3 Benefits Of Staff Augmentation In Resourcing L&D Projects

3 Benefits Of Staff Augmentation In Resourcing L&D Projects
Irene Jimenez/SweetRush
Summary: Under the 'Talent Management' umbrella, there is a short list of ways HR and L&D professionals can add people power to get the job done. One of those ways is through the benefits of staff augmentation.

What The Benefits Of Staff Augmentation Are In L&D

How many psychometricians do you know? Not long ago, I was contacted by a client in dire need of a psychometrician who was available to work for six months on a project. It’s possible your cousin is an awesome psychometrician, and she’s available and has an orientation to Learning and Development (L&D), but chances are if you are like me, you were not even quite sure what the term meant.

eBook Release: Staff Augmentation For Learning And Development: The Agile Talent Solution For Modern Business
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Staff Augmentation For Learning And Development: The Agile Talent Solution For Modern Business
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Psychometricians, that is, people who measure the quality, reliability, and fairness of tests, are not hanging out en masse at Starbucks. Now, imagine you need one. Given your current workload, are you prepared to start a search and secure that talent? It’s a big job, and even bigger than you think (see the chart below).

 

End to end, recruiting requires many steps, each backed up by defined processes and technologies. Top-quality talent who fits your exact needs rarely come knocking on your door.

For L&D professionals who are looking to get a project done, there’s an intersection in the road that gives you 3 choices:

  1. First choice
    If your internal team has the bandwidth and capabilities to get the job done, take that path.
  2. Second choice
    If it’s a large and/or complex project generally beyond the bandwidth and capabilities of your team, you can hire an outside vendor, such as SweetRush.
  3. Third choice
    If your team does have most of the capabilities and bandwidth but is lacking one or two (or more, depending on the situation) critical capabilities, then your best choice is to bring on staff augmentation talent.

If the staff augmentation path is the right one, then the next question is How do I secure that talent? Answer: This is a perfect opportunity to engage a staff augmentation vendor to supply that talent.

Let’s take a look at 3 benefits of resourcing your L&D projects through a staff augmentation vendor-partner.

1. It Keeps You Sane And Gets The Job Done

Depending on your situation, bringing on a staff augmentation vendor just might be the best decision.

Back to my client who needed a psychometrician: the job required the talent to temporarily join my client’s training team, analyze their learning objectives, and develop test questions that addressed those objectives.

Our client knew what they wanted but didn’t know how to get it. That’s why they came to us to collaborate on securing the talent. Advertising for, searching for, interviewing, vetting, and contracting is a significant and focused full-time effort. Assuming you have a day job, it’s probably not a good idea to add this to your plate.

If within your company, you have a recruiting team and mechanism in place, you should first turn to them for help, and, in fact, you may be forced by company policy to do so. But, be aware: your needs are specific and nuanced. You don’t need just any psychometrician, but one who really understands corporate learning.

Whoever is doing the recruiting for you, internally or externally, should have a true understanding of the work you do and your needs, and the ability to find your talent that is uniquely tailored for your situation. Often, internal recruiting functions simply do not have that affinity to your work, and likely the process will be slow and arduous. If you need the right talent and pretty quickly, this is a great time to turn to a staff augmentation vendor that specializes in your field.

In Finding the Best Fit for Your Needs, an eBook developed by SweetRush’s Talent Solutions team, you can follow the trajectory of the staffing process done in house by you, and compare that same process through a staffing vendor, as shown in the following chart:

In our Talent Solutions division, this is what we do, and we have the connected pool of talent and the focus, time, processes, and technologies to work through each required step. I truly feel for the client that has to take on this effort solo.

Working with a staff augmentation vendor means you are offloading the work you’d need to do, work that is not your focus nor likely the best use of your time. You, of course, will still be in the driver’s seat, doing the selected interviews (after your vendor has pre-selected and interviewed) and making the hiring decision.

Back to our psychometrician: we were able to find one, an expert with a Ph.D., for our client shortly after we got the inquiry. She’s become one of our trusted resources and has gone on to do work for several other clients.

2. It Lets You Focus On Your Job

Your time is valuable and taking on HR-related burdens for a short-term engagement is, again, likely not the best use of your time. Staffing without a vendor can be a time-consuming process that doesn’t really end even when you choose your candidate. Once the company decides on the best prospect, it’s time to face all the HR-related burdens, which are complicated and a level of hassle you will likely want to avoid.

If you are contracting an individual directly, you are the contracting agency. You are responsible for contractor orientation, tracking their time, getting them paid, and embracing a whole set of HR burdens and overhead that just do not make sense when you need short-term talent. It’s far better to let your agency take on those responsibilities, and let you focus on your job.

3. It Brings Extra Value

Your staff augmentation vendor, if they truly understand your needs, will bring that extra value which you might not have thought about.

Some time ago, an East Coast company, looking for a temporary L&D professional, got in touch with us. This client consults with doctors, nurses, and medical students to have end-of-life conversations with terminally ill patients. We really appreciated their expertise and the worthy work they do, but what they lacked was the expertise to put together a curriculum and structure a workshop. They came to us looking for an Instructional Designer/Project Manager who could lead and organize their people in this effort.

They felt they needed a very capable ID/PM, and we agreed. But we also felt that the ID/PM, in this situation, needed to bring higher-level insights into L&D that would be crucial for our client’s success. And that is the talent we found for them.

At SweetRush, our whole world is Learning and Development. This is our everyday work, and we know how important each team member is in getting the challenging work we do.

Finding that right talent, being that perfect matchmaker means really digging down and understanding the client’s needs. Likewise, it means vetting talent to ensure they have the right capabilities and attitude to really jump in and help our client.

It’s not simple, it’s challenging. But, we love building our own teams internally, and as a result, we love doing it for our clients.

Staff augmentation can be a cost-effective alternative to effectively fulfill your talent needs. While you can choose to manage the staffing process on your own, working with a staffing vendor, the right staffing vendor, just might keep you sane! Download the eBook Staff Augmentation For Learning And Development: The Agile Talent Solution For Modern Business to discover more!

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