Blog: Staff Augmentation
- May 17, 2016
- 3 min read
MVC
We’ve all been there: you stumbled on a tender that would take your business to the next level. ‘We’ve got to get this!’ you thought. Immediately a tender team was put together who worked feverishly gathering the information; you all sat together collating endless mountains of documents until the wee hours of the morning on deadline day. You delivered the completed files in triplicate as the gavel was falling, calling time. And then you waited with baited breath for feedback...
You couldn’t believe your eyes when you saw the email in your inbox, confirming that your company had been awarded the tender. You’d barely started celebrating your win when the reality started to sink in: how on earth was your existing team going to cope with this additional workload? Staff augmentation, that’s how!
When you’re faced with a specific project or you need to meet particular business objectives, using an outsourcing strategy to staff these tasks makes the most sense. Creating full-time positions to fulfil short term needs results in a host of unnecessary admin as well as costs for the company. Notes Thomas Brown, CEO of Marketing Vision Captured (MVC), “Something which may not be immediately obvious is that staff expenses begin before a person is hired and their first monthly salary paid – job advertising fees, new hardware expenses, training costs are just the tip of the iceberg.” Once the staff member is on board, a company is responsible not just for their wages, but other associated benefits including travel, medical and taxes – all of which can make up 25% of payroll expenses.
On the flipside, becoming part of an augmented workforce is increasingly attractive to the workers themselves – one is able to manage their own career without being tied to one employer, which offers both a wider horizon of experience as well as more flexibility to work when it suits, and take time off in pursuit of that elusive work-life balance.
The benefits to companies of having an elastic workforce include keeping a business flexible and agile to adapt to changing needs; having skilled and experienced workers who can jump right in and get to work without having to be walked through the company’s processes; and keeping costs low when business is slow. Augmenting staff during peak times is advantageous to both companies and staff, as overtime expenses are reduced, while the risk of burning out permanent staff is avoided.
May 2016
Keeping staff numbers contained also lowers the potential for having to retrench when times are tough, which is gut-wrenching for the employer and employee alike.
When it comes to partnering with the best staff augmentation agency for your business, research is key. Once you’ve developed a clear idea of the short-term skills your business requires, you can start looking for agencies who specialise in sourcing appropriate workers. Choose a supplier who completes thorough background checks on all outsourced staff, including drug screenings and skills testing, which could save your business money in the long run. MVC is one such business, specialising in the ability to match skilled employees to business requirements, providing quality staff on flexible terms to suit clients’ project demands.
Another important aspect of choosing an appropriate business partner, is looking for a company who could also potentially benefit from a partnership with you. “To build lasting and balanced relationships, both parties must find value, thereby creating interdependence and symbiosis, as opposed to one-way traffic”, says Brown.
The way companies fill positions is changing due to erratic economies, but also to suit an increasingly multidimensional, open-minded population who prefer to remain uncontracted but optimally employed. Staff augmentation is a solution to maximise the needs of companies as well as employees, creating an efficient, effective and valuable workforce.
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