Augmenting your IT staff with an outside service is the potential answer to the tech struggles your company is experiencing right now. Before you make this leap, consider the best practices for implementing this popular staffing solution.
Stick to limited-time projects
IT staff augmentation works best for projects that are one-time and unlikely to be ongoing. Often, this approach is used for efforts like software development projects, such as a new website or a mobile app. Once the project is completed, you can still use another outside service to maintain it if you decide you don’t want that responsibility in-house.
Naturally, augmented IT staff members are selected based on skill and expect to work over the short term, as their skills are going to be needed elsewhere. Of course, keep in mind that it’s still important that they fit in well with your other development team members, but in general, it’s their skill sets that are going to be their most important feature for the project they are working on.
Find the talent gaps
Review all of the processes within your organization in detail so you can find any talent gaps you might have right now. Whether you’re weighing current project needs or working on plans for a new project, a talent audit will help you find which skills you are currently lacking but need right now or will likely require in the future.
Once you uncover what all of your talent gaps are, you will have to determine if you will need this resource for the long term or just for a particular project you have in the works. When it’s just for a project, IT staff augmentation can help you overcome that gap.
Connect with the right provider
Once you know which skills you are missing and the project role you have to fill, you can start looking for the partner who will bring you the talent you need. This partner should be able to source the talent for you and vet them thoroughly so you’re getting exactly who you need.
One additional benefit of staff augmentation is that you are getting a professional with experience in projects similar to yours, and one who also has likely worked on multiple types of projects instead of the same type all of the time. This means your augmented staff professional has more extensive experience, something that could very well come in handy if any roadblocks pop up during your app development process.
Whether you are starting a new project or revamping an old one, you will need to have a well-thought-out plan for success. Work with an experienced staff augmentation service provider so you get access to the talent you need for your project when you need it without having to search and recruit on your own.
