Business demands in the Philippines rarely remain the same throughout the year. Some months are lean, others are overwhelming. If you operate in retail, you may experience surges during the holidays. For tourism companies, demand spikes often occur during the summer season. Regardless of your industry, you will experience fluctuations. The problem with these ups and downs in demand is that they also require your workforce to scale accordingly.
Hiring full-time employees for these short-term needs is out of the question since it is costly and inefficient. The best solution is to augment your staff and scale your workforce up or down, depending on demand. What other benefits does this option bring to the table? Let us guide you in understanding staff augmentation in the Philippines here at Q2 HR Solutions.
People often think that traditional recruitment and staff augmentation are the same, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. While traditional recruitment involves offering employees a more permanent position, staff augmentation focuses on satisfying a temporary increase in labor demand.
This outsourcing model enables businesses to hire specialists on a temporary basis and integrate them seamlessly into their internal teams. Through staff augmentation services, companies in the Philippines can avoid the fixed costs and resources associated with hiring full-time employees, while also opening up opportunities to tap into specialized professionals with expertise that exceeds the bandwidth of internal workers.
Aside from helping you manage your resources and workforce during peak seasons, staff augmentation also offers strategic advantages to support your business goals. The benefit includes:
Competition today is fierce, regardless of the industry. That is why when a market opportunity arises, you need to be fast in hiring. The problem with fast hiring, though, is that you run the risk of hiring a bad fit or someone who might not have the expertise and culture you are looking for. That is where Philippine-based staff augmentation providers come in.
Staffing companies, such as Q2 HR Solutions, offer access to a database of qualified talent with experience in adapting to various projects. Since the staffing company already did most of the legwork in pre-screening professionals, your company can benefit from a shorter recruitment cycle, minus the job posting, multiple interview rounds, contract negotiations, and waiting for applicants.
A 2023 survey by Deloitte revealed that 45% of business leaders plan to utilize IT staff augmentation over the next few years, with cost savings being the key driver for this decision.
When hiring full-time employees, you make investments in their training, onboarding, recruitment, tax expenses, employee benefits, and other related costs, which can be a lot of resources spent, especially for short-term needs. Staff augmentation requires none of that. You only need to pay for the service you need when you need it.
Hiring talent for niche IT roles is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, especially in the current global talent shortage. According to a Korn Ferry report, the tech sector will face a labor skills shortage of approximately 4.3 million workers by 2030. This poses a significant hurdle for companies seeking to hire professionals quickly to meet the fast-paced demand for new technologies.
IT staff augmentation in the Philippines can help organizations access pre-screened talent that matches the project’s requirements. Not only does this help companies save time in hiring, but it also reduces the risks of finding a bad hire.
Staff augmentation in the Philippines makes it easier for organizations to scale their business without affecting the internal team or incurring a dent in the budget through permanent hires. By contacting a team augmentation services provider in the Philippines, you can get access to a larger pool of qualified talents that fit your goals. This allows your workforce to adjust efficiently to projects and seasonal demands.
More than the flexibility in your workforce, the scalability that staff augmentation offers also benefits your investment by minimizing risks. Venturing into new initiatives is often unpredictable, and you will never know if you need more long-term support or a shorter one. Augmenting your team allows you to test the waters without permanent commitment.
Compliance is often a challenge when it comes to hiring directly, especially if you are hiring IT staff from another country. With IT staff augmentation companies in the Philippines, these responsibilities are managed for you. You no longer have to worry about payroll or contracts since the staffing company handles the paperwork, ensuring that you remain compliant with employment standards.
Beyond compliance, staff augmentation also provides workforce reliability. You can quickly scale up or down to keep your projects on schedule while minimizing disruptions.
Staff augmentation is categorized into different types depending on the worker’s skills and the level of expertise needed for the task. Identify the right talents to meet your project demand by reviewing the different types of staff augmentation below:
Commodity-based augmentation is the base level model since it mostly involves hiring temporary workers for tasks that require minimal expertise or specialized skills. The workers under this model are mostly trained in administrative tasks, routine operations, data entry, and more. Organizations use this augmentation type to fill positions quickly, regardless of the skill level of the employee.
Temporary staff augmentation models are characterized by their short-term use. This augmentation service is often time-bound and preferred by companies for short, simple projects. This model is perfect when addressing immediate concerns for ventures that cannot be delayed or accommodated by internal teams.
On-shore staff augmentation is like the traditional model, except you can hire experts from a neighboring country. This gives your organization a wider talent pool to choose from. If you want a bigger talent pool than what is available locally or around you, you can also opt for an offshore model. Off-shore augmentation allows you to temporarily hire experts from around the globe to work on your projects remotely.
From the name itself, skill-based staff augmentation is a strategy that allows companies to bring external experts with specialized skills to supplement the internal team’s lack of professionals with in-demand skills for certain projects. This augmentation model provides access to unique expertise without the need for long-term hires.
Staff augmentation is often associated with short-term projects, but some staff augmentation companies in the Philippines offer contracts that extend from several months to years. What makes this model different from just hiring a permanent employee is that it has a lower attrition rate, and it still offers flexibility since you can rotate experts on the team or scale the project whenever it is necessary.
On-demand staff augmentation offers companies access to experienced professionals that they can scale up or down depending on the immediate demand of the project. This is the best option for companies with seasonal demands since the staff are already trained and ready for deployment. It meets the needs of the workforce without any long-term commitment or consequence to the organization’s expense budget.
Yes, staff augmentation is a strategy that outsources workers; however, it has a few key differences from traditional outsourcing. Outsourcing involves handing over the entire project to third-party partners, while staff augmentation involves temporarily adopting skilled professionals into the internal team for a period of time.
Outsourcing is the process of delegating responsibilities to external parties. This can be done by organizations in the same country or with a third-party from another side of the world. Meanwhile, offshoring is a strategy that involves running a portion of your operation in another country. The people who perform the task can either be third-party or internal. Basically, outsourcing is more about who does the job, while offshoring is about where the job is done.
Team extension is often used in place of staff augmentation. It involves hiring experts from a third-party company for a specific period so organizations can manage their budget for seasonal peaks better and do away with the commitment of hiring permanent staff.
Scaling your business should not feel like a tightrope between risking burnout with limited staff or overspending on permanent hires for temporary rises in demand. Effective staff augmentation by trusted providers in the Philippines, like Q2 HR Solutions, gives you breathing room to adjust your workforce at your own pace. It not only fills short-term demand for more workers, but it also bridges the talent gap in your current team to meet the requirements of your projects.
If you are preparing for seasonal demands or exploring a short-term venture, Q2 HR Solutions is here to help. We can get you access to pre-vetted talents so you can scale smarter and faster. Get in touch with us today and let us support both your immediate needs and your long-term goals.