Staff Augmentation Model - Part 3

Topics - Part 3

1. Comparison of Staff Augmentation and Managed Services
2. Definitions
3. Disclaimer
4. References

...Continuing from Part 2

Comparison of Staff Augmentation and Managed Services

Below is a ARCI matrix comparing the Staff Augmentation model and Managed Services model based on the context of this posting.

Process Area	Augmented		Managed
	Client	Service Provider	Client	Service Provider
Employee Lifecycle	-	-	-	-
Recruitment	ACI	R	CI	AR
Orientation	I	AR	I	AR
Onboarding	AR	CI	I	AR
Employee Development	IC	AR	I	AR
Employee Engagement	I	AR	I	AR
Employee Retention	I	AR	I	AR
Termination	CI	AR	I	AR
Replacement	CI	AR	I	AR
Workforce Management	AR	I	CI	AR
Delivery	AR	I	CI	AR
Transition and Onboarding	R	AR	CI	AR

Definitions

1.  Service Provider - The organization that owns and operates a Shared Services . Organization can be third party vendor. Or in house
2. Shared Services
3. Client - The organization that is engaging the service from the Service Provider.

Disclaimer

This blog post is meant to share my thoughts on this topic based on my observation and experience working in the Shared Services industry in Malaysia, Singapore, China and Philippines. This is not an exhaustive analysis on this topic and I do not use scientific method for analysis and validation.

References

1. Staff augmentation
2. Body shopping
3. Workforce Management 
4. Human Resource Management 

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Staff Augmentation Model - Part 2

Topics - Part 2

1. Human Resource Management
1. Workforce Management
2. Delivery
3. Transition and Onboarding
4. Risks
5. Benefits

...Continuing from Part 1

Workforce Management

Workforce management (WFM) encompasses all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce and falls under the umbrella of human resource management. Service providers are responsible for WFM as augmented staffs are on its payroll. A good workforce management is important for service providers to attract and retain talent so that they can remain competitive in the marketplace. It is common for service providers to improve in this area by actively soliciting feedback from staffs via some form of employee satisfaction survey.

Delivery

In Staff Augmentation model, the client is responsible for all aspect of work delivery. This includes work assignment, monitoring and tracking of work completion for the augmented staffs. Even thought service providers are not responsible in delivery, they will need to facilitate their clients in remote managing the staffs in their offsite locations. Service providers only get involved to take corrective actions in there is deficiency of the augmented staffs' productivity, skills, knowledge or quality of work.

Transition and Onboarding

Transition activities in Augmented Staff model is minimal in comparison to Managed Services. The common transition activities is for the service provider to put in place facilities for communication and mechanisms for remote management of the augmented staffs. Both the communication channel and the management method has to be agreed upon between the service provider and the client before the engagement commence. Onboarding augmented staff is similar to onboarding internal staff other than the fact that they are offsite. Onboarding is usually conducted by the client.

Risk

I have listed some common risks associated with the Augmented Staff model that I have observed (I will expand on this list as time goes). I have left out some attributes of risk such as probability, impact and mitigation steps as this is largely dependent on organization and the contractual agreement between service provider and client. The owner in the table is the party responsible to implement corrective or mitigation steps for the risks.

Category	Description	Owner
HR	The augmented staff is unable to integrate with client's workforce.	Service Provider
HR	High turnover of the augmented staff.	Service Provider
Delivery	The augmented staff is unable to perform up to the expectations of the client.	Service Provider
Delivery	The project that the augmented staff is working on is unable to meet its objectives.	Client
Delivery	Confusion in responsibilities and authorities over the augmented staffs between service provider and client.	Client + Service Provider

Benefits

Let's look at the benefits of the Staff Augmentation model from a client perspective.

1. You have a staffing need in a niche area where qualified resources are difficult to find. Certain service providers specializes in a particular skill or technology platform and will have these resources available.  
2. You have a temporary need for staffing or want to supplement your existing workforce for a period of time. 
3. You need to quickly staff up your project. Some service providers allow for their augmented staffs to be absorbed into the clients' workforce for a fee. 
4. Cheaper resources due to cost arbitrage.

To be continue... (Part 3: Comparison of Staff Augmentation and Managed Services)