Staff Augmentation is a form of business outsourcing model wherein the in-house team of an organization is supported by qualified personnel hired on a short term basis to meet specific business objectives.
It has been one of the most popular outsourcing strategies for short-term SAP projects for quite some time – the reason behind this is its efficiency. It is an effective way of bridging the skill gap in the organization to meet the requirements of the project in a short span of time. Moreover, hiring fulltime workers for ad-hoc projects is a resource-exhaustive process that ends up costing the company a lot more in the long run.
Under Staff Augmentation, the entire staffing process – putting out job openings, shortlisting candidates, interviewing and hiring them – is handled by a Staff Augmentation service provider, which saves the company a lot of time and money. Essentially, a month’s process would take just a few days to be completed, and with significantly less spending.
Staff Augmentation service providers bring in the SAP expertise required to make a proper assessment and screening of the candidates. The company must simply identify the skill gaps in their teams, and define the skill sets they are looking for.
Staff Augmentation makes upsizing and downsizing easier, and brings in an element of flexibility to facilitate scalability. Managing staff for short-term projects is easier when there is a pool of fresh and diverse resources, instead of constant cycles of hiring and firing.
Despite all these advantages, however, not a lot of companies are able to make the most of Staff Augmentation due to a myriad of reasons – including improper planning, a lack of proper knowledge transfers, unethical wage practices and communication gaps. Staff Augmentation models can give the company the reliability of a full-time workforce and the flexibility of project outsourcing, and a successful implementation would benefit the company in the long run.
The key to a successful Staff Augmentation is more managerial than technical, and here are some important steps to ensure a successful Staff Augmentation implementation:
● Establish Clear Communication: The scope for communication needs to be established between the Staff Augmentation service provider and the company from the early stages of development to avoid organizational failures. As the augmented staff mostly works from remote locations, the company must open all communication channels for smooth communication between them and the in-house team. The company must also schedule regular meetings between the internal teams and the augmented staff, and allocate the roles and responsibilities clearly.
● Choose Short-term Projects: As established earlier, Staff Augmentation works best for short-term projects and projects that are time-bound. For projects like SAP, hiring offshore developers is usually a good investment. Hiring a full-time employee for a
one-time endeavor will be costly for the company. Allow your in-house workers to handle the long-term maintenance of the project.
● Identify Skill Gaps and Talent Requirements: Before employing Staff Augmentation services, the company needs to perform a talent audit to figure out the gaps between the available talent and the talent required for the project. If a specific skill set is necessary to complete a high-quality job on time, Staff Augmentation is necessary.
● Don’t Overlook the Legal Aspects: Signing contracts is important to maintain transparency and safety in business relationships. A weak contract can result in unplanned outsourcing bills, loss of control over the quality, compromised data security, and other challenges. It is also important to make the Staff Augmentation firm and outsourced staff sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to protect your intellectual property rights and prevent them from being misused.
● Establish Transparency About Payment: The Staff Augmentation service provider company hires must charge each of its developers a set monthly fee. Both the developer’s actual wage and the service provider’s commission for providing the service should be included in the bill.
● Choose the Right Staff Augmentation Service Provider: Most importantly, the company must partner with a Staff Augmentation service provider that is reputed for their delivery of services. The service provider must be able to meet the company’s staffing needs satisfactorily and have the necessary expertise to assess and screen the candidates. It must also be able to recruit resources both onsite, offshore and
round-the-clock support to the company.
Smart Data is an SAP service partner with a proven and successful track record of SAP Staffing Solutions. Leave your recruiting and staffing processes to our experts, and scale up your business! Contact us now to learn more!
