The demand for qualified software developers and other IT specialists is growing faster than ever. The global pandemic played a big role in this - more and more businesses go online trying to survive the neverending lockdowns. It’s no wonder finding the experts with required skills, experience, and reasonable rates is getting harder and harder.
In this environment flexible staffing solutions like staff augmentation become more and more popular. If you ever wondered what staff augmentation is and if it might help you grow your business faster this article is a must read for you.
Here you will learn staff augmentation meaning, why it’s a popular solution, its pros, cons, and pitfalls. You’ll see what types of staff augmentation services there are, what businesses might benefit from it most, and how it differs from project outsourcing. You will also learn how Fulcrum can help you with your staff augmentation needs.

What is Staff Augmentation?
So, let's start with answering the popular question - what does staff augmentation mean? Staff augmentation is a contractual outsourcing service meant to complement the existing in-house team with external expertise. The solution requires determining the capabilities of the existing staff and defining which skills are lacking. This organizational strategy allows you to hire the staff quickly for a short or long period of time and manage the teams directly.
Simply put, this method allows you to quickly recruit staff for a specific project when there is a staffing shortage. This way you expand your in-house team by hiring highly experienced specialists temporarily. The outstaffers become a part of your team and cooperate with your own team, usually for short periods of time. The model successfully combines the benefits of staff outsourcing and the convenience of in-house staffing.
The solution is great for reducing costs on recruitment, payroll, and project implementation. And it’s more scalable than in-house hiring - it’s a lot easier to end this type of partnership than terminate an in-house contract. So expanding or decreasing your team is a lot quicker.
Moreover, the complete shift of responsibility from your business to the outstaffing IT company allows for minimising formalities with HR and employment and allows you to focus more on the business.

Why staff augmentation is so popular
Staff augmentation has a lot of benefits that made it quite popular among the business owners worldwide. Here are just a few of those reasons:
1.Staff augmentation allows you to fill certain skill gaps.
When a project needs middle or senior level specialists in certain technologies, especially the rare ones like Big Data engineers, staff augmentation is a great approach to hiring such a specialist quickly.
2. Outstaffing reduces the time spent on selecting employees.
Selection of employees is a lengthy and demanding process. A company that specializes in staff augmentation takes care of finding and hiring the talent so you don't have to spend your resources on recruitment.
3. Staff augmentation reduces recruitment costs.
When a specialized company takes care of recruitment, costs are significantly reduced.
4. Operating costs are reduced.
Permanent in-house employees are much more expensive than those who work on the per-project basis and remotely. In short, staff augmentation allows human resources to be used in the same way as in-house employees, but without the cost of maintaining them.
5. Staff augmentation makes the recruitment process more flexible.
You can quickly hire the right number of employees when you need them, without a lot of hassle. For example, it's convenient to run short-term promotions and advertising campaigns, complete urgent projects, or temporarily replace sick employees.
6. Staff augmentation allows you to think about the business and its development rather than the staffing routine.
The outsourcing company takes over the responsibility of maintaining the personnel. So, you don't have to worry about paying wages, paying insurance premiums, taxes, etc.
7. No geographical restrictions.
The location of your employees doesn't matter, and qualified professionals can be hired anywhere in the world. You prioritize experience over residence address.

Find in the guide:
- Offshore development rates by country
- Time zone difference
- Development rates by role
Pros & Cons of Staff Augmentation [Table]
Like any other organizational strategy, staff augmentation has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s check them out.
Types of Staff Augmentation Services
Numerous companies offer different staff augmentation services. Which one you choose largely depends on the specific needs of your business.
Staff augmentation services are rather diverse and context-dependent. Evaluate your needs, budget, and degree of control you are ready to give away before making a decision.
Staff Augmentation vs. Project Outsourcing
Both services seek to make more efficient use of resources, minimize staff costs, and optimize taxes. But if staff augmentation is the integration of outside specialists into your company, outsourcing is the transfer of certain functions and whole business processes to a subcontractor.
An example of IT staff augmentation:
For a major renovation of its website a company needs a very experienced UX designer. The specialist is not needed for the company’s day to day operations though. The business hires an UX designer through an outstaffing agency. The designer helps renovate the website and leaves when the project is successfully finished.
An example of project outsourcing:
A large company (for example, a car manufacturer) does not have its own IT department for the development of multimedia software for its cars. They outsource this task to an IT company with expertise in this industry.
Both services imply the involvement of a contractor to solve specific business tasks. They help to optimize the company's turnover and costs, which increases the efficiency of the core business and accelerates its development.
Which of the two approaches you choose depends on your business and goals.

Fulcrum Staff Augmentation Services
One of the essential requirements for successful staff augmentation is choosing a reliable provider. We at Fulcrum are focused on our client’s success. And we hire only the best specialists. Whether you need one Java developer or a whole team of developers, QA, and marketing specialists - we’ve got you.
Fulcrum guarantees that the specialists you choose for your project will work only on your product. No additional projects will be distracting your Fulcrum developer.
Our developers have good soft skills and will easily become a part of your team. And if there is an issue you can always ask your Client manager for help.
Here’s how our staff augmentation process looks like:
As you can see it’s very straightforward. You tell us your needs, requirements, and expectations. If there’s no one in our team to fit the requirements we will find the most suitable candidates and interview them. You review the best candidates and pick the one you think will fit your team best. Then we provide your developer with a workstation. And take the full responsibility on onboarding and handling all the administrative stuff for you. A client manager is assigned to you, so you have someone to talk to if you have any questions or issues, and help you build a productive relationship with your augmented staff. We also guarantee your data safety.
Conclusion
Staff augmentation is an excellent solution to help your business optimize its processes, reduce tax and personnel costs, and solve the problem of attracting qualified specialists. It is especially relevant during a crisis when companies are forced to reduce staff to optimize costs.
Give us a call if you are looking for an efficient way to solve financial and personnel issues or simply want to learn more about Fulcrum staff augmentation services.

Staff Augmentation FAQ
What is staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation is a type of personnel solution, one of the personnel outsourcing strategy branches, which allows you to hire the staff globally and manage the team directly quickly.
How does staff augmentation work?
There are different scenarios in which companies leverage staff augmentation - fulfilling a temporary spike in daily work, for longer-term needs, for out-of-house specialized skills, or building a team using entirely flexible labor as a way to get a competitive advantage.