IT staff augmentation in healthcare allows healthcare systems to complete short-term projects and fill specific staffing needs. Augmentation gives healthcare providers the flexibility and experience to complete essential IT projects.
Find out more about the pros and cons of staff augmentation and its role in the healthcare industry.
What Is IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation is a form of outsourcing for IT projects and tasks. Augmentation provides additional IT staffing when organizations need it the most. When an organization has a larger need than what its internal team can cover, staff augmentation makes it possible for them to add capacity to meet their needs.
Why Do Healthcare Providers Need to Augment IT Staff?
Healthcare organizations experience stress from multiple directions. They face increasing budget constraints while also being tasked with more complicated duties. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a growing demand for digital services for patient care and billing.
IT staff augmentation in healthcare can help organizations fill the temporary need their IT teams are experiencing with seasoned, experienced professionals. With it, they can meet the demand they’re experiencing while staying within their new budget limitations.
What Are the Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation?
IT staff augmentation can be beneficial for the organizations that use it. Here are five of the most significant benefits.
1. Access to Experienced Professionals
IT tasks come in a wide range of sizes and scopes. There’s a broad range of specialties and niches within the IT industry, each with certain skills and talents. An organization’s internal IT team may have a wide range of experience and skills, but it’s not uncommon for there to be small coverage gaps because of the massive breadth of the IT industry.
IT staff augmentation allows organizations to fill those gaps when necessary, giving them direct access to specialized experts when they need it the most. Thanks to staff augmentation, organizations should never have to face skill or talent gaps in their IT program.
2. Reduced Overall Costs
Augmenting IT staff is cheaper than hiring full-time IT professionals. Healthcare providers don’t have to manage the hiring and onboarding process. Augmentation reduces the overhead costs of bringing in new IT team members.
IT staff augmentation also saves money by reducing the amount of training required. The staff provider hires experienced engineers who are ready to work. In addition, Excel SoftSources provides continuous learning opportunities, thus saving the organization time and money to establish and maintain further learning and development needs.
3. Objective Insights
When you work on a project for a long time, it’s not easy to take a step back to view it for what it is. An objective set of eyes can often see both solutions and problems never noticed before. IT staff augmentation adds new, experienced members to IT projects who can provide valuable insights unnoticed by the existing team.
4. Flexibility
IT staff augmentation is highly flexible and built with adaptation in mind. Outsourcing providers, like Excel SoftSources, can quickly adapt and expand their coverages to match the needs of their clients. If you’re looking for a single staff member or an entire team, staff augmentation providers can deliver quick, consistent results.
5. No Lapse of Coverage
If an employee leaves, there’s a position coverage gap as a new hire is found, trained, and integrated. An employee’s exit can create a lack of coverage for weeks or months. Companies that use team IT staff augmentation can avoid backlogs. When there is turnover, a contractor can be re-assigned and brought up to speed by other team members quickly and cost effectively.
The Pros and Cons of Staff Augmentation
Before choosing staff augmentation, it’s important to get a complete picture of what it can and can’t provide. Here are the pros and cons healthcare organizations may experience when choosing staff augmentation.
Pros
- Scalability – By using outsourced staff to augment your IT needs, you can quickly scale up or down to match your organizational needs without managing HR concerns internally..
- Overhead cost savings – Using nearshore augmented staff allow organizations to circumvent long-term costs and overhead of salaried employees. In our staff augmentation agreements, Excel SoftSources covers all recruitment, HR management, technology, taxes, and office costs plus provides ongoing engagement and training, further reducing the overhead the healthcare organization must cover.
- Cost reduction for training – Augmented employees are managed by the outsourcing provider, not the healthcare organization. The outsourcer is responsible for training them about general HR procedures and ensuring they’re properly certified and trained to perform their tasks. Excel SoftSources will save an organization time and money by not having to train more employees.
- Internal acceptance – Augmented employees are known to be contractors and shorter term than full time equivalent employees. Our employees have a strong work ethic, speak English well and cooperate with your teams to build, support, and maintain great products and services. Our employees will quickly become valued members to your IT teams.
Cons
- Institutional knowledge – Temporary staff members are experienced professionals, but they don’t have the same institutional knowledge as the healthcare organization. They may be unfamiliar with the organization’s history, community, and style.
- Tight Labor Market– Finding experienced IT professionals is a challenge in every market. Have a strategic plan with diversity for your IT staffing needs.
- On-shore vs Off-shore costs – Contracting off-shore and nearshore talent does cost less, but the taxes and benefits required in some countries are higher than others. Weigh the cost benefits with the stability of the country from where you are hiring – and make sure to follow the local labor laws and taxation of each country where you are hiring.
Choose Excel Softsources for Your IT Needs
Excel SoftSources is a nearshore outsourcing provider that offers affordable rates and exceptional services. We provide agile software development to help you reach your deadlines and goals.
Contact Excel SoftSources today to learn more about working with us.
