The most common problem in the labor market today is the lack of qualified IT specialists. There are very few of them, and their services are quite expensive. Not every company can afford to hire such an employee on staff and pay them a high salary. That is why more and more organizations are turning to IT staff augmentation and “renting” specialists to solve their business tasks. It is faster and cheaper.

What is IT staff augmentation?

IT staff augmentation is a method of personnel management where employees are provided on a rental basis to another company to solve various business processes. In simple terms, it involves removing IT specialists from an organization’s staff. As a client, you approach a company that provides such services with a specific request for certain employees for your project. Legally, these employees remain part of the outsourcing company’s staff but temporarily work for you. The duration of this arrangement is discussed individually, ranging from a few months to several years, depending on the complexity of your project and tasks.

This method gained particular popularity during the pandemic, as companies realized how difficult and time-consuming it was to find specialists internally. Now, not only major state-level organizations but also small enterprises are utilizing IT staff augmentation.

For example, we primarily offer IT staff augmentation services to companies that have their own IT departments but lack sufficient personnel. As an additional resource, we provide some of our employees to companies on a temporary basis.

Benefits of IT staff augmentation

✔️ No paperwork

You don’t have to pay taxes for the specialist since they are part of our staff, so we take full financial responsibility for them.

✔️ Choosing from the best

Your HR doesn’t have to spend time on selecting employees for your tasks – we take care of that. Since we already have a team of verified and skilled candidates, you just need to choose the most suitable one from the options we provide.

✔️ Short-term specialist

If you only need a developer or a designer for one project, why hire someone permanently and then have to let them go? Hire a temporary employee. Moreover, if you are not satisfied with the candidate we offer, we will clarify the reason and, if necessary, replace them with another specialist.

✔️ Scalability of the company

One of the major benefits of IT staff augmentation specialists is that most of them work in different companies and can share the experience they gained from others. This helps in improving processes, inspires the team with new project ideas, or helps solve situations that require fresh solutions.

When to consider IT staff augmentation?

How do you know if you need IT staff augmentation services and who will benefit from such collaboration? Let’s break it down. 🙂

✔️ Companies that lack in-house IT specialists

Having a high volume of projects is a good reason to try IT staff augmentation in action and experience professional support and assistance in your work.

✔️ Companies that struggle to meet project deadlines

If deadlines are burning, and developers are unable to deliver the project on time, IT staff augmentation can help. Additional hands will help implement your business tasks and accelerate work processes.

✔️ Companies looking to save costs

IT staff augmentation developers will cost you less than searching for and maintaining an employee in-house. You will significantly save on accounting expenses, HR, software, organizing corporate events, and training.

✔️ Another great reason for IT staff augmentation is the need for a specific specialist for a short period

Let’s say you have a project but lack a frontend developer. Searching for one in the market is time-consuming and expensive, and there’s no guarantee that they possess the qualities and knowledge you need for the job. An excellent solution is to turn to an IT staff augmentation company.

At Brivian, we will find the specialist you need from our team in the shortest possible time.

How to work with IT staff augmentation?

A brief guide to help you effectively integrate our employee into your work:

1. Brief them on the matter

Provide the specialist with all the necessary information about the project, its tasks, and deadlines. Ensure they have access to the files they will need for their work.

2. Provide a manager

An augmentation specialist should always have a manager to whom they can turn for information or to get their questions answered.

3. Make them part of the team

If the specialist comes from another company, it doesn’t mean they are an outsider. They are working towards a common goal and are motivated to achieve good results for your company. Include them in internal processes, various seminars, and lectures on internal development, so they feel valued.

4. Don’t demand an excessive workload

Set an optimal workload for the specialist, otherwise, they may burn out and become less productive. Avoid burdening them with sudden tasks and try to stick to the planned schedule.

Our goal is to provide you with a competent specialist for your company, and your task is to make their stay with you comfortable.

IT staff augmentation and outsourcing: What’s the difference?

So, we’ve already discussed what IT staff augmentation is. Now let’s take a look at how it differs from outsourcing.

The main task is to understand how you want the work to proceed. If you don’t want to delve into the project details, control the process, and assign tasks – in other words, if you don’t want to actively participate, then outsourcing is the suitable option for you. All the work will be done on the contractor’s side. You simply hire a team of developers and tell them what needs to be done. Within the specified timeframe, you’ll receive the completed work. In this case, you pay for the final result.

If you want to control the work and take responsibility for all internal processes, assign tasks, organize and motivate the team – then IT staff augmentation is a better choice for you. All the processes will occur on your side. In this case, you pay specifically for the time of the specialists who will work in your company under your guidance.

How are IT staff augmentation specialists selected?

In our company, Brivian, the process of selecting employees for augmentation looks like this:

1. You approach us, and we ask clarifying questions to identify the project’s needs and the key skills required for the specialist you need.
2. We exchange the necessary documents (contract, NDA).
3. We search for the required candidate or team based on your request.
4. We conduct interviews and await your feedback on the results.
5. We agree on the date when our specialist will join and resolve organizational issues related to access to your project.
6. At the end of the month, we send a report on the specialist’s work, along with an invoice and other documents specified in the contract.

What kind of specialists do we provide?

In our team, we have over 100+ specialists who will help your project successfully enter the market:

– Backend and Frontend developers;
– Manual and Automated Testing specialists (QA MT/QA AT);
– UX/UI designers;
– Android and iOS developers;
– Analysts;
– DevOps and ML engineers.

We carefully select all our specialists based on their personal experience and specific professional qualities. Therefore, we confidently offer them to you as competent augmantation employees.

Conclusion

IT staff augmentation is an excellent alternative to outsourcing and hiring in-house specialists when there is a need to quickly and successfully solve the problem of staff shortage. This method is often used when a company:

– scales up and needs temporary employees for projects;
– struggles to meet deadlines;
– seeks rare specialists that are difficult to find in the market;
– doesn’t want to expand the in-house team.