How to address IT skill gaps through staff augmentation

The technology skills gap remains a major obstacle to business growth worldwide, particularly in IT. According to Statista, nearly 70% of employers reported a tech talent shortage in recent years.

The primary drivers are digitalization, which fuels global demand for skilled IT professionals, and rapid technological change, which limits the ability to train specialists in emerging fields quickly enough.

For most employers, searching for talent in cutting-edge technologies feels like chasing a unicorn. Yet the challenge isn’t limited to the newest fields, businesses running on legacy stacks often face just as much difficulty finding specialists to support and maintain them.

In general, the most challenging IT hires these days are AI developers, especially experts in computer vision and ML developers, DevOps engineers, cybersecurity specialists, neural network developers, and experts in quantum programming.

Technology skills gap significantly impacts IT companies, influencing workloads, performance, innovation, output quality, adaptability, user satisfaction, and ultimately profitability. In response, companies are rethinking their hiring strategies and 32% of them are replacing full-time employees with staff augmentation services as a cost-saving measure and effective, timely solution to close talent gaps.

IT staff augmentation

Rising skill shortages in IT have paved the way for staff augmentation. Designed to be agile, cost-efficient, and straightforward, this model is gaining momentum as more companies adopt it to meet project needs.

Through staff augmentation, businesses can engage skilled professionals on a temporary basis to complete targeted projects or tasks. This outsourcing subtype model removes the limits of local recruitment and provides access to a worldwide pool of talent, ensuring that the right expertise can be added to any team.

By avoiding long-term commitments, staff augmentation offers businesses a flexible alternative to traditional outsourcing. Rather than hiring a full team, companies can selectively engage individual experts to meet precise project needs.

Tech staff augmentation offers clear benefits: cost savings, rapid capacity growth, and on-time project completion, all while avoiding long-term hiring commitments. Yet since augmented staff typically operate remotely, businesses should be prepared to invest additional effort in coordination and effective team management.

For companies that have embraced remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic, managing augmented staff feels no different from coordinating internal teams. The takeaway is clear: external staff augmentation skills can be a valuable tool for achieving ambitious goals and sustaining competitiveness.

7 ways staff augmentation bridges skills gaps

Staff augmentation is deemed to be a highly effective method for addressing technology skills gap within companies. It comes with a multitude of benefits that contribute to bridging these gaps effectively.

Key ways tech staff augmentation bridges tech talent gaps:

1. Going beyond your local job market. Staff augmentation removes geographical limits, giving companies direct access to international talent pools. This global reach accelerates the process of finding specialists with the right expertise. 80% of US businesses have increased their reliance on staff augmentation to access specialized skills.

2. Engaging specialists without any long-term commitments. By eliminating the need for permanent contracts, staff augmentation offers a flexible solution for project-based or highly specialized work. It allows companies to access the right expertise without incurring the cost of full-time hires.

3. Adapting to fluctuating workloads in the blink of an eye. At its core, staff augmentation is about flexibility. It enables companies to expand or reduce their teams in line with shifting workloads, ensuring that skill gaps are managed effectively when they appear.

4. Bringing in specialists at affordable rates. One factor behind persistent skill gaps is the high cost of local talent. Staff augmentation mitigates this challenge by connecting companies with experienced IT specialists in regions where salary expectations are lower, allowing access to top expertise at reduced expense.**

5. Wasting no time on durable recruitment and hiring processes. Staff augmentation provides a more streamlined hiring process, but there is more. As a rule, staff augmentation employees are seasoned and need less training and onboarding than new hires. This accelerates project timelines.

6. Promoting a knowledge-sharing culture. Staff augmentation comes with natural knowledge transfer if close collaboration is established between all team members. External experts can train in-house personnel, which, over time, leads to the development of significant internal expertise.

7. Providing access to extremely diverse skills. Staff augmentation providers usually maintain teams of the most diverse IT professionals, who continually polish their skills through exposure to various projects. This diversity allows companies to address multiple skill gaps, ensuring a well-rounded and capable workforce.

Staff augmentation addresses skill gaps while delivering a variety of additional benefits. For example, one of Devico’s clients, a small Swiss company, struggled to acquire and retain IT professionals. In Switzerland, a limited labor pool and strong competition from large employers like Google make recruitment particularly challenging.

To attract top talent, the client was forced to offer high salaries, extensive benefits, and career development opportunities. This approach to close the tech talent gap has proved unsustainable. The board of directors ultimately chose staff augmentation to address skill gaps while reducing costs. After several years of collaboration, the company now regards this model as the most effective solution for businesses of its size.

For more details on this success story, tune in to the Devico Breakfast Bar episode featuring Janosch Greber, the VP of Engineering at RealTyme.

Staff augmentation vs. Traditional hiring

Now that the basics of staff augmentation are clear, it’s time to see how this model stacks up against traditional hiring in different areas.

Both traditional hiring and staff augmentation come with trade-offs. Your decision should be guided by budget, project requirements, deadlines, security considerations, and the way your organization prefers to operate.

Facets to consider when choosing IT staff augmentation services

Once you’ve chosen staff augmentation as your strategy, the next step is to choose a staff augmentation partner. Not all providers are equal, so careful vetting is critical.

Here are the key aspects to consider when making your choice of staff augmentation vendor:

Experience

• Does a service provider understand the specific needs and challenges of your industry?
• Do they have a pool of qualified professionals with the necessary skills and experience for your project?
• Have they already worked on projects similar to yours?
• How many years of commercial experience do their specialists have on average?

Collaboration

• Is a service vendor transparent in their processes, timelines, and costs?
• Does the provided staff have a good command of English?
• Can they seamlessly integrate and collaborate with your in-house team?
• Can they quickly adapt to your evolving needs and project scope?
• Does a staff augmentation company fit into your company's culture?

Reputation

• Does a staff augmentation company have a proven track record?
• What do their former clients say about working with them?
• What rates do they have on trusted platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms, G2, The Manifest, etc.?
• Do they have any industry awards and recognitions?

Talent pool

• Is the talent pool of your service provider extensive enough to cover your needs?
• Is it diverse enough to provide you with any IT specialist with any skill set you need?
• What is the distribution of senior and mid-level specialists in their talent pool?

Geographic location

• Do you consider collaboration with nearshore and offshore service providers?
• What time zones do you consider?
• How many overlapping working hours would you like to have?

Price policy

• What price models does a service provider offer?
• Is its price policy clear and transparent?
• Can you afford a price?
• Isn’t the price suspiciously too low, even for an offshore company?

Security

• Is the augmented staff ready to sign an NDA?
• Do the data security measures of a staff augmentation company comply with your requirements and industry standards?
• Are the staff augmentation company’s employees trained regularly on security best practices and protocols?
• What measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access to systems and data?

Making an informed decision requires careful consideration of multiple factors. By dedicating time to this analysis, you can secure a staff augmentation partner fully suited to your business goals.

Best practices to thrive with team augmentation

Staff augmentation can significantly enhance your business capabilities. However, to use its potential to its full extent, it's essential to adopt best practices that maximize the benefits of staff augmentation. Let’s have a look at some of them:

By implementing these practices, you can leverage the full potential of team augmentation and achieve greater success in your projects.

Final thoughts

Staff augmentation not only bridges skill gaps but also delivers advantages like lower costs, faster hiring, and fewer administrative burdens.

If your local market can’t deliver the talent you need, staff augmentation opens the door to global expertise. With instant access to a worldwide pool, you can secure the right specialist far more quickly.

Success with staff augmentation comes down to clarity and partnership: define your needs, choose a trusted provider, and manage your remote team with confidence.

Ready to see how it works? Book a call with our team and discover how this model can help your company break free from old limitations and achieve its full potential.