Staff augmentation and its subtype, IT staff augmentation is rising globally, they provide numerous benefits and support to businesses. According to market forecasts, IT staff augmentation will grow at a 3.53% CAGR between 2021 and 2025, reaching a total incremental spend of $81.87 billion.
What are the main reasons for this outsourcing model’s rising popularity, and what other IT staff augmentation trends should you be aware of?
Keep reading to find out!
What Is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation, also recognized as extended software development, is a strategy in which dedicated remote teams of software engineers collaborate closely with your in-house staff.
The remote and in-house teams collaborate on the same projects and tasks, have similar goals and KPIs, interact daily, and frequently report to the same project managers. This facilitates the seamless integration of external and internal teams.
As a result, you can increase developer productivity, address skill shortages, and achieve a faster time to market — all at a reduced cost and without the hassle of hiring additional in-house employees.
Benefits of Staff Augmentation
- Reduced hiring costs
- faster project submission
- Lowering overhead costs
- Increased output
- Low effort in recruiting
- Superior adaptability
Future of Staff Augmentation
Virtual and augmented reality: VR and AR technologies will provide new opportunities for remote collaboration and staff augmentation, allowing teams to work together in virtual environments.
Focus on specialization: Companies will increasingly turn to staff augmentation to access expertise in specific areas, such as emerging technologies and data science.
Digital transformation: The digital transformation of industries will drive demand for specialized staff augmentation services as companies seek to stay ahead of the curve.
Project-based work: Staff augmentation will become increasingly project-based, allowing companies to bring specialists for specific projects or initiatives.
Hybrid models: The trend toward remote work will drive the development of hybrid models, combining on-site and remote staff augmentation.
Data privacy and security: As companies collect and manage more sensitive data, data privacy, and security concerns will become a significant driver of staff augmentation practices.
5 Trends of Staff Augmentation to Watch in 2024
Global Market Availability
Businesses prepare to tap into the global market to hire top talent, partly because regional partners may need help to provide the talent that companies require. In addition, because of the remote work style, it is now easier for businesses to reach out to high-quality resources through their staffing partners. This pattern will continue in the future.
Priorities advanced IT skills
Modern businesses seek to include cutting-edge technology like AI, ML, RPA, IPA, and others. As a result, there will be a tremendous need for experts in these sectors shortly.
Importance of Value Over Cost-savings
Companies today seek quality, even if it comes at a premium price. IT staffing service providers must offer personnel who can work around a company’s flexible schedules by getting to know the organization’s culture and supporting its goals. Businesses will search for partners who can meet this need.
Extra mile to hire the right people
Depending on where you live, your local market may need to provide more breadth and depth of technical talent your company requires. On the other hand, staff augmentation allows you to tap into a much larger global talent pool and locations known for top-tier tech experts, such as Europe and Latin America.
The Necessity of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is another area where remote employment has a direct influence. As the teams dispersed globally, managing endpoint security is quite tricky. Given this development, it is expected that businesses will need more cybersecurity specialists than usual. Building defenses against breaches and cyberattacks requires cybersecurity.
Conclusion
Staff augmentation allows businesses to gain temporary access to industry-leading talent through the assistance of a staffing partner. With a few twists, it is highly effective for companies, especially when there is a severe talent shortage.
The IT staffing partner will also be able to provide the necessary solutions whether the resources are required in the short or long term. Furthermore, the in-house team can concentrate on something other than regular recruitment practices because the staffing partner will handle that, allowing the team to focus on more critical tasks.