From the moment companies decide to take it seriously, and not just set this process in motion because of outside pressure, digital transformation becomes a complex journey, that needs constant attention and care. Digital transformation does not imply a fixed number of steps and cannot be reduced to a few instructions; on the contrary, it is an ever evolving process that businesses must correlate with their needs and objectives.
In this sense, after a careful analysis regarding their weak and strong points, companies that wish to digitally transform have to assess their options and choose what suits their necessities best. If they find that they’re dealing with skill gaps, an insufficient number of specialists or need to meet tight deadlines, while at the same time, are planning to embark on the digitalization wagon, then staff augmentation might just be the perfect solution for all of their problems.
But how do these two concepts, digital transformation and staff augmentation, mix? And, going further, how does staff augmentation drive digital transformation?
To answer these questions, we must take it from the top, and look at how companies select their partners, after deciding upon the staff augmentation model. In order to reach their aforementioned goals, businesses have to pay special attention when hiring staffing agencies; and it doesn’t stop here.
Even if they think that they’ve found the perfect vendor, and believe that they have explained and described their situation and needs thoroughly, companies must still be actively involved in the recruitment process. And that means participating in final interviews, reviewing candidates’ resumes, and paying attention to potential remote employees’ past experience.
Part of the digital transformation process involves implementing new technologies, so, naturally, the augmented staff must be highly skilled and up to date with the latest technological advancements. This is why having the last say when it comes to newly acquired talent, is essential if businesses want to make sure that their future remote specialists will assist them on the road to digitalization.
But augmented staff aren’t the only employees that should be bringing their contribution to the digital transformation process, internal specialists should too. By being given the benefit of an extra hand on projects, in-house professionals have the possibility to dedicate more of their time towards innovation and finding new ways to optimize operations.
And speaking of internal teams, they can take advantage even further of the staff augmentation model, and at the same time, maintain their path towards achieving digital change. How? By learning from newly hired professionals of course, and observing how the recently acquired talent handles issues that arise throughout the digitalization journey.
While we’re still on the topic related to pre-existing specialists, we have to mention that, in order for the staff augmentation model to drive digital change, in-house employees must be constantly consulted and kept in the loop about both short and long term digitalization objectives. Businesses cannot leave it to augmented staff to figure everything out, instead, they should promote communication, an open attitude when it comes to new ideas, and create a proper learning environment.
However, change is never easy, and even with the help of extra sets of eyes that have different perspectives and see things in a fresher manner, some internal employees may still want to maintain their loyalty to the old ways. So it’s up to the company’s management to make them embrace change and not see it as a threat; and staff augmentation is useful in this case, yet again. This model is all about adding temporary staff to already existing teams, therefore pre-existing employees can rest assured, as they aren’t being replaced any time soon. Their positons within the company aren’t at all threatened, so they’re likely to have a more relaxed attitude towards the changes that are taking place.
Conclusion
Companies that struggle with labor shortages and skill gaps, have an even harder time trying to keep up with new technologies and implementing them within their business. Digital transformation is no easy process and the majority of businesses have realized that they cannot do it on their own; therefore, an outside helping hand in the form of a staffing agency, that provides them with what they need, can put an end to all troubles. Augmented staff can bring a fresh approach on things, bless hiring companies with innovative ideas, and take them to the next digital level, while also helping them meet what seem to be impossible deadlines, and change the perception of reluctant in-house specialists.
Staff Augmentation with TechTalent
Backed by 350+ IT consultants, over 250 delivered Agile projects, and over 10 years of creating successful project teams for customers in various industries, TechTalent is the go-to company when deciding to resort to staff augmentation.