Staff and skill augmentation can be valuable services to IT departments and small businesses, but what are they? And how can a business make the best use of an IT consultant that provides these services? Staff/skill augmentation allow specialized IT professionals to strategically assist your team with technology projects and IT work. As services, they bring flexibility and pressure-release to where it’s needed most. In this article, we explain what staff and skill augmentation are, the benefits to working with an IT consultant for these services, and when your company may want to consider using staff or skill aug for projects.
Staff Augmentation
Staff augmentation is when a company temporarily hires additional human resources to spread out or reduce employee workload to take pressure off the company’s full-time staff. Staff augmentation can take the form of hiring temp workers, free lancers, or hiring another company to complete tasks that would normally be handled by the business’ staff. Businesses can use staff aug as a means of reducing the workload of their employees when projects require too many hours to complete or attending to a backlog of work that demands attention.
In the technology space, an IT consultant can provide staff augmentation services to another IT company or the IT department of a business. This form of IT staff augmentation allows a business to quickly address projects with a skilled team of technology experts that do not require as much training as a temp worker or freelancer. An IT consultant can bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to a company’s busy IT work that helps even out the workload for projects or attend to immediate technology needs. Building a relationship with an IT consultant for staff augmentation services means a business has access to on-demand staffing for high-level technical projects and technology emergencies.
Skill Augmentation
Skill augmentation refers to companies hiring human resources that have skills or technical knowledge that their staff do not. This often occurs when a project requires advanced skills or niche knowledge that a business’ staff have not immediately invested time into learning. Skill augmentation is a useful service when a team needs immediate help with a unique project that requires skills it will not benefit staff to learn or to help upskill workers by having them complete projects alongside someone with the specific expertise required.
IT consultants can provide skill augmentation services to help complete project tasks in either long-term or emergency situations. They can bring with them a fresh perspective to the company’s team and offer unique learning moments based on the experience they’ve gained working with clients in the past. IT consultants also offer the opportunity for a business to develop a consistent, long-term relationship with the staff assisting them, which can be a challenge if they were to use other services that provide temporary employees or freelancers.
Developing a Relationship for Staff/Skill Aug
For skill and staff augmentation to provide the most impact for your business, it is critical to develop a long-standing relationship with a trusted IT consultant. The skill and staff augmentation you need varies from other companies, and the quality of service you receive depends heavily on how well the service provider understands your needs and the skill level of your staff. When building a relationship with an IT skill or staff augmentation provider, consider the scale of the project needing assistance, the skills needed to complete the work, and the budget available for services.
Skill and staff augmentation can cover many services provided by IT consultants, so it is critical to understand the assistance you need so that you can identify the best-fit consultant for your business. Some types of staff augmentation services include:
- Temporary technical assistance
- Specialized staffing for high-skill tasks
- On-call hours
- Independent project back-log assistance
When to Augment Your Staff/Skills
With the right partner in IT, staff and skill augmentation services can be a flexible asset for any business. In the best cases, businesses will have plenty of time to anticipate peaks in workloads that staff augmentation can alleviate. Long-term planning can also allow a business to implement staff augmentation as a means of relieving pressure from their IT team when new and old projects have a risk of overlapping. Bringing in a consultant or other IT specialist early can smooth transitions in workloads and allow the consultant to learn the details of your environment and aid in strategizing how they can provide the most value to the business.
However, sometimes emergency services are required, and some IT consultants provide just-in-time support for their clients. Whether a project unexpectedly requires a highly specialized skill set or staff members need to be replaced on a project, a dedicated service provider can offer seamless assistance. An IT consultant can also provide IT staff augmentation services to help preserve business continuity when staff take an extended leave or suddenly depart from the business. Additionally, businesses have a lot to gain when they consider staff/skill aug as they implement new technologies or branch out to new markets that demand specialized IT knowledge to be successful.
Summary
Skill and staff augmentation bring value to businesses of all sizes as they navigate complex IT situations. Small businesses gain access to expertise that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive, and medium to large businesses acquire specialized skills and just-in-time support. These services become more effective with a reliable partner in IT, so Robinett Consulting recommends developing a long-term relationship with an IT consultant that can provide skill and staff augmentation along with a variety of other services your business can take advantage of.
The Robinett Consulting team has years of experience working with businesses of all sizes and filling niche roles for projects. Our engineers have learned to work well with other IT teams and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to serve our partners the high-quality IT support they deserve. If your business needs staff augmentation services or could benefit from augmenting your staff’s skills, then our engineers are ready to provide a complimentary consultation to see how we can provide you IT as it should be!
