In this blog, we’ll discuss team augmentation services in finance, covering their benefits, types, working, key considerations, and when to use them. It also talks about the pros and cons, highlighting the importance of hiring specialized skills.
Suppose you are manufacturing a tech product with your internal engineers at the software firm, but you want to speed up the product creation process. You can also hire one group of engineers for a particular part of your product and require additional professionals to work on another part.
However, the recruitment of qualified human capital in the local market is a major challenge due to scarcity, and the entire process is rather cumbersome and costly. What options do you have?
Lately, big and small firms have used staff augmentation with the teams to overcome this problem. Employers can correct this situation by outsourcing talents from a pool of candidates through flexible and efficient engagements for full-time employees.
Team augmentation services are widely utilized, and the global staffing industry—a key provider of augmentation talent—is estimated to contribute to a $490 billion annual market. According to another research by PR Newswire, the IT staff augmentation services market is projected to reach $81.87 billion at a CAGR of 3.53%.
Here’s a comprehensive overview of staff and team augmentation, its key benefits, and how it can be effectively applied to your business.
Team augmentation services in finance involve temporarily filling a company’s need for human resources or specialized skills without recruiting permanent employees.
These services enable the firm to outsource professionals to join the firm’s workforce as employees but with less legal responsibility and often at a lower rate. These professionals can work within the company or from a distance, on a permanent/ temporary/ regular/ occasional basis, depending on the company’s needs and the resources required by the employees.
Considering the described services, it is imperative to state that the advancement of team augmentation services is observed in almost all industries, including the finance market. This has turned out to be a common practice mostly for companies that are in the process of searching for top talents to attend to their needs in the short term and at a considerably cheaper cost than hiring full-time employees with similar competency levels.
This strategy is especially helpful for dealing with workload fluctuations and mitigating gaps that arise when the workload is beyond the present staff’s capacity for some period but not significant enough to warrant hiring new employees.
When your financial organization faces specific project requirements and tight deadlines, team augmentation services might provide the competitive advantage you need. Here’s how IT team augmentation works:
Begin by pinpointing the areas where your company lacks expertise. Assess the resources that could enhance your organization or support your current employees.
Determine which specialized skills or knowledge are essential to achieving your project objectives and deadlines. This analysis helps your team augmentation solutions provider match you with the best candidates for the roles you need to fill.
The next phase involves finding temporary professionals to meet your organization’s needs. While it is possible to handle this process internally, many larger companies prefer to use team augmentation services. These providers offer a time-efficient, cost-effective way to supplement your staff with the necessary expertise.
Once you’ve identified the ideal candidates, the final step is to integrate them into your organization through a structured onboarding process. This ensures they are well-prepared to contribute effectively to your projects from the start.
Team augmentation in finance involves bolstering an existing financial team with external experts to enhance capabilities, address skill gaps, or manage increased workloads. Here are some common types of team augmentation:
In this model, external finance professionals are brought in to work on specific projects or initiatives. They collaborate with the internal team to complete the project within a defined timeline and scope. This approach is particularly useful when organizations require specialized skills or need to accelerate project delivery.
Here, an external team is formed with the special focus given to a particular financial project which is, therefore, carried out for a long time. This devoted team works separately maintaining the organization’s standards and procedures to blend with the internal environment.
There can be situations when specific issues have to be solved, or specific approaches have to be applied, and to do it, financial teams can turn to SMEs or staff augmentation partners. Outsourcing experts means that organizations can have access to outside specialists who can contribute to the resolution of specific issues or assist in the solution of specific questions.
This requires a team augmentation company, which are situated in various geographical locations. Nearshore teams work in the neighboring time zones while offshore teams work in other time zones. Such arrangements provide cost efficiency, increased opportunities for finding personnel, and the flexibility of expanding the coverage of a team through the different time zones.
There is a primary characteristic of gig marketplaces such as Upwork or Guru. This kind of augmentation is good for task-specific needs and is structured to allow businesses to hire data engineers hourly or at a fixed rate.
Freelancers, one of the main sources of augmentation talent, have been around for quite some time but have only recently grown by leaps and bounds with the help of international freelancer platforms.
Each type of team augmentation in finance offers unique advantages and considerations. The choice depends on project requirements, budget, time constraints, and the specific skills needed to complement the existing team.
IT Staff augmentation services offer unique benefits but require careful consideration. Here’s a look at key factors and common misconceptions.
Team augmentation can uniquely meet an organization’s demands, but it’s not ideal for every scenario. It’s best suited for short-term projects rather than long-term ones that span months or years. For longer projects, staff outsourcing might be a more suitable option. Many team augmentation providers are open to negotiating such agreements.
Projects involving sensitive information or critical intellectual property require careful evaluation of team augmentation solutions. While concerns about secrecy often stem from psychological comfort rather than concrete evidence, organizations should still proceed cautiously.
Agreements with contractors can be as secure as those with full-time employees. However, history shows that subcontractors can sometimes be a source of significant data leaks. Thus, organizations should carefully consider using IT staffing for confidential projects.
Managing a contingent workforce can be challenging due to misunderstandings about the importance of context. While a deeper cross-functional understanding is beneficial, the ramp-up time required for an employee to gain context is crucial.
Team augmentation may not be ideal for projects requiring high complexity and lengthy ramp-up periods, although the competency of the augmented staff can influence this factor.
For example, a major semiconductor company experienced significant losses due to the extensive ramp-up time needed for their augmented staff to understand the project’s complexity.
Another common misconception is that augmented staff are more expensive than full-time employees. This belief often arises from a misunderstanding of employer burden.
For example, maintaining a full-time employee with a $100,000 annual salary incurs additional costs, such as benefits and training, which can average around 23% and even reach 30-50% in some regions. Considering these additional costs, team augmentation can be a cost-effective solution.
Confusion between team augmentation and managed services is prevalent due to the relatively new terminology in the staffing industry. Team augmentation involves hiring staff for specific roles and is billed based on time and materials, whereas managed services focus on delivering specific outcomes with set quality standards.
For instance, an augmented staff member might be hired to write code for an application and be paid hourly. In contrast, a managed services contractor would be tasked with developing the entire application, meeting specific KPIs, and being paid upon project completion
Deciding when to use team augmentation depends on your specific needs and business goals. Here are key scenarios where it can be beneficial:
Team augmentation allows you to quickly add remote finance experts, which is useful for handling tight deadlines or sudden project demands.
If you need expertise in a niche area, such as analytics staff augmentation or compliance, team augmentation helps you access these skills without permanent hires.
For projects requiring specialized knowledge or to overcome unexpected challenges, augmenting your team with external experts can provide the necessary support.
During peak periods or large projects, team augmentation can offer extra support to relieve your core team and ensure timely project completion.
It assists when a firm receives new clients or records high sales of its products by allowing it to expand quickly while seeking permanent new employees wishing to join the company.
Staff augmentation offers flexibility and cost savings but comes with privacy risks and potential quality control issues. Here are the pros and cons of staff augmentation services.
| Pros | Cons |
| Flexibility: You can quickly scale your team up or down without lengthy hiring or firing processes, and your payment plans are flexible. | Privacy Risks: Involves sharing internal operations with a third party, necessitating regular security audits and robust NDAs. |
| Significant Cost Reduction: Save on costs related to employee benefits, recruitment, and legal expenses. The vendor covers these costs. | Managerial Bottlenecks: Outsourced staff may not be on-site, requiring effective management and communication to align with in-house teams. |
| Massive Time Savings: Avoid lengthy job postings, interviews, and onboarding processes as the vendor handles these. | Quality Control: Cost-saving measures may lead to hiring less qualified staff, risking project delays and security issues. Establish stringent quality checks. |
| Direct Communication: Communicate directly with augmented staff, control the project through management tools, and have full visibility. | Insufficient Technical Expertise: Poorly selected staff can lead to performance issues. A thorough selection process is needed to ensure competency. |
| Increased Productivity: Staff focus solely on the project, maintaining high efficiency and productivity. | |
| Access to Global Talent: Collaborate with remote vendors and hire top talent from around the world, not limited to local resources. |
Recruiting new talent for your organization can be time-consuming and complex, with uncertain outcomes. For those seeking skilled professionals without long-term commitments, team augmentation in finance offers a valuable solution. This approach allows businesses to quickly hire Python developers, enhancing project efficiency and providing greater control over outcomes. By integrating augmented staff, companies can stay competitive and respond swiftly to financial project demands, all while avoiding the lengthy hiring processes and unpredictable results associated with traditional recruitment. Technology staff augmentation offers the flexibility to scale expertise as needed, aligning perfectly with evolving business requirements.
Team Augmentation actualizes hiring outsourcing personnel to supplement a company or project team’s lack of expertise in certain areas or accomplish limited tasks for definite periods without requiring the candidate to become a full-time team member.
Staff augmentation services hire skilled workers to organizations for a limited period. Firms can hire professionals with specific skills for a project and permanently release them from the company’s payroll.
Staff augmentation services and managed services are two different kinds of outsourcing strategies. Staff augmentation also keeps most employees on the company payroll. It works under the company’s supervision and direction, while managed services contract an entire function or a project to a vendor who is bound to deliver the results.
Staff augmentation helps companies specially IT procure specialized skills in the shortest time possible, manage workforce flexibility, cut costs, and adapt to changes in project requirements without having to worry about retaining permanent employees.
Fact checked by –
Akansha Rani ~ Content Creator & Copy Writer
