By virtue of the nature of IT-related jobs, i.e., they can be done remotely from anywhere, IT staff augmentation services were highly in demand. The waves of COVID-19 have massively impacted the staff augmentation industry, forcing businesses and companies with no choice but to do remote work and operate with a blend of full-time employees and remote workers.

Those three waves emerged as a catalyst to unfold the untapped potential of staff augmentation. If engaged in the discussion, it is estimated that the whole staff augmentation industry will stand at US$81.87 billion by the end of 2025. Also, the leveraged IT staff augmentation services offer, such as ramping up quickly and at the same speed without compliance-related issues.

So now, what is ahead when COVID-19 is gone? Would things come back to absolute normal as before, and would companies hire the traditional way? Let’s know in this article without further delay.

Future Ahead Lies for IT staff augmentation services

The IT industry is consistently changing, entirely changing the dynamics of IT-related jobs, especially software development. With the swift evolution of the landscape, businesses and companies are looking to go digital.

And now, amid a spike in demand, need, and requirements, companies are looking to have an augmentation in their team for a temporary period to get the job done, and this is all possible with IT staff augmentation services, as it gives businesses the flexibility to quickly swirl and gives access to quickly specialized and niche skills to tackle the surge in demand.

Also, staff augmentation is relevant in IT jobs; whether businesses need to integrate AI in software development or AR/VR in mobile applications, they can easily onboard a person or even a team with their internal team.

As per the staffing industry analyst market report, in 2022 alone, the staffing industry generated USD212B, and staff augmentation has a substantial chunk of that. Marketing anger in companies is leveraging staff augmentation to market their products to the masses after their full-fledged development. Businesses lately in need of temporary expertise are focusing on contracted labor-based services. 

Companies are using staff augmentation to fill the gaps that are there temporarily. Assume suddenly a company needs a deluge of work and they have developed but not enough project managers to tackle that deluge of work. Companies know this is not going to be like this for a long time, so rather, they open a job position, interview candidates, and go through benefits and other HR-related time-consuming processes. They can augment their staff by hiring a number of project managers they require, and once the job is done, they can let them go, or if they are impressed by them, they can make them a permanent part of their company with all the benefits.

IT staff augmentation services

Companies usually hire an external professional for a number of IT skills, such as digital marketing and software development, including both mobile and web development.

Hot Trends in IT staff augmentation services

• Spike in Demand for Niche and Specialized Skills: The expertise for technologies and realms the world is reluctant to accept and embrace, such as cryptocurrency, blockchain, etc., or technologies that are being adopted and their potential is being untapped, like artificial intelligence, agitated reality, virtual reality, etc., businesses are seeking expertise for such technologies to integrate the relatively novel technologies in their systems.

• Remote Staffing: The adoption of remote work has become pervasive since the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, companies have been hiring remote workers as it helps them save on the costs involved in the operation. Not only is this beneficial from a cost aspect, but it also gives businesses an option to hire from around the globe.

• Project-based Staffing: Agencies and software houses providing different IT services sometimes have to experience a surge in skill sets amid acquiring projects and clients. Staff augmentation comes into the game and helps them tackle sudden upsurges.

• Comprehensive IT services: A single software development project requires a gamut of expertise to become a success, and usually, businesses don't have all the expertise to make that happen, so they give out the project to companies offering diverse It skills, from design to development to deployment to marketing to ongoing support and maintenance services, etc.

Benefits of IT staff augmentation services

IT staff augmentation services bring a plethora of benefits and yield amazing results if done right. Let’s delve into why companies are showing a tendency towards staff augmentation.

• Access to Niche or Specialized Skills: Businesses and companies get to onboard experts with skills that are not common and hard to find. This is true, especially for companies looking for experts in blockchain, NFT, artificial intelligence, and extended reality, i.e., augmented reality, virtual reality, etc.

• Skills at Reduced Rates: When you go for staff augmentation, first, most staff are working remotely, so you don't have to set up new systems and make space, unlike you do for new hires. Also, usually, companies and businesses from America, Canada, and European countries opt for staff augmentation, and they get the experts at half the cost they are getting in their countries and without having to ensure adherence to different sorts of compliances.

• Flexibility and Scalability: This has allure! Normally, businesses and companies have a perpetual cycle of dearth and abundance of projects, and in both states, they face staff problems, but with staff augmentation, they can easily ramp up and down as needed based on demand or whatever. Staff augmentation gives companies autonomy to add resources to their teams whenever and wherever needed without impacting their core businesses.

• Expertise: If a company lacks a certain skill and they are in need of it instantly, staff augmentation solves their problem by giving them access to an expert with that skill. This mostly happens when a company does not need that certain skill for a long time and needs it on a temporary basis. Otherwise, manual/traditional hiring is recommended for long-term hires.

• No Training Required: Because staff provided gy staff augmentation services are experienced as they have been working for a long time, they understand the nuances and dynamics of bringing a project to completion, so they don't have any prior training to fit in the internal as they are well aware of potential challenges.

• Trial Without Trial: Sometimes, a wrong hire comes into the company, which companies can't ascertain in the hiring process but later have to fire because of shortcomings. Staff augmentation is the most efficient way to recruit new hires. Assume you hire a ReactJS developer whom you would like to have on your team for perfume. You can easily offer them up to join your team, but if you have hired a ReactJS developer who does not have the kind of skills you were actually looking for, now whenever you even have to fire, you can't instantly but will have to ensure they serve up the notice period.

Downsides of Staff Augmentation

Not all staffing agencies have good professionals; they have mostly jobless people, so they send these professionals their resumes. Most good professionals are already employed at some job or working as self-employed.

Though there are some expectations, these agencies already have contacts with professionals who are really good at their core skills. That is why it is paramount to hire staff from a company that provides their development services as well, so you can be assured that these professionals have experience in their field. The benefit of hiring from a software house or a development company is that their marketers, designers, developers, and QA testers are already working on their projects, so the professionals you onboard in their team are skilled and experienced at the same time.

Though businesses get to save money on a lot of things when hiring staff, there is a negotiated fee that businesses have to pay a placement agency and the workers. Sometimes, hires on a temporary basis end up costing more than traditional hires.

New Entrants in the Landscape: IT Staff Augmentation Companies

Amid the spike in the need for external professionals, a mass entrance of companies is happening in a bid to benefit from that demand. Already existing and new companies are marketing themselves as staff augmentation companies by providing a window solution to businesses. These companies usually have teams of diverse skill sets to cater to the needs of businesses and companies looking to augment their teams.

The new era has opened up numerous opportunities for these companies to take on big projects by letting them rent their staff.

Conclusion

Considering the numerous benefits of expense cutting and other overheads, i.e., reduced hiring cost, less cost, an expedition of the hiring process, access to specialized expertise, flexibility in scaling up and down the team size, etc., the demand for IT staff augmentation services would remain highly in demand, and maybe the future of procurement of specialized skills and the hiring process. This industry will remain booming in the future and will become a multi-billion-dollar industry, and this will outrightly evolve the landscape of onboarding professionals on their teams.