Many companies have been making the transition when it comes to hiring employees. Traditionally, in-house staffing takes place primarily in the human resources department, which is responsible for all job postings, screenings, and interviews of potential candidates. Over the past years, however, a huge shift has been seen as companies are gearing more and more towards staff augmentation.

This process allows businesses to hire skilled persons through a staff augmentation firm. This agency is responsible wholly for making sure all staffing requirements are met before sending in resources to the companys workforce. By using contract workers with the specific skill set mandated by the company, there are significant savings in time and money.

Basically speaking, this model is about employing professionals with specific talent to earn an advantage in the work front. But more than that, there is a possibility of having a multi-faceted business model that can propel your business forward. Read on and find out how you can use this outsourcing strategy to be leveraged for your business.

Benefits of Staff Augmentation:

Specific skill sets when you need them like most companies, you want to have employees with distinct skills and talents that are most useful for the work needed to be done. It is tough to go through conventional hiring methods, since people with high skill sets are often already employed by other companies. By using staff augmentation services, you are assured of these proficiencies for the job without having to go through the long and arduous process of screening and hiring applicants yourself.

– Increased profits and reduced business costs staff augmentation is cost-effective through the following means:

– Reduced overhead costs these include taxes and other benefits usually given to full-time in-house employees.

– Limited payrol having regular employees year-round is significantly more expensive than working with contractual resources who are only there for as long as the project exists.

– Training required is minimized since you are hiring employees who are already professionals and experts in their respective field of work, you wonât be burdened with having to pay for trainings.

– Enjoy full flexibility you are allowed quick termination of contracts under different circumstances. (e.g. in case you fall short with your budget or need to cancel a project altogether)

– Employees who are 100% professional, focused, and unbiased the biggest and only goal of these contractual workers is to make sure that your project is successful, thus guaranteeing that you are successful. Their approach towards work is focused and precise. They would not bother with anything else conflicts in the workplace, office politics, fighting for promotion, unhealthy competition, and other disturbances that usually happen with a conventional pool of employees. Also, they can give you direct and objective feedback without bias.

– Growth through expansion and flexibility this work delivery model lets you adapt through changes quickly and easily. You can expand your team by conveniently adding more resources with specified talent whenever your projects need more workers or if you have a looming deadline coming your way. This lets you respond more quickly to market demands and changes, as well as widen your areas for growth.

– Let go of all administrative burdens with staff augmentation, you give up having to bother yourself with tasks such as benefits, payroll, training and development, termination, unemployment, performance tracking, and other similar issues. You get assistance without these complications. The augmentation firm will also be the one to worry about managing budgets, project plans, and other resources in order to carry out the project goals within the specified time frame.

With these benefits, its easy to see why the trend is gearing towards staff augmentation. All the menial issues and hiring tasks are taken off your shoulders. You get all the proficient work done while saving time, effort, and money â giving more opportunity for you to focus on the bigger picture: letting your company grow further.

In this post we talk to expert leadership coach Stuart Hayes*, and find out the four steps that he uses in businesses to ensure changes in a business are both embraced by stakeholders and become long lasting as well.

In a business enterprise, the majority of us have actually been alerted at some point in time that, “if you’re not moving forwards you’re actually moving backwards.” In essence, this goes straight to the heart of why change is necessary to a positive and healthy business. Well balanced companies move with the times and recreate themselves. Unhealthy companies resist change, go stale and fade away.

Change is the core element of growth and in business change demands vision, a driving team along with a tight context if it is to be produced successfully and positively. This is why emphatic leadership is so important in a business.

But while talking about change, it’s important to not toss the baby out with the bathwater considering that, on the other side of the coin is the value of consistency which is also vital, especially in processes that apply to product, quality, profit or even, to some degree, organic growth.

So, this pair of contradictory principles must coexist in a healthy business. How do we execute that? The answer is to recognize that successful companies need change along with consistency, change being the territory of business leaders and consistency being the specialty of supervisors. Considering this pair side-by-side, it is not difficult to see why consistency together with change (indeed managers and leaders) are regularly testing to tie with each other.

In this post, I’m going to delve into the main components of effective leadership and how these aspects combine to yield favourable and sustainable change. As an experienced leader, the formula I make use of to produce this change includes a simple 4-step process which I highly recommend, as follows below:

1. Ask the Hard Questions.
Periodically, I wonder whether it is more difficult to know where you are actually starting from or where you’re specifically endeavouring to get to!

As business people and entrepreneurs, we frequently fall into the trap of viewing our endeavours through rose coloured glasses and neglect to truthfully perceive where we are setting out from – our ‘Point A’.

Acknowledging your actual point A isn’t easy: it is strictly accomplished by having the nerve to identify, ask, and then truthfully answer all of the confronting questions that apply to your business, your strategy as well as exactly how you are proceeding towards it. You know the questions; they are those tricky questions you more often than not stumble over when they hit you without warning at a party!

My suggestion* pull on your thickest skin, find another person to pinpoint then ask the questions that have to be asked … and don’t allow your vanity to hinder the genuine self-questioning that must come after. It might make the difference between success and failure.

2. Feeling the Reason Why.
Determining both the specifics of your ‘change vision’ (your ‘Point B’) and also the specifics of your true, core reason for change is likewise challenging. If there is an absolute number one secret for achieving positive along with lasting transformation, however, this is it.

If you don’t have the specifics, your vision is simply a desire. Without a deep and authentic reason as to why you wish to chase your vision, you will certainly struggle to move people towards it. People need to share your enthusiasm. Making the effort to connect with the core reason for change that deeply moves you, will be your best chance to move your team to head in the same direction with you.

Fortunately, those co-workers that do share and adopt your vision will stay with you and end up being the driving force for accomplishing it. This is why outstanding leaders appreciate the stick is not nearly as mighty as the carrot.

My tip* Identify the styles of men and women you will need to propel your change vision. Take some time to establish precisely who they might be and then what it is about your vision that could inspire them.

3. Design a Straightforward Plan.
From here on, the crucial elements of your success are sticking to what works, keeping it simple … as well as continuing to feed the interest that connects your driving staff to your vision.

Having clarified your ‘why’, assigning uninterrupted thinking time to recognising the essential pieces of your ‘how’ is crucial.

My suggestion* try to engage your driving group in this activity:

Determine the repeatable activities that will accomplish your objective (keep these simple).
Identify both the resources you have readily available and the resources you will require (actually require!).
Figure out the finite list of points that can obstruct your progression. Establish backup plans for any that are truly risky.

4. Attain Positive & Sustainable Change.
Staying on course and also achieving positive and sustainable transformation is a 99% leadership and a 1% management mixture of fuel, context and responsibility.

The fuel part is PR in its purest form. Its objective is to construct and then maintain momentum: communicate the vision, impart the simple, repeatable steps, celebrate successes … and ultimately train your driving group to do the same things. Each reinforces that the change vision is correct and that the team’s approach is the right one.

Notably, as leader, the code of conduct or ‘context’ you set up around your team and also its behaviour is fundamental to their capability to unify and achieve results. Your group will look to you to live by this code at all times and as you do it will certainly begin to take a life of its very own.

This is where keeping on track and attaining positive and lasting change needs your individual dedication, nerve and discipline: following the message you teach and getting in touch with your team in a genuine way when delivering it is most important.

Your ability to develop and maintain a solid context is directly commensurate to your capacity to do these things, and with a strong context your group will certainly self manage; self align; move mountains; and then generate the positive and lasting changes you seek.

My tip* Take a deep breath and then be prepared to be human, to acknowledge shortcomings and to be open to change yourself. You will be respected and then followed as a leader in a far more powerful manner when you have the courage to do these things.

*Stuart Hayes is a business and leadership coach from Melbourne, Australia.