, we at Sonatafy would love to help, start by clicking here.

If your company is launching a side project

Assume you run a software development company with a good team of experts focusing on your project. Suddenly, you develop an idea in your mind about a side project, and you realize that the staff you have is insufficient. Such situations would force you to adopt staff augmentation as a solution for the short-term problem. The resource/business augmentation strategy will help your company attract new talents by injecting fresh minds with new ideas from an external source.

If the outsourcing model doesn’t work

Having a remote team that helps handle certain aspects of your company can sometimes be quite strenuous. Therefore, staff augmentation is ideal for a situation where additional personnel is required to assist the staff without necessarily adopting a remote independent team (2). If an independent team doesn’t work for you, then it is ideal for you to adopt resource augmentation.

This isn’t always the case however, they’ many types of outsourcing strategies used by U.S. companies. Click for the above blue text to read about our deep dive.

Resource augmentation will inject an addition of staff into your present in-house staff. It fosters ease of operation because of the daily communications and management.

If your company is dealing with short-term projects

If your company needs additional personnel to help complete a short-term project, then staff augmentation will work for you. A short-term problem might be an undertaking that lasts only one year or six months. It won’t, therefore, be ideal for you to hire additional workers permanently only to fire them after one year. Staff augmentation will help add more employees to your already present team to help handle a problem at hand.

If your company needs to launch quickly

Many companies opt for staff augmentation services to cut out the time-to-market period. If the datelines are tight and you still want to develop a quality product for your clients, then resource augmentation services will help you.

Henry Ford said, “A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.”

Resource staff augmentation Framework

The following are the procedures that employment services agencies follow in the staff augmentation framework.

Gathering project requirements

The employment services agency’s role is to gather the project requirements to identify the client’s skills for the company’s project. The agency services should communicate with the client during the development process for satisfactory results.

Selecting the right team

Once the employment agency services identify what the client requires, it is its role to go ahead and find the best professionals for the task. The employment services agency’s role is to ensure that the selected professionals have the relevant skills and technical knowledge to inject new ideas into the company. The process services of choosing the right professionals can take up to three weeks.

Onboarding of the augmented team

The company thus takes the next step of onboarding the new augmented team to start the project. The process involves appointing a project manager and streamlining communication channels and management tools.

What are the Advantages of Resource Augmentation?

The following are the advantages that resource augmentation will bring to your company, click here for more detailed information about the benefits of staff augmentation.

Achievement of high levels of productivity

The resource augmentation strategy increases your current team’s productivity. While your regular employees focus on other vital aspects of your company, the augmented staff will dedicate themselves to a specific project. Each group, therefore, has a humble time and space to handle their tasks independently. The result is that the company will achieve its goal and quickly meet the achievement of client satisfaction. Steve Jobs said, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around.”

Steady Authority

Unlike outsourcing, resource augmentation means the augmented team works within your watch. Therefore, you have all the rights over the development of your projects and can dictate how the contract workers should do certain aspects of project development. The augmented team adheres to the policy of your company and only work within the terms of their contracts.

Slashed Development Cost

Staff augmentation doesn’t require you to incur additional charges like paying for new office rent. The fact that the team comes on board and works with the rest of the regular staff poses a significant advantage in cutting unnecessary costs. Resource augmentation is ideal, allowing you to hire additional specialists for a project with trimmer expenses.

Conquer Geological Limitations

Other strategies like offshore outsourcing require a company to outsource aspects of its development operations to a far-off country with a different time zone. The difference in time zone poses a significant challenge as adapting to a different culture and overcoming the language barriers annihilates the project’s progress. According to Forbes (3):

“Communication is a necessity for any human being. For any company or project, it is vital to have direct, honest and immediate communication.”

-Forbes

Staff augmentation offers solutions to the problems because resource augmentation means everything is done in-house, unlike offshoring. You recruit additional members of your staff and start a project without so much hassle.

Resource augmentation poses no legal hassles

Unlike other strategies like outsourcing, resource augmentation saves you from the hassles of adhering to new legal procedures. Establishing a new company in a new country requires you to buy expensive licenses and permits for acceptance to operate in the specific country. Resource augmentation is ideal because you do not have to incur further costs and hassles of seeking legal approval and buying licenses. You add on top of an already existing staff, which poses comparatively little hassle.

Staff augmentation boosts flexibility and saves a company time and money

This strategy’s flexibility allows you to hire short-term service workers. It means that you decide on the kind of workers you need at a particular time to help you in specific project development services, and it saves you a lot of time and money. It is financially fair because you will only pay the workers for the time they worked for you, and you won’t have to worry about spending much money on full-time service employees sitting around when there is no work. Choosing the right augmented services team makes it easy for you to plan for impromptu projects in your company.

Benefits of Resource Augmentation to Employees

The following are the benefits that workers gain from the staff augmentation strategy:

Flexible work schedule

Staff augmentation services give employees work flexibility. While permanent employees follow a strict work schedule, contract employees only establish availability during convenient times. The contact employees often choose their free hours and payment terms.

It gives them a learning opportunity

Staff augmentation is a perfect opportunity for the augmented employees to develop the necessary experience required in the field. Every new project they are contracted with poses unique challenges that require new skills. The result is that the contract employees will come out with more skills and experience from working on a contract basis.

They work under less pressure

The minimal contact between a contract worker and the company’s manager gives them a less-pressured working environment. Staff augmentation allows contract workers to concentrate on their roles.

Better compensation

Staff augmentation’s services flexibility allows contract workers to maximize their clients’ payments. Contract employees often receive their payment on a strict pay-per-hour schedule. They are therefore sidelined from the statutory deductions that the regular employees are subjected to.

References:

1. Resource Augmentation Definition
   https://bizfluent.com/info-7900202-job-placement.html
2. Staff Augmentation vs Outsourcing: Which One Is Right for You?
   https://scand.com/company/blog/staff-augmentation-vs-outsourcing-which-one-is-right-for-you/
3. “Communication is a necessity for any human being. For any company or project, it is vital to have direct, honest and immediate communication.” – Forbes Quote
   https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/07/19/the-right-fit-with-the-right-pick-how-to-build-a-successful-team-with-it-staff-augmentation/?sh=7cbfd31473dd