The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way the world functioned. While it has touched upon almost everything in the past two years, the IT industry has been one of the most severely affected, in positive, as well as in negative ways.
With the pandemic situation not going to change anytime soon, the uncertainty makes the future pathway of the labour industry even more challenging.
While the third and fourth waves of the Covid-19 virus loom large, it is yet to be seen how the job market gets affected in the coming months.
After Work-From-Home, the hybrid arrangement of work has started to get normal with a lot of precautions. While it is still at the primitive stage, the move will be beneficial for those sectors where physical proximity is required.
However, for software development companies, it is a different scene altogether. On one hand, where companies initially had to let go of their employees for lack of projects, Staff Augmentation services has become a popular term, especially in software development companies.
With the possibility of working remotely, software development company have realized the flexibility of outsourcing the right talent for their projects.
Staff Augmentation is a term given to hiring of resources from outside agencies, in a bid to boost existing staff of the company. Team or Staff Augmentation gives liberty to the company in hiring the right talent for their projects.
As increasing payroll cost and limited talent are the major hindrances companies face while recruiting the staff on the payroll, augmentation gives them the freedom to pick and choose the right candidate to fill the gap in your in-house team, working remotely, directly managed by the project manager of the company.
With the fast-changing world of the software industry, hiring candidates who are up-to-date can be a task. Here, Staff Augmentation comes in handy. Companies outsource talent as per the need of the project. Candidates will be outsourced only if they fit the bill. This is something not possible while hiring candidates on the payroll, as their current knowledge may be of no use after a few months if they don’t upgrade themselves.
Like any other process, Staff Augmentation has its own pros and cons. Here are a few points that make understanding Staff Augmentation better:
Why Staff Augmentation can be Preferred:
- Gives the liberty of quickly hiring the right candidates as per the demand of the project.
- Specific hiring of candidates who are well-versed with the technology is possible.
- Companies don’t need to maintain a bench of employees and rather outsource candidates as the demand arises.
- With a mix of full-time employees and outsourced talent, companies remain better equipped to deal with uncertain times. Mass layoffs can be cut down when the balance is maintained well.
- Mis-hiring of candidates hits the outsourcing agency rather than hitting the company.
Why Staff Augmentation can be Avoided:
- Not ideal for projects or clients that need to maintain a high level of confidentiality.
- Not suitable for long-term projects.
- No hold of the company if the outsourced staff decides to move on. Frequent replacements can affect the pace of the project.
- Can affect the consistency of work if outsourced staff is replaced frequently for various reasons.
With the uncertainty around, companies would not want to take any chances of mis-hiring and over-hiring of candidates. Hence, it would be safe to say that Staff Augmentation is here to stay, at least for some time.
If not already, companies need to give serious thought to their hiring policy and possibilities of Staff Augmentation to give their projects a much-required boost. Techahead has been working with highly-skilled talents in the field of software development and has been assisting several key companies with their Flutter App Development Company related demands.