Staff Augmentation: The Most Efficient Way to Hire?

January 22, 2024, by Stephanie Messier |

Facing a challenge that requires help but doesn't justify long-term hires? Staff augmentation may be your perfect middle ground.

It lets you bring in purposeful talent for a specific goal—and only for that goal. Compared to simply hiring more permanent staff or even outsourcing, staff augmentation can be a more cost-effective, flexible, and manageable solution.

Discover all you need to know to decide if staff augmentation makes sense for your recruitment needs.

Key takeaways

Staff augmentation refers to temporary hiring to overcome specific obstacles, usually requiring more capacity or specialised skills to overcome, with personnel leaving after resolving the issue.
Any situation where more capacity or missing skills are temporarily needed to meet a goal in the workplace, staff augmentation can help. It’s used for IT support during security incidents, ramp-up to website launches, seasonal spikes in business, and in many other situations.
Staff augmentation is most suitable when missing skills or capacity is affecting your ability to perform at your best, your staffing needs fluctuate, and cost optimization is a priority
Staff augmentation is not to be confused with outsourcing. Outsourcing involves delegating entire projects to an external team for long-term management, while staff augmentation temporarily hires external personnel to support in-house teams for specific tasks or projects, maintaining in-house control.

What is staff augmentation?

Staff augmentation is the temporary hiring of personnel to remove an obstacle stopping an organisation from achieving a goal. Once this obstacle is lifted, this extra personnel leaves the organisation.

Why companies use staff augmentation

Companies use staff augmentation when something is missing in-house that is required to successfully complete a project or meet a business objective. Most often, what is missing is one (or both) of the following:

Enough people
Certain skills

Common use cases

There are many potential use cases for staff augmentation. In any situation where more capacity or skill is temporarily needed to meet a goal in the workplace, staff augmentation can help.

Most often, though, you’ll see staff augmentation used for the following situations:

IT support for a major security incident
content support for a new website launch
Paid ad support for a seasonal marketing campaign
Developer support for a new app or product feature
Retail support for a busy season
Kitchen or wait staff support for a seasonal spike

Another use case? Stress alleviation! With voluntary turnover in Canada being reported at nearly 8% , using staff augmentation to simply make your employees’ lives easier can be a great productivity, morale, and retention strategy.

How staff augmentation compares to traditional staffing

Like with anything, it’s important to consider both sides of the coin before committing to staff augmentation. This will help you decide if it makes sense for your current situation and goals, or if you may want to look for another staffing model.

At a glance, here’s how staff augmentation compares to traditional staffing (i.e. hiring full-time or more permanent staff) in the areas that matter:

Criteria	Traditional Staffing	Staff Augmentation
Cost	You have to pay salary, benefits, and other costs (i.e. development).	There is often only a fixed project fee.
Customizability	Hiring traditional staff as work rises and letting them go when it drops often isn’t feasible.	Easier to scale staff up and down and bring in new skills, as work demands change.
Flexibility	Harder to hire and let go traditional staff	Short-term nature, so if someone’s not working out, you’re not stuck with them.
Commitment	A traditional agreement often comes with more commitment to your company.	Depending on your agreement, your temporary staff may have other commitments simultaneously.
Supply	You only have people with wider availability to choose from.	Opens up your talent pool to students, part-timers, seasonal workers, and other types of workers.
Training	More intensive, frontloaded training/onboarding for traditional workers.	More specialised, less intensive training, but you’re training more people more often, which can be a drain on your existing team.
Integration	Traditional staff around for the long term are more likely to bond with their team.	Knowing the work is temporary, team integration by temporary staff isn’t always smooth or tight.

In a nutshell

Consider staff augmentation when:

You require specialised skills for a short-term project or to address specific tasks without a long-term commitment.
Your staffing needs fluctuate, and you want the flexibility to scale up or down based on project demands.
You prefer a more agile staffing solution without the obligations and costs associated with hiring full-time employees.
There are specific skill gaps in your existing team, and you need to fill them for a defined period.
You want to optimise resource utilisation and costs by tapping into external talent as needed, without the overhead of permanent hires.

Consider other staffing models, such as traditional hiring or outsourcing, when:

You require a more comprehensive, ongoing solution.
You need a dedicated team for a continuous function.
You want to fully delegate a specific task.

Example case study: Using staff augmentation to avoid crunch time

Company

SideSwipe is a video game production company. They’ve managed to put out a new title every year, each more ambitious than the last, for the past three years.

Side note: With 77% of HR leaders saying their employees are feeling fatigued, now is as good a time as ever to check in with your employees and look for ways to help—regardless of industry!

Challenge

The last few months of every production cycle are nightmarish. The team logs 100-hour work weeks, often sleeping under their desks, to make sure the game gets out on time.

Every year, the toll of this crunch time is reduced capacity for months after, low morale, and a growing number of resignations.

After the latest release, the leaders of the company see the writing on the wall and begin searching for a solution, which leads them to reach out to a staff augmentation provider.

Solution

The provider looks at SideSwipe’s problem, identifies that most of the overtime is being spent on tasks that could be handled by more junior developers, and comes to the conclusion that six additional developers would be enough to handle these tasks.

With this work handed off to the junior developers, everyone on the core development team can focus on their respective specialties and not have to stay late handling admin, bug testing, and other more general tasks.

Results

SideSwipe’s new game is released on time and is bigger and better than their last release, but at nowhere near the cost to their team. Hiring the six additional developers for crunch time resulted in:

Logged overtime being reduced to 10% of what it was before
No one sleeping under their desk
No dip in productivity or morale after release
No resignations
Savings due to the compensation for additional developers being less than the combined cost of core staff’s overtime
The start of a shift in SideSwipe’s employer brand from tough place to work to well-oiled production machine, which is helpful in attracting more top talent

Plus, some of the new developers brought in new skills the core staff didn’t have. This had the immediate effect of helping to produce a better game, but also the longer-term effect of leaving the core staff more capable for future projects.

Tips for successful staff augmentation

Whether it’s your first time using staff augmentation or you’re in search of ways to improve future uses, these tips will help.

1. Identify where staff augmentation would be helpful

What exactly is the bottleneck stopping you from reaching your goal? Do you need a specific skill your team doesn't currently have, a bigger team with more capacity, something else? Make answering these questions your first step.

2. Look at different types of staff augmentation services and choose the right one for you

Once you have your answers, your options for finding new temporary staff are:

Agencies or in-house recruiters: These are professional services that partner with you to help fill your roles with the right people. Many of them are specialised, meaning they recruit for a specific industry or niche (i.e. tech or marketing).
Gig platforms: These are online platforms where you can directly hire people at an hourly or fixed-price rate (think Airbnb but for workers). Workers on these platforms often have public scores and reviews left by previous employers to let you know what you can expect when working with them.
Independent contractors: These are people unaffiliated with agencies or platforms that you have to reach out to directly. You might have worked with them in the past, be referred to them by someone you trust, or find them through research on LinkedIn. Contractors can be great if you’re in need of a very specific skill and don’t mind fostering the relationship (i.e. reaching out, interviewing, drafting contract, etc.) yourself.

3. Prepare against common staff augmentation pitfalls

For as successful of an experience as possible, avoid these common recruitment mistakes when using staff augmentation:

Incomplete needs assessment: Failing to thoroughly assess and define the specific skills and roles needed for the project or tasks, leading to misalignment between the augmented staff and actual requirements.
Poor vendor selection: Choosing a service provider without proper due diligence, such as assessing their expertise, track record, and compatibility with the organisation's culture and values.
Lack of communication: Inadequate communication between the in-house team and augmented staff, resulting in misunderstandings, delays, or suboptimal collaboration.
Undefined expectations: Not setting clear expectations regarding project timelines, deliverables, and performance metrics, which can lead to dissatisfaction and conflicts.
Insufficient onboarding: Neglecting to provide proper onboarding and integration processes for augmented staff, hindering their ability to contribute effectively to the project.
Overlooking legal and compliance issues: Failing to address legal and compliance aspects, such as confidentiality agreements, intellectual property rights, and compliance with labour laws, leading to potential legal issues.
Neglecting flexibility: Not considering the need for flexibility in the engagement, such as adapting to changing project requirements or scaling the team as needed.
Ignoring cultural fit: Overlooking the importance of cultural fit between augmented staff and the existing team, which can impact collaboration and overall project success.
Short-term focus only: Using staff augmentation solely as a short-term fix without considering long-term strategic implications, leading to challenges in sustaining the benefits of this staffing model.
Failure to monitor and evaluate: Neglecting ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the augmented staff's performance, hindering the ability to make informed decisions and improvements over time.

Staff augmentation FAQs

How is outsourcing different from staff augmentation?

Outsourcing involves delegating entire projects to an external team for long-term management, while staff augmentation temporarily hires external personnel to support in-house teams for specific tasks or projects, maintaining in-house control.

Put another way, outsourcing is a comprehensive, ongoing commitment, whereas staff augmentation is a flexible, short-term solution to address specific skill gaps or project needs.

Can staff augmentation be used for long-term needs?

Staff augmentation is primarily designed for short-term projects or addressing specific tasks. It's not the ideal solution for long-term, continuous staffing requirements. This is better achieved through traditional staffing (i.e. full-time hires) or outsourcing.

Is staff augmentation only suitable for IT-related projects?

Staff augmentation is commonly used in IT, but it can be applied to various industries. Any situation requiring a temporary boost in capacity or specialised skills can benefit from staff augmentation.

Closing thoughts

Hopefully, this helps you understand the ins and outs of staff augmentation and whether it’s the right staffing model for your needs.

For professional help with solving your biggest recruitment challenges, both temporary and permanent, please contact us about our fractional recruitment services .