As modern businesses assess the staff and skills they need, flexibility is a pressing priority. Companies have sought independent talent to support or supplement their full-time team. In 2019, 42% of hiring managers reported increasing their use of independent talent over the preceding three years.
In the era of COVID-19, this flexible approach to staffing has an even stronger appeal. Facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities, businesses are building hybrid teams of full-time workers and independent professionals. These teams deliver continuity and adaptability, positioning organizations to thrive in uncertain times.
Historically, business experts have called such approaches “staff augmentation.” But in the present talent market, a new set of staffing possibilities is fueled by novel technologies and practices.
Below, we’ll explain how these approaches have changed the way businesses engage independent professionals. From there, we’ll show how you can expand your business’s capabilities by adopting similar strategies.
Innovating staff augmentation: Engaging remote independent talent
The notion of staff augmentation is hardly new. In the past, the term has described using staffing agencies or outsourcing solutions to supplement full-time workers.
Unfortunately, these approaches can fall short when it comes to providing needed skills at a reasonable cost. Among hiring managers who utilized a staffing agency, 61% were dissatisfied with their experience. In too many cases, these staffing approaches yield subpar work—with a sizable markup for the agency’s services.
Thankfully, companies understand that staff augmentation should include remote independent talent. This alternative can complement the skills of a business’s core staff, providing solutions on demand.
Using platforms like Upwork, companies can hire expert independent workers to fill skills gaps, without needing a staffing firm. In a survey of hiring managers who had tried both approaches, most reported that hiring independent talent through Upwork increased their productivity and lowered their costs.
Better still, thanks to today’s technologies, businesses can augment their staff with the world’s best professionals. Whereas staffing agencies draw from local talent pools, remote independent workers can be from around the globe.
As more businesses build fully remote workforces, geographical boundaries seem increasingly obsolete. To augment your core team’s abilities, your search for independent talent should be equally unbounded.
How does this modern approach to staff augmentation deliver such desirable benefits? See how this vision of staff augmentation could work for your business with the following advantages.
How staff augmentation could change your business for the better
Get the exact skills and expertise you need
Your business can be highly specific in seeking the best professionals when you choose to augment with independent staff. In terms of accessing particular skills, this precision can be priceless.
Traditional workers tend to be generalists, with skill sets to handle a wide range of requirements that their roles might demand. But an independent professional engaged for a specific purpose will often have more focused expertise.
For example, imagine that your business wants to build a new e-commerce website using the platform Shopify. You could turn to the developers on your team, asking them to learn how to build a site using Shopify’s CMS. Or engage an independent developer who specializes in building Shopify websites. Save time and spare your developers from distraction, frustration, and a steep, costly learning curve.
As business leaders know well, specialization increases efficiency and productivity. Staff augmentation through independent talent reflects this important principle.
Adapt quickly to evolving circumstances
In these unprecedented times, uncertainty is the only certainty. Many industries are shifting quickly in COVID-19’s wake, as key indicators of economic confidence are grim or contradictory.
As a highly adaptable strategy, staff augmentation is the perfect hiring approach for this unpredictable period. Businesses can access the talent they need to fill upcoming opportunities due to painful layoffs or freezing full-time hiring. If your company needs to pivot in some important way, independent talent can also fuel new initiatives.
Even in the most stable of times, augmenting your staff with independent talent can be the quickest way to move forward. With Upwork’s platform, you can hire the right person within hours of posting your job.
Reduce training and onboarding time
When you engage independent professionals, the expectation is that they already have the skills you need. There’s no need for extensive training or a period of low productivity while a new worker gets up to speed. This staff augmentation method is highly preferable and more cost-efficient to engaging someone who needs hand-holding at first.
Plus, full-time workers require all kinds of administrative efforts during the onboarding process. Even traditional staffing agencies can require plenty of paperwork.
By contrast, engaging independent professionals is far simpler and reduces the time until they can start working. Upwork’s hiring process makes it easy to enter an agreement with an independent worker and pay them as the project proceeds and is completed.
Improve hiring decisions
Sometimes, it’s difficult to determine which professional to hire at the outset of a project. In other instances, you identify new needs as the project progresses. In any case, hiring hindsight is often 20/20, and there’s plenty you wish you’d known ahead of time.
However, when you engage independent talent, you can then use your experiences with a top professional to decide how to proceed. For example, imagine that you hire an independent back-end developer for the initial stages of a project. After seeing their work and discussing their expertise, you realize that you’ll need to hire a front-end developer for the next stage of your effort. With independent professionals, this sort of pivot is seamless.
By hiring independent talent, you can build the right team for each stage in a greater effort, shifting your hiring criteria as a project evolves. You’ll also clarify what you need, rather than hiring someone and regretting it later.
Cut overhead costs and invest elsewhere
From payroll taxes to health insurance, hiring a full-time worker entails many costs. With staff augmentation, independent professionals don’t require the same benefits, eliminating these expenses.
Engaging independent talent isn’t just about cutting costs, though. If you limit your full-time team to those who are essential, you can improve their perks and benefits accordingly. Suddenly, it’s possible to invest in your core team’s professional development or to increase the holiday bonus of each person on your payroll. Taking care of your workers is important, but that’s difficult to do if your resources are spread thin.
Redefine your company’s core competencies
Often, business leaders are reluctant to consider opportunities that fall outside of their companies’ established repertoires. Without a clear precedent for success, the risks of a new undertaking can seem to outweigh the potential rewards.
With an established process for engaging independent experts, companies can venture more into new territory. Independent talent can broaden your business’s horizons, allowing you to focus on new projects with confidence.
For example, your business sees potential in developing a new mobile app to provide additional convenience and functionality for customers. While this move may sound great in theory, you know your development team has no experience with the iOS or Android platforms.
On the one hand, you could decide that you’re not in the business of building mobile apps and concentrate on what you’re doing well already. Or you could elect to build a beautiful app with independent talent, expanding your sense of what your company can be.
Augment your staff with Upwork’s top talent
When executed strategically, staff augmentation can transform an organization’s operating approach, prepare it for greater success, and open new avenues of productivity. However, as with any hiring strategy, the advantages of staff augmentation depend on effective execution.
If you plan to augment your staff moving forward, you’ll need a deep and diverse pool of independent talent and the right tools to assess and engage them. Upwork’s work marketplace delivers on all these fronts. On Upwork, you will find a vast selection of independent talent and a streamlined system for finding and hiring the right professionals.
To discover the range of abilities available on Upwork, check out the top professionals on our work marketplace. With global talent eager to help your team, it’s easy to access the skills that your business needs.
