On-Demand IT Employees
Following the pandemic, the IT sector has continued to see a surge in demand for products and services, which has had a cascading effect on the already competitive talent market.
Without question, the IT industry is constantly yearning for qualified talent. However, the pandemic increased demand. In fact, according to Gartner data study findings, "58% of workforces indicate skill transformations since the commencement of the pandemic," necessitating the need for skilled professionals to handle restructuring and creating a demand for new abilities. The drive to digitalization, which mandates extensive data transfers from on-site servers to cloud-based platforms, accounts for the market for IT opportunities. The development of digital pivots that require updating business software systems, remote management tools for productivity and collaboration, and the development of gaming, entertainment, and social media platforms are additional reasons why the tech industry is streaming with prospects.
Do you know? Over 365,000 tech jobs were posted in June 2021, the most since September 2019.
The Rise of Staffing Augmentation
Technology is constantly evolving. Therefore, organizations must act swiftly to hire the proper expertise. Finding and engaging employees requires a significant commitment of time, money, personnel, and technology. This is how "staffing companies/agencies" emerged as the answer. These firms will shoulder the employer load, from hiring programmers and business analytics experts to supplying timely service and retaining customers over the long term.
The staff augmentation model is an excellent strategy that helps IT organizations reduce operational expenses while increasing productivity and efficiency. The temporary utilization of outside employees increases your organization's capabilities.
Here are situations where investing in staff augmentation might be a good idea:
When you want to enhance your internal team
It is crucial to supplement or increase your current experience when introducing new products or starting new initiatives, even when you have in-house software developers. You might want to expand your IT crew in this situation.
When you have a tight deadline
From the job posting to the onboarding process, recruitment takes a while. The luxury of time and patience, which could take an average of two months, is probably not something you have. Whether it is a short-term or long-term contract, IT staff augmentation can help you meet your needs regardless of the contract you signed. Additionally, you may find software developers from anywhere, at any time.
When specific abilities are required.
You want to quickly grow your workforce by adding skilled engineers or technicians—DevOps, data scientists, quality assurance engineers, or business analysts of any skill level can be found and filtered by staffing companies.
Serves as a hiring bridge
Organizations can utilize staff augmentation services to evaluate several software development companies to choose the best partner for long-term collaboration and the proper development partner for long-term projects.
Know it!
According to CNBC, around 1 million IT jobs are still vacant in the US. With all that, Statista emphasizes the increase in staff augmentation services from 5.2% to 6.3% between 2018 and 2020.
The Motives Behind Staff Augmentation's Growing Adoption
Due to several factors, staff augmentation post-COVID-19 is now more than just a financially sound plan. The following is a list of the many aspects and justifications for your company to select staff augmentation:
- Increased Involvement of Independent Tech Experts
Staff augmentation benefits employers and independent engineers who are expected to provide value. Independent contractors take an active role in learning about the nature of the project assigned to them because they do not want to work on traditional tasks.
- A Growing Number Of English-Speaking Engineers
Tech professionals better comprehend English grammar and vocabulary due to the internet, online learning, cloud computing, programming tools, and other cutting-edge technology. They can thus fit into the business cultures of their clients.
- Both Parties promise a Long-Term Partnership.
Since COVID-19, a win-win collaboration between clients and independent contractors has been the backbone of staff augmentation. Now, both parties anticipate long-term teams to accomplish particular goals.
- Platforms With Advanced Technology For Recruitment
The staff augmentation model has undergone a comprehensive makeover in this sector. Hiring has improved due to the growing use of HR technology platforms. The augmentation of staff now considers the technical and soft talents of engineers.
- Contractor Advice and Support Before Placement
Engineers are pre-engaged by Staff Augmentation using various tools, procedures, and personnel for the customer. Both the workload of management and the benefits to the customer are decreased since the resources are knowledgeable about the nuances of their relationship.
Post-Covid, many employment companies have automated hiring processes by combining artificial intelligence with predictive analysis. This was achieved by matching candidates to the best positions using machine learning.
A.I. has been used to complete 65% of the recruitment process as of 2020, and by 2023, that percentage is anticipated to rise to 77%.
Why does the US act as a tech-business hub?
Earlier, it was all about Silicon Valley, but today there are many North American regions with thriving tech marketplaces showing significant growth, which demands talent. As we know, the 2019 epidemic sped up digital transformation and made everyone on the planet operate virtually. As a result, teleworking and remote working have expanded more quickly. The ability to work from home was made available to employees, and businesses soon recognized it would be more profitable.
Staff augmentation is a timely service to respond to this circumstance. In 2020, 2 out of 5 agencies recorded year-over-year revenue losses, which impeded the demand for staffing firms amid the pandemic, according to the Global Recruitment Insights and Data of 2022.
On the one hand, companies are confronting a talent scarcity and are attempting to establish a strategic workforce, offer hybrid work, and push employees to improve their skills through training and certification, while on the other hand, employees are looking for flexible work hours, more career-focused, and to watch out for speedy economic growth in the IT industry. As a result, hiring methods have changed to focus on employing contingent workers, either on-shore, off-shore, or multi-shore, the way they want. Organizations have the freedom to respond quickly to shifting business needs by using contingent labour or SOW-based contracts. With technology, these businesses can anticipate their contingent worker needs, plan for their onboarding, monitor their performance, and balance labour needs with results.
The Demanding Skills
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a significant rise in related positions of around 28% through 2026, reflecting the high demand for jobs in data science and data analytics. For most of these positions, proficiency in programming languages like JavaScript and HTML and analytical languages like R and Python is necessary. And another demanding technology is the online gaming sector, which is expanding at an annual rate of 9% and is expected to generate close to $200 billion in revenue by 2022—making it the need of the hour.
In addition to technical talents, companies often search for non-programming skill sets like cloud computing knowledge, effective communication, problem-solving, and team and project management abilities.
To swiftly accomplish these technical and non-technical necessities, companies prefer a staff augmentation strategy when they are thinking about developing a business application or need more help for a current project. This enables them to increase an internal team's capabilities and lower business operating costs. Some businesses employ this outsourcing strategy to create their company plans as a source of limitless top software development expertise for their projects. In any case, the staff augmentation model gives businesses various chances to enhance the productivity of their internal teams and projects.
Over 70 million full-time workers in the US, or about 56% of all employees, claim they can perform their jobs remotely from home. Leaders and managers like hybrid work, and they are pretty hesitant to have staff members work entirely remotely. Hence, seeking the assistance of staffing companies to balance this equation is advisable.
For more insights on the future of work, visit Gartner.
Why Choose Performix as Your Staff Augmentation Partner?
Our organized and adaptable staff augmentation process ensures that our clients may recruit "the right person for the right job at the right time."
We will begin by determining the precise staffing needs by developing a strategy for staff augmentation services with a 360-degree view of your corporate goals. We have candidates across the globe registered through our Performix career portal for various software professional vacancies.
Following your company's policies, our HR team will shortlist the candidates from our list and schedule an interview. Once they are selected, we oversee the employee onboarding documentation process. After the hiring process, we will provide post-recruitment services and support to ensure improved productivity and a return on investment.
Our IT Staff Augmentation Services offer tremendous leverage and flexibility to IT, digital, and mobile organizations worldwide with top talents who are skilled and passionate.
Tips for better recruitment and onboarding
1. Recognize your needs and desires
The first step is to identify which departments lack resources. Ascertain which resources, knowledge, experience, and other variables, would be most appropriate for them.
2. Finding Potential Candidates
Examine and interview candidates in-depth to ensure your time and money are used wisely.
3. Starting Your Employees' Workdays Off Right
Don't expect anything to fall into place after the contractual staff has been employed. Ensure that new team members are accepted and feel at ease with the rest of the team, so invest more time and effort in that. Also, ensure that your business's policies, values, and processes are communicated to all employees.
4. Maintaining Relationships Regularly
After the integration phase, you must continue fostering a productive working relationship with the new members by frequently seeking their input. This will make them feel comfortable and increase their productivity.
Now let's investigate the merits of staff augmentation, which will make it more transparent why this is a pressing need.
1. You can cut costs
More resources—such as money, time, and effort—will be needed when you hire a full-time workforce to work on a particular project. Instead, the businesses could expand their current workforce with devoted experts who only work temporarily. This helps avoid the costs of hiring someone full-time who might not have the necessary expertise to work on a project, such as benefits, pay, and other expenses. The organization will have choices for temporarily recruiting to meet the urgent and specific needs of the business successfully.
2. Enables businesses to hire people with specialized capabilities
Short-term projects are undoubtedly the best choice for temporary employees who need to work a few hours per week. Companies will have the chance to hire based on specific talents thanks to IT staffing services. The businesses will be able to determine the abilities in which the permanent staff requires assistance and adjust their staff augmentation to meet those demands. This enables the firms to employ qualified personnel for a lot less money than it would have cost to hire full-time workers. It aids in keeping costs down and the business under control.
3. Facilitates faster company growth
Because of staff augmentation, you can increase your workforce affordably. By reducing costs while still employing expertise for special specialized projects, the companies will be able to scale their businesses more quickly than if they hired new, full-time employees. In most industries, an organization's task is continually shifting in scope. This suggests taking on additional clients without sacrificing the caliber of your work. On a project-by-project basis, temporary employment is the best option for handling current and upcoming demands.
4. Permits the corporations to maintain control
Although staff augmentation is a form of outsourcing, it allows businesses to control the knowledge and abilities of the temporary employees they require. Because they will collaborate with full-time employees, companies can monitor the advancement achieved by their temporary recruits. Businesses can maintain the confidentiality of their projects, for instance, and make suggestions to the project in real-time, thanks to staff augmentation.
5. Offers an objective viewpoint
An outsider's perspective could be helpful to a company with continuing projects for temporary personnel. The permanent personnel might not understand proposals for project improvements since they are too invested in their current tasks due to the lack of fresh ideas. This outside viewpoint or voice could improve workplace creativity and productivity. Additionally, each workplace has its own culture, and each office will probably have different dynamics. Compared to recruiting full-time employees, there is significantly less chance for temporary employees operating on a construction basis to become embroiled in office politics.
6. Possibility of using cutting-edge technology
Occasionally, businesses may need a particular set of talents to initiate or complete a project. Due to time or budget restrictions, companies may not want to provide extra training for the current workforce. Therefore, staff augmentation is essential for promptly and affordably addressing the workforce deficit. The problem of the primary team lacking specific skills will be resolved with the help of staff augmentation. Depending on the objectives of the project and the amount of money the company wants to invest in the specialist, a second team may be able to engage a specialist with almost any set of skills. Second, finding a developer will take far less time than having a corporation hire people with particular talents through pricey training.
Furthermore, it can frequently occur that there isn't much time for additional training; in such cases, it would be wise to assign work to a hired employee if there was any project assignment that he could complete before the core team is apprised correctly. It will be a practical and efficient approach and won't slow down progress on the company's project.
7. Flexibility
The process of staff augmentation is frictionless and flexible enough to meet the needs of any organization. Businesses can use augmentation workers as needed and can even terminate them. By using this method, companies can offer exceptional staff with less disruption to the working environment.
The process of adding IT professionals comprises interacting with the staff so that they are aware of their tasks within the organization. Their main jobs will be to address individual problems, partially strengthen the team, and fill in the gaps in the project's list of necessary abilities without wasting time.
The result of the subsequent procedures the business world has encountered is that staff augmentation is becoming increasingly popular among all types of businesses. Given their roles' importance to the company, finding the right talent quickly becomes essential. While new projects are in line, there is a shortage of full-time employees already working overtime. Some full-time employees occasionally take an extended absence for a variety of reasons. In these situations, a committed team expansion will be necessary to ensure efficient and ongoing workflow.
A primary justification given by companies for choosing to hire professionals through staff augmentation firms is their inability to find the right skills for their current or upcoming projects. The corporate world is expanding globally with digital transformation and digitization with the latest technologies like metaverse, web 3.0, flying cars, etc., so hiring technique also needs an upgradation that will help the recruitment industry adapt to the changing market demands.
