As we revolutionize staff development and hiring, choosing the best method of development for your
team is extremely important. Whether you consider traditional hiring or consulting staff augmentation
companies for filling talent gaps, when enhancing your existing in-house teams or expanding busy
departments, you’ll want a streamlined process to identify experts and supplement your existing
workforce.
What’s The Difference?
There are several differences between the popular options of traditional hiring and staff augmentation,
and each definitely plays an important role in the development and structuring of a company team. In
short, traditional hiring is the process of hiring employees and adding them to the company’s payroll as
full-time staff members within the system. These new team members are usually sourced using the
company’s traditional outreach methods of hiring – advertising a role internally and externally,
interviewing candidates, and selecting the right fit for the job.
In contrast, staff augmentation can revolutionize the hiring process and fill specific talent gaps for a set
time frame. In the staff augmentation process, you’d hire professionals externally instead. Overall, it’s a
scalable and practical way to manage a shorter-term project or tap into certain skills you require for a
specific purpose. Consulting with technical staffing agencies can be extremely valuable when it comes to
developing your staff augmentation strategy, too, especially if this is something that’s new for your
company.
Why Choose Traditional Hiring?
One of the benefits of the traditional hiring method is that you retain a certain element of control over
your workforce and who you hire. Your HR or administrative team will commence the hiring process in
the usual way, by advertising a role internally and externally, interviewing candidates in one or more
stages, and completing reference checks. This means your team will have the ability to really get to
know potential new hires, their personality, and whether they’ll fit in with your company’s culture,
values, or goals and targets. Your in-house HR team can evaluate the wider team fully and feel confident
as to whether the new candidate will be the right fit.
It’s also a benefit as you’ll have more control over the direction a project may take. There are a few
obvious drawbacks to traditional hiring, however. One of those is the time costs to your company. Your
human resources team will need to complete time-consuming hiring processes to successfully onboard a
new employee, and there are costs involved, such as salary and benefits, that aren’t incurred in quite
the same way when it comes to staff augmentation. It’s a solid option if you’re looking for permanent
employees for the longer term, but staff augmentation has an edge for those specific short-term
projects where a particular skill set is needed.
Why Choose Staff Augmentation?
You can be a little more flexible if you opt for staff augmentation as a hiring method, and staff
augmentation companies can help those new to the approach get going. In the IT space, for example,
staff augmentation is a way to boost your team with professionals who have the specific skillset you
need, usually bringing them in for a set timeframe or on a temporary basis until a project is completed.
These professionals will work alongside your existing in-house team. It’s a little different from
outsourcing or using managed services because with staff augmentation, you can still control the project
yourself and the people working within it.
With staff augmentation, you can really review your team and pinpoint exactly which skills might be
missing that you’ll need for a project’s performance or growth. You’re essentially building upon your in-
house team with just the right people to boost resources. It’s a great and highly practical approach to
take for those shorter-term needs you might have. The drawbacks of staff augmentation include
sometimes higher upfront costs, but overall, it can still be cost-effective as staff will only be paid until
the point the project is complete.
Conclusion
These are two very different but powerful ways to hire and build a cohesive and skilled team for your
project. Using both approaches flexibly can really supplement your workforce with the skillsets needed
to enhance growth and improve project performance. With each method, you can hone your team and
get the right top talent in the right places. Whilst there will always be a place for traditional hiring, which
allows you to have extra control over your workplace and build a base of permanent and loyal
employees, staff augmentation certainly has its benefits, especially when it comes to those shorter-term
projects or times when specific talents are key in your organisation. Each method also has its cost
benefits and drawbacks, but there are cost-effective options available to minimise your initial expenses
for each.
