To successfully manage ongoing tech projects and quickly find and retain the best talents, company executives started turning to the outstaffing business model more often. With the increased demand from clients, outstaffing also evolves and offers flexible services to meet the clients’ needs. Even if the general concept of outstaffing has often been discussed, the differences between smart and conventional outstaffing are not always clear.
Both conventional and smart outstaffing agencies provide IT outstaffing services, but the difference lies in the approach. Conventional, also known as classical, outstaffing is an exemplary model, offering recruiting, onboarding, and employer of record services on your demand. Smart outstaffing additionally focuses on expertise and skills of hired professionals.
Let us turn to the working process of smart outstaffing vs. conventional outstaffing. It will shed some light on the engagement of specialists and integration of new hires into a client’s project.
Hiring in Conventional Outstaffing vs. Smart Outstaffing
Outstaffing tasks include finding suitable candidates, organizing all the stages of recruitment, going through the onboarding process with a potential tech specialist, and providing ongoing support to the new hires. Both hiring and managing tech specialists pertain to conventional outstaffing vs. smart outstaffing.
However, conventional outstaffing focuses more on hiring tech professionals for a defined task in the project. Such specialists help in-house professionals with a specific need, work simultaneously on different projects, and usually don’t take part in decision-making. Smart outstaffing, on the contrary, offers outcome-oriented partnership. Hired tech specialists follow the cooperation approach with a client’s team, share their knowledge and expertise, and may become vivid contributors to the outcome of a client’s project.
Defining Project Needs
When a client follows the conventional outstaffing approach, they are supposed to provide all the needed materials for their ongoing project. A client also clearly defines the areas of responsibility for a tech specialist. Planning and strategy are usually done by a client’s core team.
When a client chooses to trust part of his project to a smart outstaffing provider, they can free time and target high-level tasks instead. The outstaffing specialist might in turn be in charge of project management, task accomplishment, and even take part in shaping the final strategy and result. In this case, the outstaffing company takes the role of a strategic partner, playing an active part in the process flow of the project. Smart outstaffing also has higher adaptability, which is suitable if a project includes many complex requirements.
Duration of Cooperation
Conventional outstaffing vs. smart outstaffing help you find specialists for different project durations. What differentiates their approaches is specialist’s engagement with the team. Potentially, this can influence the mutual cooperation, turning short-term collaboration into the long-term one.
In conventional outstaffing, a tech specialist works on a specific, dedicated part of the project. The core in-house team usually takes care of the rest, as they already have all the needed skills.
In smart outstaffing, the outstaffing provider may take the role of a client’s partner. A client may ask for the whole group of specialists to be able to accomplish the project from the beginning till the end. This increases the chances of a long-term cooperation between an outstaffing company and a client.
Benefits and Shortcomings
The differences between smart and conventional outstaffing are so subtle that you may still hesitate on your choice. Depending on the scale and complexity of your tech project, you may benefit from both. We can wrap the two into a comprehensive list:
- Smart outstaffing offers skilled developers who can handle the whole project, while conventional outstaffing offers candidates for well-defined tasks;
- Smart outstaffing means the hired specialists are highly skilled and could even level up the skills of the in-house team. Conventional outstaffing instead offers predictable experience for the “gaps” in the ongoing project.
- In conventional outstaffing, specialists only execute already assigned tasks, while in smart outstaffing, they can have a voice in the project’s strategy and direction.
Target Clients
The differences between smart and conventional outstaffing allow to determine what types of businesses can benefit from these models. Both concepts are useful for startup companies, small and big tech companies. Outstaffing proved to be effective for cost and time savings, and increased productivity of the team.
However, companies who already have a defined project and need a tech professional for a specific task will benefit more from conventional outstaffing. Teams who seek new experienced specialists and want to share with them their strategy would rather turn to smart outstaffing.
Final Ideas
Conventional outstaffing can cover all your demands regarding specific tasks in the project. The required specialist can be found from all over the world, which will bring new skills and a different angle to your project.
Smart outstaffing is often regarded as a strategic partnership, where the outstaffed specialists have more liberty and take part in the strategy of the project. Smart outstaffing also concentrates more on the final outcome of the project.
The choice of the approach will depend on the complexity and nature of your project, requirements for the task, and the grade of involvement you want to entrust to the outstaffing company.
