An increasingly popular strategy for reducing costs, speeding up time to market, and fostering innovation is staff augmentation. Businesses are getting more at ease nowadays with adding offshore or nearshore IT specialists to their teams. Virtual employment interviews, contract signings without a traditional handshake, online meetings, and virtual cocktail parties to celebrate project success have all become commonplace. 

Staff augmentation can be an effective way to gain access to specialized skills and expertise, fill talent gaps, and manage workload spikes. Additionally, those who have never used team extension services intend to start doing so in 2023. 

However, there are several challenges that companies can encounter when working with staff augmentation providers. Explore each of the top staff augmentation issues in depth and see actionable advice on how to overcome them below:

Top 5 Staff Augmentation Challenges For Your Business

Problem 1 

Lack of communication: 

One of the biggest issues with staff augmentation is the lack of communication between the company and the staff augmentation provider. This can lead to misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and a lack of trust between the two parties. To overcome this issue, companies should establish clear lines of communication with their staff augmentation providers, including regular check-ins and progress reports.

Solution

Large staffing augmentation firms have developed management procedures and best practices for communication in place to guarantee flawless service delivery to clients. Small businesses typically delegate all management duties to a PM. When establishing a partnership with a new provider, you should emphasize the following, regardless of the type of business you select:

• Make sure your provider will designate a person to be in charge of monitoring the project’s delivery. At W2S Solutions, the delivery manager is gratuitously assigned to your team.
• For efficient communication in a digital setting, pick the correct collaboration tools.
• Conduct routine evaluations of the services provided.
• Agree on Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe project management approaches.
• Concur on coding conventions.
• Make sure your service provider offers security when working from home.
• As much as you can, interact with your teammates who are located remotely.
• Use of collaboration and communication platforms, such as Jira, Slack, Zoom, Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Github, etc., for effective management and communication. 

Problem 2

Quality of talent: 

Another common issue with staff augmentation is the quality of talent provided by the provider. Companies may find that the staff augmentation provider is not providing the level of talent they need to meet their business goals. To address this issue, companies should be clear about their expectations for talent and work with providers who have a proven track record of providing high-quality talent.

Solution

Bonuses, promotions, and perks should be used to keep valuable personnel on board. Simultaneously, every organization should make it a habit to save critical data for later use. Here you will find rules for dealing with routine duties as well as the scope of each employee’s responsibilities. A more high-tech technique is to employ specific software to preserve institutional memory. CRMs collect and process client data, but internal business laws are not adequately maintained by digital technology staff augmentation.

Consider aspects like cultural compatibility, time difference, size of the talent pool, service range, technical understanding, level of English proficiency of IT experts, etc. when choosing the appropriate location for IT outsourcing. Use the following guidelines when selecting a vendor for staff augmentation:

• Make a list of potential suppliers based on factors including service offers, case study examples, experience, technological expertise, security requirements, etc.
• Conduct an introductory call with a vendor to discuss any unresolved issues (staffing and onboarding procedures, legal matters, management, potential difficulties in staff augmentation projects, best practices in testing, project management, DevOps, etc.) in real-time.
• Review the ratings, references, success stories, and video testimonials of the vendors who made the shortlist. The websites, LinkedIn pages, and ranking sites like Clutch, Goodfirms, and others all have access to this information.
• Because large and mid-sized vendors are more likely to internally have the resources you need, take into account their size and hiring capabilities.
• Choose a vendor, particularly one that has experience in your business, and that has built up specialized development teams to supply the needed solutions.
• Verify that your partner complies with industry-specific certifications such as PCI DSS and HIPAA, as well as security standards like ISO and that it has sufficient business continuity (BC) and information security (IS) policies.
• Select the vendor who schedules additional calls with you, gives you follow-ups, and is aware of your company’s demands and expectations.  

Problem 3

Cost management:

Staff augmentation can be expensive, and companies may find that they are paying more than they should for the talent they are receiving. To address this issue, companies should be transparent about their budget and work with providers who can offer competitive pricing for the talent they need.

Solution

A practical technique to close the talent gap between employer demand and available talent is through staff augmentation. Compared to conventional recruitment techniques, it offers significant cost reductions. The streamlined procedure cuts off overhead expenses like posting job openings and conducting several applicant interviews.  Additionally, you can prevent costly errors related to selecting unqualified applicants. It’s an effective way to handle workload variations or fulfill strict deadlines without compromising quality or performance. 

Problem 4

Concerns about the law:

Contract negotiation is crucial because it adds openness and security to customer-vendor relationships. A poorly constructed contract may have a negative influence on your business. It may result in unforeseen outsourcing costs, a lack of quality control, compromised information security, and other staff augmentation issues. 

Solution

The bulk of software development outsourcing contracts follows one of three collaboration models: long-term dedicated development team, short-term time & material projects, and fixed price projects with clear required scope. The sort of contract depends on your business goals, and some terms may differ, but there are many key things that each contract must contain to prevent legal complications from escalating:

• Penalties for any party who fails to comply with the contract conditions.
• Liability clauses that specify your and your partner’s responsibilities. Warranty to ensure a particular degree of quality in the services provided.
• Notice periods are time frames for scaling up and down a team. Project execution and delivery can be hampered by ambiguous notice periods.
• Data protection rules, such as deidentification, reidentification, and data anonymization.
• Terms for issuing and paying invoices.

Problem 5

Transfer of project knowledge:

You risk organizational waste if the entire process is rewritten from scratch if you don’t have a solid plan in place for what information assets to collect and how to organize the process itself.  

Solution

Hire a vendor who has established best practices for effective knowledge transfer. W2S Solutions has a track record of effectively completing projects acquired from both clients and former providers. We have learned from experience that knowledge transfer fails when it is haphazard and informal, and it works when it is deliberate, well-planned, and well-communicated. 

• Define which items of knowledge should be passed.
• Determine who will be in charge of knowledge transmission.
• Examine the availability of the appropriate technical documentation: the new partner must understand the existing code, infrastructure, and product in general.
• Conduct the necessary meetings, and Q&A sessions, and invite the appropriate stakeholders to the call so that only correct information is provided promptly.

How does W2S Solutions assist with staff augmentation issues?

W2S Solutions has been assisting organizations all around the world in augmenting their software development teams with top IT specialists. We experience a variety of technologies such as AI, ML, blockchain, data science, and so on. 

Staff augmentation refers to the process of hiring additional staff to meet specific business needs or to overcome staffing shortages. W2S Solutions can assist with staff augmentation issues by providing highly skilled and experienced professionals who can join your team on a temporary or long-term basis.

Once the requirements are finalized, they will leverage their network of highly skilled professionals to identify candidates who meet your specific needs. The candidates are then screened and interviewed to ensure that they possess the necessary skills and expertise to work with your team. Once the candidates are identified, we will take care of all the administrative tasks, such as payroll and benefits, and will provide ongoing support to ensure that the staff augmentation process is seamless. They will also provide regular performance reviews to ensure that the onboarded staff is meeting your expectations and delivering the desired results. Overall, W2S Solutions can provide bespoke staff augmentation services satisfying all your staff augmentation needs with highly skilled and experienced professionals who can seamlessly integrate into your team and help you achieve your business objectives.

Conclusion

Revamping an ongoing project or launching a new project both necessitate a well-thought-out procedure to serve as the foundation for successful execution. If you’re looking to supplement your team with software engineers for a project, you’ve come to the correct place. 

Staff augmentation is one of the most popular outsourcing tactics among both established firms and start-ups. However, several difficulties have been reported throughout the staff augmentation trip, difficulties that, if not addressed appropriately, can alter the path of the project’s progress. Choosing the incorrect vendor, and having unreasonable expectations are just a few of the difficulties that hiring companies may face. For your enterprise software development projects, hire our pre-vetted, entirely in-house staff of talented engineers who are supported by solution architects. Get all of the advantages of in-house staff at a fraction of the expense. 

For companies that are considering staff augmentation solutions as a way to grow their businesses, we provide actionable advice on how to mitigate risk, improve communication, and build stronger relationships with their staff augmentation providers.