The Top 5 Myths About IT Staff Augmentation

After the pandemic, we might come back to the new normal, but the lessons team leaders have learned are here to stay. The importance of excellent and affordable talents is one of the most valuable conclusions we derived over this time.

In this post, we will bring clarity to a popular but misunderstood talent acquisition strategy — team augmentation and debunk the top 5 myths about it.

Talent Augmentation: Definition

Team augmentation is the process of hiring developers offshore to support full-time teams. Here’s how staff augmentation helps business owners:

• Introduces them to niche talent. With talent augmentation, you can hire developers whose skillsets fit specific project needs.
• Gives flexibility and confidence. Hiring augmented teams allows business owners to scale teams on-demand, with no commitment.
• Guided assistance: talent augmentation vendors support business owners in talent selection, maintaining and scaling workflows, and building secure management infrastructures.

Demystifying Top 5 Staff Augmentation Myths

Staff augmentation is a powerful way to deliver projects faster and more efficiently. However, business owners can be reluctant to jump on the bandwagon due to numerous misconceptions around the idea.

Below, we will debunk the most common staff augmentation myths.

Myth #1. Staff augmentation and outsourcing are the same

While the two are similar, these are fundamentally different concepts. Let’s break down both to see the differences clearly:

Staff augmentation is when:

• You have full control over the team.
• Talent is handpicked for the project.
• Both the main and the offshore teams have long-term collaboration in mind.

Outsourcing is when:

• You hire developers for one project
• The team is managed by the vendor.
• The collaboration is project-based.

Myth #2. Augmented teams are harder to control

Before the pandemic, business owners heavily relied on face-to-face communication. The times may have changed, but many are still reluctant to work with offshore teams.

If you believe that augmented teams can get out of control easily, here are a few compelling reasons to change your mind.

• The business owner has complete control over the augmented team. The offshore engineers work remotely but report directly to the main team.
• The augmented team is fully engaged in the process. This is the crucial difference between outsourcing and staff augmentation. In the latter case, the developer is working for a single employer. Therefore, there is no need to worry about the developer prioritizing other projects over his own.
• Companies that provide staff augmentation services are especially responsible for coordinating communication between the main office and remote teams. Newxel can help team leaders find appropriate times for meetings, hold augmentation developers accountable by notifying them to submit reports, and help managers set up effective workflows for performance tracking.

Myth #3. Staff augmentation is limited to enterprise companies

Another common misconception is that staffing is a strategy that works only for enterprise-level businesses. In fact, the opposite is true: small business owners can increase their competitiveness by increasing staff and outperform their large competitors.

You can hire highly skilled technicians at an affordable price by looking for talent in areas that aren’t often targeted by the top players on the market.

Myth #4. Talent augmentation leads to poor products

Hiring a team that works remotely rather than in-house may seem to lead to bottlenecks and reduced productivity. You may also wonder if offshore developers are well trained to meet the demands of the highly competitive technology market.

In fact, there is no correlation between increasing talent and degrading product quality. In fact, engineers working remotely have benefits for several reasons.

• Working with remote teams brings new ideas and insights to the project. Hiring offshore developers is a way for business owners to diversify their engineering practices and create products that appeal to a global audience.
• Developers are carefully selected for the project. IT augmentation involves selecting candidates with the project in mind. This means you can work with developers who are familiar with product niche areas and technologies.
• Augmented developers are highly motivated. There are two grounds for this argument. First, offshore engineers are usually committed to the project because they have fewer jobs than programmers in the US, Canada, and the EU. Also, when hired in a market with low average salaries, a good offer is a strong incentive for new engineers.

Myth #5. There are too many risks involved

Hiring developers abroad can seem daunting to team leaders. However, overseas markets have unique laws and tax systems.

However, staffing isn’t risky if you can find an experienced and reliable vendor. Newxel’s legal, financial, and talent management experts will show you how to mitigate the risks associated with recruiting.

• Take full responsibility for managing tax and legal affairs. By contacting Newxel, business owners do not have to worry about administrative and financial documents.
• 24/7 support. We regularly monitor team progress and help business owners avoid productivity disruptions by coordinating processes with headquarters project managers for maximum efficiency of offshore developers.
• Transparency. Our team publishes reports to record expenses, working hours, etc., in real-time.

If you are looking for a reliable IT outstaffing in Ukraine, contact Newxel. After thoroughly discussing the project requirements with the main team, we carefully select the engineers who will be valuable assets of the process. Newxel’s talent managers are good at hiring AI, ML, and IoT engineers as well as web and mobile app developers. See how the team works, look at our case studies or contact us for hiring.