In the IT world, flexibility is one of the central values. It is reflected in many processes, including those related to employing specialists. Some decades ago, in-house hiring was the only available option. Today, the situation has dramatically changed. For many businesses, it is not feasible to welcome new developers onboard if their skills are required only for some projects. And here is when such an engagement model as IT staff augmentation enters the game.
In this article, we’d like to briefly explain the new opportunities you may leverage thanks to this format of hiring developers and provide practical recommendations on making this cooperation as successful as possible.
Why Staff Augmentation?
First of all, let’s define what this model offers. As it is one of the IT outsourcing models, it allows businesses to fill tech positions with the help of an external talent pool provided by a vendor. As a result, companies do not need to expand their in-house staff. But at the same time, they can significantly enhance their internal teams with additional knowledge and skills.
In general, the IT outsourcing market is actively growing. It is expected that its revenue in 2024 will hit $512.5 billion. The projected CAGR for the period from 2024 to 2028 is almost 11%. With such an expansion rate, its market volume can reach $777.7 billion already in 2028. Being one of the most popular models, staff augmentation also greatly contributes to this growth.
The existing benefits of IT staff augmentation explain the popularity of this format of cooperation with tech specialists. What are they?
Reduced costs. When you hire in-house employees, remember that you will bear not only expenses related to their salaries directly but also some other costs related to employing and retaining developers. In the case of staff augmentation, all expenses for maintaining office spaces, equipment, and infrastructure will be the vendor's responsibility. You will only need to pay for the work provided by software developers.
Streamlined hiring. If you choose Geomotiv as your staff augmentation partner, we can guarantee that new specialists will join your project within 1-2 weeks. Thanks to our rich pool of talents, such timeframes are realistic, even when you are looking for developers with niche expertise. Traditionally, you will need significantly more time to fill in the gaps in your team with in-house experts.
Flexibility. When you need to add new specialists or vice versa and see that you can decrease the size of your team, it is absolutely simple to do it with staff augmentation. It means that you can regulate your budget and avoid overpaying for the services you do not need. At the same time, you can continually expand your team when the number of tasks increases and you need to complete them as soon as possible.
Control. One of the most important things differentiating staff augmentation from traditional project outsourcing is the level of control and management you can execute. With staff augmentation, you still maintain control over your project, its realization, and the final results. Software developers provided by a vendor will just become members of your inner team, and you will be able to manage their work and regulate all the processes per your expectations. Developers will stay fully engaged in your project and focused on your tasks, which will ensure the highest efficiency of their work.
Given its specificity, this model can be a good choice for companies that already have internal software development teams but require additional skills for some project tasks. If you are still determining whether this engagement model is needed, you can read more about it in our IT staff augmentation guide by following this link.
IT staff augmentation benefits can’t be underestimated. Nevertheless, based on our experience, many managers have various concerns regarding establishing mutually beneficial cooperation with external developers.
It doesn’t matter whether this negative attitude relates to their previous unsuccessful experience with other vendors or the fact that they have always hired only in-house specialists. Their fears are always very similar. Managers usually name risks related to communication issues, misalignment of expectations, or difficulties in knowledge transfer.
However, all these problems can be avoided by correctly organizing the IT staff augmentation process and ensuring the smooth integration of external software developers into your team.
We’ve prepared a list of recommendations based on the real-life cases we have faced in our more than 14-year business journey. It’s important to highlight that they may be helpful not only when you turn to the staff augmentation model. They can also be relevant for in-house hiring when you need to know how to integrate a new software developer and make this process comfortable for everyone.
Turn all newcomers into your full-scale team members. This advice applies to all situations, regardless of the model you have chosen for hiring software developers for your project. To achieve the best results, you need to make sure that all specialists can efficiently cooperate and communicate with each other. All team members, including the new ones, should clearly understand all the set tasks, stay 100% involved in the development process, and have the possibility to get all the freshest info about the project as soon as possible.
Tell software developers about your corporate culture and values. It is not a good idea to expect people to understand the peculiarities of your approach to work unless you tell them about it. It is crucial to ensure that people know all the peculiarities, can share their vision, and follow all the processes and communication rules set at your company. We always highly appreciate it when our clients provide such information before we start looking for specialists for their projects. It helps us find the best matches for their projects.
Reveal all the details of your onboarding process. After you have chosen the specialists who will join your team, you should inform them of all the tasks they need to do before starting their primary job. For example, you may want them to study some documentation related to your company and project, or they may need to learn how to work with specific tools. In other words, newcomers must always familiarize themselves with your organization, and you need to make this process as smooth as possible.
Timely provide all the accesses required for work. By doing this, you can avoid unnecessary outages and delays at the start of your cooperation with new specialists. It can make the onboarding process more pleasant for developers and help you eliminate extra expenses (and you won’t need to pay for the services that can’t be provided). As soon as specialists get the required access, they can study the tools and functionality that they will use in their work and will be able to start contributing to the common goal.
Assign a mentor who will guide new specialists. As a rule, when you turn to IT staff augmentation services, you already have a project your team has been working on for a while. Every person who comes to join your team will need some time to familiarize themselves with the features and technical details that are already available for further work. The more complex your project is, the more time will be required. However, you will significantly facilitate newcomers' processes if you tell them where they can turn for detailed information. In other words, you should assign a mentor who will always be ready to help newly joined colleagues dive deep into the project's specificity.
This recommendation is highly relevant when you have a big team or even a couple of teams working on one common project. In such situations, finding the required information can be a very challenging task. As a result, this can lead to an unreasonable waste of time and extra expenses.
Do not demand too fast results. As we’ve mentioned above, you should do everything you can to ensure new specialists start working on your tasks as soon as possible. You need to provide all the required information, materials, and accesses. However, you still should bear in mind that people may need some time to study the peculiarities of your project, the tools you offer, and the functionality you have already created. Yes, it may take time. But the better developers understand your project, the better results they can deliver.
Inform all people engaged in the project management about the terms of cooperation with new team members. Quite often, top-level managers make all decisions regarding the choice of vendor. CEO, CTO, or Vendor Manager usually act as decision-makers and discuss all the details of the upcoming cooperation. At the same time, specialists such as project managers who work directly with a team may not know vital information regarding the terms of hiring new developers, including the number of paid vacation days, overtime, or sick leave payments etc.
Project managers may need more information to avoid severe issues with assigning tasks or calculating work hours. As a result, there may appear to be a significant misunderstanding in the work with hired specialists. That’s why ensuring a good transfer of information to all the team members involved in the work with newcomers is very important.
Set clear goals and explain your expectations. All new software developers who join your team should understand what you expect from them in their new role. They should receive all the information about their direct responsibilities, final goals, and how you estimate their results.
Provide your feedback regularly. It is very important for people to know whether they are moving in the right direction in their work or if they should adjust something to bring the highest value to the project. You shouldn’t hesitate to tell developers if you are not satisfied with the results of their work or if their solutions do not meet your expectations. The earlier you tell them about it, the easier it will be to introduce the required changes.
At the same time, as a vendor, we would also like to know whether you are satisfied with the work of the specialists provided. Your opinion is highly important to us, as we always do our best to ensure the outstanding quality of our services. Some people think that they should share only negative feedback. Nevertheless, your positive comments are equally important. Developers should know what they like in their work to support their strengths and demonstrate even better results.
Be open to dialogue. While developers expect feedback from you, you should also be ready to listen to their opinions. When you hire specialists in the staff augmentation model, it is highly likely that they have already worked on a row of projects and have accumulated valuable experience regarding how everything can be organized. It will always be a good idea to listen to their ideas and use recommendations relevant to your case.
How We Choose the Best Candidates
As mentioned earlier, all the recommendations are highly important to ensure that software developers are smoothly integrated into your existing team. But all such efforts will be useless if you do not have the right people in the right positions. Unfortunately, quite often, vendors cannot provide specialists who fully meet the set requirements. As a result, customers do not get the necessary skills and need to stop cooperating with the newly hired specialists even before the end of a probation period.
To avoid such situations, at Geomotiv, we always try to get as much information from our customers as possible to find ideal candidates for them. We always pay attention to the desired years of experience, level of seniority, and specialization. Here’s a list of requirements that we’d like to have before we start looking for a perfect talent match for your project.
The size and composition of your existing team;
The number of specialists to hire and their critical skills;
Basic information about your project, including the ongoing stage of its realization, its type, and business domain;
Technology stack that new specialists will need to work with;
Time zone and location where your team is based;
Minimum required working time overlap;
Expected English proficiency level;
Requires soft skills;
The expected duration of the project and start date.
Of course, if you have any other requirements, we expect you to share them with us. Before offering candidates to our clients, we consider CVs and always conduct general and tech interviews with specialists. These obligatory stages help us see whether a specialist can be a valuable team member for each project. Namely, thanks to this approach, around 99% of new hires we provided successfully passed the project's probation period. Thanks to this, we enable our customers to avoid delays, which can lead to failed deadlines and extra expenses.
Closing Word
Suppose you have never turned to staff augmentation services before. In that case, it’s natural that you may have some fears regarding all related processes and how to integrate external specialists into your in-house team. Nevertheless, when you cooperate with a reliable vendor and follow our essential IT staff augmentation tips, you can be sure you will get the desired results.
At Geomotiv, we have access to the talent pool of 80,000 specialists with expertise in mobile, web, SaaS development, and other highly demanded skills. Our developers work with various technologies, including the most advanced ones like AI, blockchain, VR/AR, and others. We can always find experts with the desired niche knowledge based on your needs.
If you want to learn more about our staff augmentation services, do not hesitate to contact us and ask any questions that you may have.
