Bridging the skills gap in your organisation

Flexibility is the only way to stay competitive in a disruptive industry. Team augmentation offers an efficient and responsive solution for companies to stay ahead of the game.

Achieving product-market fit rapidly is essential for companies to survive. The pace of changing technology today is disruptive; its very nature provides market gaps and opportunities at every turn but it also challenges traditional approaches to product development and resourcing.      

In 2018, Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession global survey found that about $1 million is wasted every 20 seconds by organisations’ poor project management practices.  

This means that about $2 trillion is frittered away every year. 

This is a serious and global problem and it requires a significant shift away from the traditional management methodologies. 

One solution is the agile approach – adopting dynamic and flexible management tactics, including changing the status quo on staff resourcing.

What is Team augmentation? 

If flexibility is the only way to stay competitive in a disruptive industry, let’s look at how that affects staffing.

The agile approach allows companies to develop products faster and more efficiently, with a higher turnover of projects. This has a roll-on effect on their staffing requirements. The traditional full-time employees that work long-term on a single project is being phased out. 

Organisations may now require: 

• Skilled staff to fill gaps in existing skills shortages within individual projects 
• Technical specialists on a short, long term or as-needs basis for the duration of a project 
• Flexible staff that can join a project at any point in the development process 

This is team augmentation. 

Advantages of team augmentation

Companies are quickly embracing the many advantages of team augmentation:

1. Skilled and specialist workers meet the organisation’s requirements on an as-needed basis without the expense and time of hiring full-time employees. Companies can avoid long-winded recruitment and onboarding processes.
2. Team augmentation means it’s easier to meet deadlines as specialists can move seamlessly into the project. Delays from waiting for new staff to leave former jobs are a thing of the past. 
3. There are no excess staffing issues once the project is complete. The company saves salary costs as well as holiday, parental leave and other full-time employee-related expenses.
4. There is greater control over scaling project teams, allowing companies to take on projects of any size without concerns about existing staff skillsets. They can jump on innovative opportunities and market-disrupting ideas. Large companies can be as nimble as smaller ones.
5. Team augmentation approach complements existing in-house capability teams allowing companies to retain more control of the project management. 
6. Augmented staff also bring new ideas and perspectives, vital for innovative and dynamic industries. They are less interested in office politics and past management histories. Their experiences can also help upskill existing staff. 
7. Augmentation minimises risk exposure if the economy slows. Fewer full-time staff means less payroll commitments which reduces financial stress and complications. This helps companies to adapt quickly to future market conditions and weather possible downturns. 

IT staff augmentation trends

IT spending globally is projected to total $US3.79 trillion in 2019, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2018, according to the latest forecast by Gartner. 

In Australia, IT spending is forecasted to increase to A$105.7 billion by 2022. This is Australia’s biggest IT spending category. 

Gartner has ranked staff shortages as the top emerging risk for organisations globally. 

“Organisations face huge challenges from the pace of business change, accelerating privacy regulations and the digitalisation of their industries,” said Matt Shinkman, managing vice president and risk practice leader at Gartner. 

Meeting those challenges will require effective ongoing management systems. Utilising flexible team augmentation is a definite step in the right direction for companies wanting to embrace agility and stay competitive in a disruptive market. 

About 4mation

4mation was ranked 13th in the 2017 Best Workplaces in Australia. We know that a great team makes a great workplace.      

Finding the right specialists to keep your business competitive and effective can be challenging. Save yourself time, stress and energy and try our Team Augmentation Service. You’ll have access to 70+ specialist skillsets, greater control over project management, and full flexibility. 

Contact 4mation today for a risk-free, no-commitment consultation.

About The Author

Billie Fowler

An advocate for creating high performing workforces, I am always interested in meeting people who would like to either join our business or collaborate with us!

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