Technology
An extra pair of hands
How staff augmentation can help your IT department
By Steve Trusty
Smart Business Cincinnati | July 2008
Matt McGee
Vice president, technical staffing services
Pomeroy IT Solutions
There are a number of reasons that
you might need additional IT help.
It could be your business is growing. You might be exploring expansion
into a new area. Maybe it’s time to investigate better customer service options. It
could be time to ramp up for a new product launch. Perhaps you need to get a
better handle on how your business is
really doing.
In any event, you need help — maybe
one person for a few hours a week,
maybe several people working multiple
days — to get the job accomplished,
especially in today’s challenging business
environment.
“In uncertain times, staff augmentation
is usually the way to go,” says Matt
McGee, the vice president of technical
staffing services at Pomeroy IT Solutions.
“A temporary worker is the best alternative to a W-2 employee.”
Smart Business spoke with McGee
about ways to obtain the best solutions
with staff augmentation.
What do you mean by staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation is an outsourcing
strategy to quickly obtain the person or
people you need to complete a project.
The project may be temporary or ongoing and may take one or more people.
The key is, you are not in a position to
add to your full-time staff but the work
still needs to be done. Those reasons
could include but are not limited to: You
are restricted to a certain percentage of
labor to income and this project can be
charged to another line item; the work
might be for a specific project and that
project can support the work without it
increasing the entire overhead; you may
need to maintain the ability to ramp up
and ramp down very quickly; and you
may not be in a position to attract the talent needed on your own or have the skill
sets to get the best people so you partner
with a specialist in this area.
How should staff augmentation be done?
It is very important to partner with a
firm that understands you, your business
and your needs. Take the time upfront to
interview two or three potential partners.
Make sure that they will take the time to
really get to know you and your needs. If
your partner doesn’t know you well
enough, you’ll become a sorter of
resumes. You’ll receive hundreds of candidates when you really only need a few
to select from for the best fit.
It is also important for you to take time
to thoroughly research your needs. As
the specific needs are identified, they
must be carefully spelled out in the job
description. It can’t be one or two sentences. It is also important for you and
your partner to work together to find the
person that not only has the skills you
need but also will fit in well with your
culture. The better your partner knows
you, the better it can identify the right
person.
What do you do differently in finding temporary resources?
You need to respond much faster. A
person identified by your partner may be
on the market for a week or two. If you
don’t respond within 24 hours with an
interview time and take a week or less to
make a decision, you are likely to miss
the right person. If the first person you
talk to isn’t the right one, you need to
respond quickly to get your partner looking for another candidate. You also need
to be clear on why the first one was not
right so your partner has the information
needed to make a better choice on the
next go-round.
What do you do the same?
Your criteria for hiring an employee or
retaining a resource should remain the
same. In either case, you want the person with the right skills that fits in to
your company and with the other
employees. The resource is going to
have to fit in to be comfortable and
effective. Staff augmentation is a great
pathway to a full-time employee. In fact,
you should not hire a resource whom
you would not consider as a candidate
for a full-time position.
Are there different tactics for different types
of businesses?
As a CIO or IT manager, there is no difference for you. Your recruiting partner
should be looking for talent who has
experience in your type of business. This
will be easier for your partner if it has
experience in your area. That is one of
the things to look for as you interview
potential partners. There will be a better
fit if the resource is already very familiar
with your type of industry.
MATT MCGEE is the vice president of technical staffing services at Pomeroy IT Solutions. Reach him at (859) 586-0600 x1162 or
MMcGee@pomeroy.com.
