Ways To Mitigate Staff Augmentation Challenges
Change is the most eminent occurrence in a business scenario, and organizations are looking for ways to cope with rapid and turbulent changes. Innovation, embracing technological advancements, and upskilling and reskilling employees to adapt to fast-evolving changes are becoming priorities for businesses. No wonder L&D teams are undergoing immense pressure to design, develop, and roll out training programs to stay current and keep up with the fast and furious changes. It certainly doesn't happen overnight and requires continual efforts. Hiring experienced candidates on a temporary basis to get the job done is a viable option thanks to staff augmentation!
Project needs are volatile, and modern businesses demand speed and scale. The eLearning industry is not an exception. Organizations can't afford to wait for their workforce to first undergo training and then deliver. They might miss crucial project deadlines in due course. It's time for businesses to embrace staff augmentation, the secret weapon for acquiring agile talent to build a dream team to deliver top-class project deliverables.
Why Should L&D Teams Consider Staff Augmentation?
Modern businesses are dynamic, and project needs vary. It is challenging for organizations to set up an ideal in-house team matching unique project needs. Training them for temporary needs involves time and cost, and sometimes you don't have sufficient bandwidth due to stringent deadlines. Here are a few key challenges faced by businesses today and how staff augmentation can help overcome them.
Challenge 1: Want To Scale Up In-House Teams To Complete High-Priority Projects
High-priority projects with stringent deadlines can be delivered with ease if you have additional resources to assist the existing team. Hiring full-time employees for temporary project needs is not a judicious decision. You have to meet the expenses associated with permanent employees and also bear the burden of engaging them after the completion of the project.
Solution: Managing costs is crucial for businesses to make profits. Hiring full-time employees is a costly affair. When you deploy the staff augmentation model, you engage professionals for a stipulated period, and that saves you expenses associated with hiring full-time employees right from recruiting, onboarding, and training to paying salaries and other long-term benefits. You can invest the amount saved in other business priorities and scale business ROI.
Challenge 2: Foresee Continual Work For A Couple Of Resources But Don't Want To Hire, Train, And Manage Resources
Sometimes, enterprises can foresee projects coming their way that might need continual work for a couple of resources but for a temporary period. Naturally, they would not like to invest their time and effort in hiring, training, and managing these resources, as they might not add value in the long run.
Solution: Considering the dynamic nature of modern businesses and market volatility, organizations need to be agile to scale their existing workforce to meet project demands. However, investing in hiring fresh talent to meet temporary project requirements is not a judicious decision. Staff augmentation offers you the flexibility to access skilled professionals who can meet your increased project demands without you worrying about the hassle of hiring, training, and managing full-time resources. Upon completion of the project, you can easily reduce your team size while easing the burden of managing excess employees.
Challenge 3: Have Vague Expectations And Need Dynamic Resources That Will Ensure A Smooth Sail
Sometimes, clients have vague expectations and fancy requirements. If they are your permanent clients, you can't even deny the project. In such a scenario, when your in-house team doesn't have the specialized skills, necessary experience, and expertise to deliver the project, you look for dynamic resources that can help you navigate through the challenges and sail smoothly to deliver the unique project requirements.
Solution: Staff augmentation allows access to a large pool of seasoned professionals who possess specialized skillsets and have experience and expertise in multiple domains. Hiring them can crack the code, as they bring in-depth knowledge of industry insights and best practices to solve critical challenges associated with complicated projects. Your in-house team can learn tricks and tips, work alongside the augmented staff, and proficiently deliver complex projects. This broadens the scope for businesses to innovate, excel, and win a competitive edge in the market.
Challenge 4: Don't Want To Work With Multiple Vendors
Every project is unique and demands specific skillsets. It becomes challenging for organizations to upskill their employees, especially under budget and time constraints. Outsourcing is a viable solution but only when you find a vendor who serves all your project requirements. For complicated projects, you might need to involve multiple vendors with the desired expertise. Handling them is a challenging task.
Solution: Unlike outsourcing, where you delegate the entire project or parts of the project to external entities, staff augmentation integrates seasoned professionals into the existing in-house team to empower them to deliver their best. The model also saves you from the hassle of coordinating with multiple vendors. When you integrate augmentees into the existing team, you have control over the project deliverables, be it processes or functionalities. You get a better opportunity to communicate and coordinate with the augmented staff, and this leads to efficient collaboration within the new team. The augmented professionals go well with the company culture and deliver top-quality deliverables.
Challenge 5: Have Small Projects For Which They Don't Want To Use In-House Staff
Say your in-house team is held up with a high-priority project and you get a few parallel small projects with overlapping timelines. Would you like your in-house team to jump into the smaller projects while they are busy focusing on crucial aspects of the high-priority project? Obviously, no. How do you accommodate petty projects?
Solution: Well, here's the solution—staff augmentation. This strategic approach can be your superpower to handle multiple projects simultaneously. The augmentee team members are skilled professionals with multidomain expertise. Considering the knowledge and experience they bring to the table, you can bank on them to pull off multiple small projects without involving the in-house team. Their prowess in multiple domains not only speeds up the development process but also ensures quality project deliverables within shorter turnaround times. Your in-house team can thus focus on high-priority projects without distractions.
Staff Augmentation: Your Best Ally For Future Business Needs
Hope the article has provided you with much-needed insights into how staff augmentation can combat challenges in the dynamic business landscape. All that you need to do is plan and prioritize your business needs and then tap into the rich pool of skilled professionals. When you deploy the model, you get to choose top-notch professionals for a variety of roles, such as Instructional Designers, authoring tool experts, learning architects, Quality Assurance experts, LMS experts, project managers, and more. Including them can augment your existing in-house team to deliver top-class deliverables, beat the competition, win customers, and grab new market opportunities. Sound exciting? Set sail to explore staff augmentation for your future business needs and skyrocket your business.
