Staff augmentation or outsourcing a team?

Recruitment is such a rapidly-growing field. New strategies appear all the time, and some pass the test of time while others disappear and are forgotten soon after they are developed. 

Most companies decide to follow the conventional hiring model without even considering the alternatives available to them – often without even knowing there are any. But two hiring models have been becoming popular over the years to address the challenges of the business landscape – staff augmentation and outsourcing.

However, the two are often confused even by skilled recruiters despite their success. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the differences between staff augmentation and outsourcing – and which one is better for your organization.

What’s staff augmentation

Staff augmentation is the temporary hiring of outside experts to supplement an organization's capabilities. It's a form of outsourcing approach in which individuals are employed to cover gaps in projects, in line with the company's present goals. This personnel is used depending on the talents required and can work with a customer for a short or lengthy period.

Because of the peculiarities of many industries, such as IT, and the scarcity of talent, services like these are gaining traction. Staff augmentation firms in the IT industry can supply programmers, QA engineers, designers, marketing specialists, and system administrators, among other roles within an organization.

What’s outsourcing

Outsourcing is a commercial technique that involves contracting out services or job responsibilities to a third party. An outsourcing endeavor with a technology provider in information technology might include a variety of functions, ranging from the complete IT function to discrete, readily defined components like disaster recovery, network services, software development, or QA testing.

Companies can outsource IT services onshore (inside their nation), nearshore (to a nearby country or in the same time zone), or offshore (to a country outside of their time zone) (to a more distant country). Traditionally, nearshore and offshore outsourcing have been explored to save money.

Staff augmentation vs. outsourcing – 5 key differences

Now that you know the definitions of staff augmentation and outsourcing, let’s put them side by side and consider the different approaches to hiring they offer to show you better which one will be more effective in your company.

Costs

With staff augmentation, the company pays for the additional staff's hire and training and supplies them with the required equipment and resources. The vendor also completes the job with its equipment and resources. On the other hand, when it comes to outsourcing, all costs associated with the hired labor are handled by the outsourcing company.

Purpose

When you’re augmenting your staff, you’ll be filling specific gaps or putting together a temporary team suitable for both short and long-term tasks and unexpected ones. In outsourcing, you’ll have to complete tasks that a corporation does not wish to recruit for.

Management

Staff augmentation necessitates managerial effort, enhancing overall team cohesion and eliminating hiring headaches. In the case of outsourcing, even though management is independent, the external team does not integrate completely with the company's employees.

Experience

In staff augmentation, a client examines the competence of the supplemental workers on their own, and they engage directly with other employees. When it comes to outsourcing, the company's specialist outsourcing team blends external market information with unique insights into its business. The customer cannot check the quality of the materials.

Onboarding

Employees hired through staff augmentation go through an onboarding which takes place quickly because the customer has immediate and on-demand access to the resources and expertise they require. Teams that are outsourced can’t start their work until they've been extensively investigated, deliverables have been defined, and milestones have been established. Before the project may move forward, both parties must finalize formal agreements.

Which one should you choose?

It might be challenging to find the ideal staffing model. Variables such as a company's personnel budgets, anticipated staffing requirements resulting from projected business growth (or contraction), the technical skill sets available among current employees, project security and project deadlines, the position of global competitors in international markets, and many other factors all add to the complexity.

Staff augmentation may be the best option for you if you want a flexible staffing solution that allows you to bring in outside technical expertise as needed, with augmented staff able to integrate with your existing team quickly — whether for the duration of a project, during specific stages, or for a final software review.

Outsourcing might be the engagement model for your organization if you don't mind giving up direct management over a project or don't have the administrative resources to cope with increased employees. While project outsourcing has limitations (lack of quality control and communication concerns), it can help you save money while providing your in-house development team more time to focus on their most critical development activities.

Depending on your requirements, you may opt for staff augmentation, project outsourcing, or a hybrid approach that combines both models with managed services to fill out your overall staffing strategy. You may always change these engagement models as needed as your company grows.

The best course of action is to select an experienced vendor who can assist you in overcoming your current staffing challenges while also consulting with you regularly so that you can implement another outsourcing model if and when necessary or adjust your current staffing model to make your company run as efficiently as possible, increasing its competitiveness in national and international markets.

Staff augmentation with Manatal

As a staffing agency, browsing through each candidate’s profile takes time and isn’t the optimal solution in 2022. Instead, consider using an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Manatal. Some of the benefits you can expect include:

Reduce costs

Manatal is a cost-effective option for staffing organizations aiming to optimize the recruiting process by lowering time spent on administration and management and automating the most time-consuming processes.

Recruiters can concentrate their time on more high-value duties instead of wasting time on low-value chores like uploading or updating resumes, manually combing through hundreds of profiles to identify the suitable applicants, and posting openings on numerous job boards.

Increase hiring efficiency

Filtering applications and reviewing resumes to find the best applicants are time-consuming and often messy. Applicant tracking systems give recruiters easy-to-use tools for automating tasks like screening, filtering, and rating prospects.

As an intelligent, AI-powered applicant tracking system, Manatal automatically parses CVs, ranks prospects based on your criteria, and shows candidate data clearly that allows for quick and easy comparisons.

Collaboration

The use of a single recruitment platform significantly increases team communication and collaboration. Team members and supervisors involved in the hiring process may make notes, ask questions, mark information, and keep track of all applications.

Manatal minimizes time spent in meetings and ensures effective communication, ensuring that all members have the same amount of knowledge about potential applicants. It also aids in work management, scheduling, and interview preparation.

Store resumes

Manatal is an excellent tool for storing and retrieving resumes. Candidates' data and applications are freely available and may be evaluated to make better decisions. With comprehensive filters, we make it simple to track apps by saving time and allowing businesses to reach a larger number of potential candidates. All of that makes it effortless to post vacant positions on job boards and social media.

Start your free trial with Manatal ATS

Click here to sign up for a free 14-day trial with Manatal and discover for yourself how much you can earn by implementing our cutting-edge applicant tracking system in your everyday recruitment efforts.