ROI Of Staff Augmentation: Everything L&D Professionals Should Know
When you are deeply immersed in your work every day, it becomes more or less like breathing, something you take as a given. You can come to assume that the ins and outs of what you do are as clear to everyone else as they are to you.
However, to your surprise, you wake up now and then and realize this is not the case. In this spirit, I want to focus on some basics and the “what” behind the ROI of staff augmentation.
Consider this a primer of sorts: just a quick rundown of the plusses that make staff augmentation (and using a staffing vendor) a good choice, or at least a choice you should be aware of.
It’s So Much Faster
Finding and vetting talent takes time. And you have a demanding job, so it’s likely going to take you a long time. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that the average time it takes to fill a position is about 42 days.
A staffing vendor will radically shorten that time frame. You’d be amazed if you saw the steps and processes and technologies we employ in an effort to place talent, but that is what it takes to get the job done quickly.
I mean, I doubt you want to wait around for 42 days!
And It’s So Much Better
In the end (and you know this), it’s all about the quality of the talent.
Speed is good, but fast and crummy are not a winning formula. I honestly believe you have a far better chance of finding that “just right” talent with a staffing vendor. Why? Because we are matchmakers. It's what we do. It’s a skill we’ve honed and cultivated.
Our success is totally dependent on your success, hence we are motivated to find you awesome talent… so that you’ll turn to us again and again. The qualitative difference in who you bring on is, in and of itself, a reason to use a staff augmentation vendor.
The Brain Drain Thing
Fantastic younger workers have been entering the workplace, but sometimes you need a seasoned pro for engagement, and many of those pros have a gig economy mindset.
Bringing on temporary talent is a great way to enrich your team with someone who’s not looking for that full-time job, but for the temp gig where he or she can swoop in, be a hero, and then take a break once the job is over. It’s just what’s happening now.
Try Before You Buy
If you do have hiring in mind as a possibility, but don’t want to commit without trying out the goods first, temporary talent is a great way to go. It’s like dating before tying the knot, which, well, makes sense.
Let your vendor know this is a possibility so they can line up a professional who is flexible and open. Once you make that full-time hire, you’re committed… so take advantage of this try-before-you-buy arrangement. Hiring a known quantity that's already onboard to your culture and processes can add to the ROI of staff augmentation.
Reduce The No-Fun Contracting Hassles
If you’re hiring for a temporary position, it’s simply a lot easier and is another boost in the ROI of staff augmentation for you to have one contract with your staffing vendor. Let them handle the contracts with talent, background checks, time tracking, payments to talent, and all that other fun bureaucratic stuff.
If It Isn’t Working Out
It happens, thankfully not often, but removing someone from a position is just easier when your temporary team member is contracted with your staffing vendor. When a professional works through a staffing vendor, it’s a less solidly wired reality compared to a full-time employee working directly for your company.
Sure, most hires are “at-will”, but nevertheless, the “exit” process is still painful and costly but it’s considerably less stressful when you have engaged a staffing vendor for temporary placement.
No FTE Authorization
It’s just part of corporate life that sometimes, and we see this often, you don’t have the authorization to hire that fixed-overhead, full-time employee. But you can bring on a temp employee. You need to get the job done, so take advantage of flexible temp resourcing.
You Get Tremendous Value
The right staffing vendor will stay connected to you and the talent. Recently, we coached a placed Project Coordinator through a few bumps, and she went on to do a remarkable job and ultimately was hired full time.
Beyond getting the talent, you get a partner who is working on your behalf to help ensure success.
When Projects Shift, Your Team Needs To Shift
You might have a core of exceptional people, but the tasks they need to tackle shift. Today, you are developing a leadership curriculum, but tomorrow it's an onboarding or change management effort, or a gamified product knowledge course.
Your team, amazing as they are, might have a skills gap. Using temp talent allows you to augment your team with the right skills to accomplish the latest effort that has landed in your lap. This approach can significantly increase the quality output of your team.
Everyone knows that finding great talent in a tight labor market is increasingly tough. While this is true, there are always great people available somewhere, and it’s essential you find them.
You need every possible advantage in your talent acquisition and management, and sometimes the right thing to do is to go the temporary talent route because the ROI of staff augmentation just makes sense. Download the eBook Staff Augmentation For Learning And Development: The Agile Talent Solution For Modern Business to find out more about making this strategy work for your organization from SweetRush’s experts.
