The Future of IT Staff Augmentation: 4 Key Trends

Due to the growing demand for software applications, businesses are constantly on the lookout for talented individuals. These firms often opt for nearshore or offshore development partners to find remote resources worldwide. The practice of hiring resources via external vendors is called staff augmentation. This approach opens up access to a larger talent pool at cost-effective Development costs compared to hiring onshore.

This article explores the future of IT staff augmentation and what emerging trends mean for businesses.

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What is Staff Augmentation?
The present state of IT Staff Augmentation
Key IT Staff Augmentation challenges
Future of IT Staff Augmentation trends to look out for
How to choose the right Nearshore Staff Augmentation partner
Why Bluelight Consulting for Nearshore Staff Augmentation?
Conclusion

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What is Staff Augmentation?

Staff augmentation is a type of outsourcing model that allows businesses to fill job positions within the company with remote talent from overseas while still maintaining control over the team.

The IT industry has experienced massive growth in recent years, with the market size growing to more than $8800 Billion in 2023. This tremendous growth has raised the demand for skilled resources to sustain this growth.

This is where staff augmentation comes in as it allows companies to address their staffing needs which may be affected by onshore talent shortages. With this in mind, the two key types of staff augmentation are offshore and nearshore staff augmentation.

With offshore staff augmentation, organizations get access to skilled professionals from across the globe at budget-friendly rates. The biggest challenge with offshore outsourcing is the timezone overlap which can range from 8-12 hours.

Nearshore staff augmentation is similar to offshore, but the hiring locations remain closer to the client, with a maximum timezone overlap of 3-4 hours, while still having lower cost implications in comparison to hiring onshore resources. Thanks to being in the same timezone as the client, Nearshore Engineers facilitate easier collaboration and coordination, which is vital to the success of Software Development projects.

Both staff augmentation models involve recruiting Software Development talent on either a contract (fixed-price) or per-hour basis. Each approach has its benefits, but, the hiring strategy mostly depends on your requirements and budget.

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The Present State of IT Staff Augmentation

The present trends under this recruitment approach are influenced by changing technologies and business needs. Some of the current trends in IT staff augmentation include:

Emerging Technical Skills: The software industry is rapidly moving towards low-code tools and automated pipelines. Recruiters are now searching for individuals skilled in automation tools and cloud platforms like Azure. There is also an increasing demand for experts in AI, BlockChain, and Metaverse technologies.

Remote Work: Many organizations have retained remote working policies post-COVID. Many clients are now open to hiring remote resources, which allows them to work with nearshore talent via staff augmentation.

Focus on Soft Skills: To overcome collaboration-related challenges, clients prioritize resources with polished soft skills. Effective communication and presentation improve work efficiency under the staff augmentation model.

Demand for Certifications: With new technologies emerging, IT organizations seek certified individuals. Certifications help validate an individual's skills, improve credibility, and allow organizations to build a skillful team via staff augmentation.

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Key IT Staff Augmentation Challenges

While nearshore staff augmentation has various benefits, such as access to a large talent pool and lower software development costs, you still need to navigate some of these challenges:

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Picking Candidates

With nearshore staff augmentation, clients rely on third-party service providers to provide them with skilled professionals. Since these professionals are based in different countries, verifying their credentials, such as education or previous experience can prove challenging in some scenarios.

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Collaboration

Offshore and nearshore resources work remotely, so communication is challenging, especially when working with a large team. Many outsourced professionals work outside the client's timezone and have regional holidays that the client has to work around. Although nearshore staffing somewhat solves these challenges, other problems like internet disruptions can be a barrier to effective collaboration.

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Remote Management

Managing remote talent can be challenging due to communication gaps. The question of availability has been cited by remote team managers, which often has a knock-on effect on meeting deadlines. All these troubles are further amplified as the team size grows.

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Knowledge Transfer

The first step of onboarding a new team is domain and knowledge transfer. While this is a complex procedure with on-site teams, it is much more difficult with remote teams. Clients must spend hours planning and collaborating with the newly hired resources to get them up to speed with the projects. The remote nature of work leaves a communication gap, which might hinder the knowledge transfer process and impact the quality of work moving forward.

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Legal Issues

A detailed, well-negotiated legal contract is vital to ensure benefits from IT staff augmentation. Without the right terms, clients can experience unprecedentedly high bills, reduced hiring flexibility, and management control over resources. Additionally, the contract must ensure complete transparency between the client and the vendor to avoid any unexpected situations in the future.

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Future IT Staff Augmentation Trends to Look Out For

The tech industry is in constant evolution. The influence of these constant advancements can be felt in talent sourcing and hiring processes as well. Here are a few ways IT staff augmentation is evolving, and what to expect:

1. AI Recruitment: Recruiting consultancies have started to adopt AI models to automate the hiring process. The algorithms are trained to find potential candidates that best match the job description. Moving forward, the end-to-end recruitment process will be AI-powered, from resume scanning and candidate matching to automated interviews. Multi-modal AI approaches will be used to judge candidates based on their confidence and technical and soft skills.

2. Increasing Global Outreach: Remote working has broken the geographical barriers restraining staff augmentation. Organizations are already collaborating with partners and resources from across the globe. As demand for skilled individuals increases, new nearshore and offshore locations will emerge where clients can source skillful professionals at budget-friendly rates.

3.Diversity and Inclusion: The future will focus more on diversity and inclusion. IT staff augmentation will help form teams from various backgrounds and cultures. This move towards equal representation will bring together individuals with diverse experiences and help build a stronger tech community
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‍4. Multi-Sourcing: Organizations are moving towards working with multiple service providers to improve the efficiency of IT staff augmentation. Connecting with multiple partners allows clients to build a high-functioning team by gaining specialized resources from each. While this trend is currently only popular amongst large-scal enterprises, the same will be seen for SMBs in the future.

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How to Choose the Right Nearshore Staff Augmentation Partner

Choosing a nearshore staff augmentation partner is an important decision with long-term implications. You need to thoroughly plan and research before picking a talent-sourcing consultancy. Some of the key factors you need to consider include::

Budget: Budget is the primary factor that can make or break the your decision. You need to establish an upper spending limit and then analyze nearshore staffing companies to see which fits your needs better.
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Required Expertise: Different agencies specialize in different talent pools. You must research their project requirements and draft up a concise description of the required skills. For example, for Development, you may need experts in Development languages, while analytical and critical thinking skills are more desired for Data-related tasks. Once the requirements are drafted, seek a nearshore staff augmentation partner that excels in providing the specified talent pool.
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Partner Testimonials and Reviews: You need to analyze the reviews and testimonials from prior collaborations. It is the only authentic way of establishing trust with the nearshore staff augmentation partner and verifying their quality of deliverance.
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Team Location: Partner costs and collaboration issues are mostly linked to their geographic locations. It is important to narrow down the optimal locations that offer easy collaboration and are within budget.

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Why Bluelight Consulting for Nearshore Staff Augmentation?

Our world-class nearshore IT staff augmentation services ease your access to top talent, and give your business the agility you need to respond to changes quickly, capitalize on new business opportunities, and save costs.

Our service package covers:

Assessing Candidates’ Knowledge Level and Qualifications

- How much do they know about their role?

- Outline the client's must-have qualifications.

- Define the client's nice-to-have qualifications.

- Does the Software Developer have the required level of education and certifications?

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Vetting Candidates’ Experience and Companies

- Where have they worked before?

- Do they have direct experience with Ruby On Rails?

- What notable projects have they worked on in the past that relate to the required tech stack?

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Evaluating Development Process and Skills

- What is their typical development process?

- How well do they problem-solve?

- Are they able to create websites and applications modern tools and technologies efficiently?

- What technologies and frameworks would you like the Developer to have?

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Evaluating Candidates’ Attitude and Mindset

- Are they open-minded about your needs, specifications, and expectations?

- Do they have a positive attitude throughout the interview process?

- Could they mentor and guide new additions to the team?

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Gauging Applicants’ English Proficiency

- What level of English does the Developer need in order to communicate with their teammates?

- Will they be capable of communicating complex technical ideas in English?

Our proven expertise allows us to interview and vet world-class talent, filtering out 99.5% of candidates and presenting you with the most qualified candidates at the speed you need. Our recruitment team also onboards, executes contracts, expense management, benefits, payroll, and other compliance-related support.

Visit our dedicated service page to learn more about our IT staff augmentation services.

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Conclusion

IT staff augmentation has become the new norm in the Software Development world. IT businesses contact offshore or nearshore staffing consultancies to hire skilled professionals at budget-friendly rates. Typically, clients send their requirements to nearshore staff augmentation partners who filter out and provide potential candidates best suited for the job. These candidates either work as stand-alone Developers on small-scale projects or as part of a larger team on long-term contracts.

However, with advancements in technology, staff augmentation procedures are evolving. The hiring pipelines are being automated, with AI models slowly being integrated into processes such as initial candidate filtering, selection, and interviewing.

Similarly, the tech sector is also experiencing increased demand for skills related to automation tools, Cloud platforms, and AI implementation and integrations. Consequently, IT staff augmentation requirements are shifting towards analytical, critical thinking, and communication skills.

In closing, there is a lot to look forward to in this industry, and it all bodes well for the tech sector.