Staff augmentation fills a workforce gap temporarily by hiring people from outside the company, who work alongside the in-house team. It is how a business gets a specialist for a project without the long process of a permanent hire, and it is what this guide is about: the types, the moments that call for it, what it costs a company in practice, and how game studios use it.
How staff augmentation works
Staff augmentation supplements an existing in-house workforce with skilled external people, engaged for as long as the work lasts.
Companies can hire specialised workers quickly for a particular job, without the lengthy process of regular hiring, and can scale the workforce against project requirements or business growth rather than against a headcount plan. Firms that specialise in it hold a network of skilled workers — developers, designers, project managers and others — to integrate into a client’s existing team.
- Commodity augmentation: standardized, widely available skills
- Skill-based augmentation: specialized knowledge missing in-house
- Highly-skilled augmentation: advanced expertise for complex work
- Short-term augmentation: brief capacity for a temporary need
- Long-term augmentation: sustained support for an extended project
- Project-based augmentation: added people for one defined project
- Seasonal augmentation: capacity aligned with a recurring peak
The types of staff augmentation
There is more than one model, and choosing between them is the first decision rather than an afterthought.
The scenarios that lead a company here are consistent: increasing the workforce to deliver a specific project, building a long-term working team, needing specialised workers with skills nobody on the current team has, or wanting access to professionals who bring new ideas without a permanent commitment.
| Type of Staff Augmentation | Description | Ideal for Companies That |
|---|---|---|
| Commodity Augmentation | Hiring for roles that require standardized skills widely available in the market. | Need to quickly scale up for routine tasks without specialized skills. |
| Skill-based Augmentation | Focusing on specialized skills and knowledge that may not be available in-house. | Require specific expertise for short-term projects or to fill immediate skill gaps. |
| Highly-skilled Augmentation | Involves outsourcing top-tier professionals with advanced expertise in their field. | Are working on complex, innovative projects and need industry-leading experts. |
| Short-term Augmentation | Hiring staff for brief periods, typically to handle temporary increases in workload. | Experience short-term spikes in demand or need to cover for employee absences. |
| Long-term Augmentation | Engaging staff for extended durations to work on long-term projects. | Have long-term projects and need ongoing support beyond their current team’s capacity. |
| Project-based Augmentation | Bringing on staff specifically for the duration of a project. | Embark on projects with clear timelines and need additional hands only for that period. |
| Seasonal Augmentation | Hiring additional workers during peak seasons or for cyclical work. | Experience seasonal spikes in demand and need to ramp up their workforce accordingly. |
Commodity augmentation
Commodity augmentation covers tasks that need basic or standardised skills widely available in the market.
Those roles typically do not require specialised knowledge, which makes them suitable for temporary staffing. The benefit is that the workforce scales up or down against a specific project’s demand without the long-term commitment of full-time employment — useful for businesses with fluctuating workloads or seasonal demand, which can hold operational efficiency while reducing costs.
Skill-based augmentation
Skill-based augmentation connects a company to skilled workers who fill gaps in knowledge that are not available in-house.
It lets a business adapt to changing project requirements and market demands without long-term commitments, and it reaches specialists in areas such as software development, data analysis and digital marketing. It works project by project, which is what makes it precise.
Highly-skilled augmentation
Highly-skilled augmentation brings in top-tier professionals in fields such as technology, management and software development.
These are people engaged to provide specific expertise for a project or initiative alongside the existing in-house workforce. The gain is talent on demand — time and resources not spent on recruitment and training — and the reason a company reaches for it is usually that the project is genuinely hard rather than merely large.
When to use staff augmentation
Three moments account for most engagements, and all three are about timing rather than about cost.
Reinforce the in-house workforce
Augmenting during a peak season or a sudden spike in workload keeps a team’s output steady when its size cannot change fast enough.
That is the case where additional resources are about productivity and support for the existing team rather than about new capability.
Compensate for skill gaps
Where the in-house team lacks a specific expertise, staff augmentation fills the gap with experienced professionals temporarily.
It suits both an acknowledged deficiency and a new project that needs an expertise the company has never needed before, and neither requires hiring a full-time employee to resolve.
Meet the deadline
Timely completion of a project can significantly affect the overall success of a business.
Scaling the workforce quickly against project demands is the direct answer to a deadline problem, and it is the one case where the alternative — hiring — is too slow by definition.
The pros and cons
Five arguments for, and a set of risks that all come back to the same thing: the people are not in the room.
Pros
Cost-effective. Access to skilled professionals without the hurdles and additional costs of recruitment, with the perks that would otherwise sit with an employer covered by the service fee.
Time saving. Skipping the traditional recruitment stage saves the time otherwise spent on job postings, interviews, paperwork and training.
Flexibility. A team can be grown against specific needs and scaled up or down by project or by period, monthly or weekly, which lets decisions be made without a headcount constraint in the way.
Increased productivity. The augmented team is focused on the one project it is assigned to, with that project’s deadline as its own priority.
Access to skilled global workers. A company is no longer bound to a local talent supply, because these services are available in many places and the work is done remotely.
Cons
Communication challenges. Augmented staff are likely to work remotely rather than from the office, so communication channels have to be built deliberately for the outsourced and in-house people to integrate.
That is the con this guide expands. The summary chart above also lists quality control and managerial bottlenecks, and both are worth raising with a prospective partner before an engagement starts.
Staff augmentation in video game development
Game development is where staff augmentation has been most useful in recent years, because a studio’s staffing needs change shape with every project.
Companies enlist external programmers, artists, designers and QA testers to supplement in-house teams against the requirements of a project in flight. That lets a studio keep its own people on core business activities while still meeting project demands and shipping high-quality games — the same reasoning we set out in our comparison of staff augmentation and outsourcing and in our piece on how agile businesses use the model.
Frequently asked questions
What is staff augmentation?
An approach in which companies hire skilled external professionals on a temporary basis to supplement their existing workforce. Those people help enhance productivity, innovate and develop new projects, and the model gives a business access to diverse and specialised workers without the traditional hiring process.
What are the different types of staff augmentation?
Three are covered here in detail: commodity augmentation, for tasks needing basic or standardised skills widely available in the market; skill-based augmentation, for specialised knowledge not available in-house; and highly-skilled augmentation, for top-tier professionals in fields such as technology, management and software development. The wider list also names short-term, long-term, project-based and seasonal augmentation.
When should a company consider staff augmentation?
When it needs to reinforce its in-house workforce or meet a project deadline. It is particularly useful during peak seasons or a sudden increase in workload, for compensating skill gaps, and for new projects that require specific expertise the current team does not have.
What are the pros and cons of staff augmentation?
The pros are cost-effectiveness, time saving, flexibility, increased productivity and access to skilled global workers. The article expands one con, communication challenges, because augmented staff are likely to be working remotely rather than in the office; the summary chart also names quality control and managerial bottlenecks, which it does not expand.
How does staff augmentation save a company time and money?
By skipping the traditional recruitment stage. The time normally spent creating job postings, interviewing candidates, doing paperwork and training is not spent, and the recruitment costs and employee perks that would otherwise sit with the company are covered by the service fee instead.
How is staff augmentation used in video game development?
Game development companies use it to scale a workforce quickly, enlisting external programmers, artists, designers and QA testers to supplement in-house teams for the requirements of a particular project. That lets the studio keep its own people on core activities while still meeting project demands.
If you want to know which of these models fits the gap in front of you, get in contact with our team.
