In-House Team or Staff Augmentation? Discover the Best Option for You

To meet your company’s increasingly complex product demands, you may require more manpower on your software development team.

But what’s the best way to hire these developers: with your own in-house team or through staff augmentation services?

Today we’ll take an in-depth look at nearshore staff augmentation compared to creating your own team directly, so you can make the right choice for your business.

Ready to hire senior engineer talent in LATAM? Learn more about our specialized Headhunting and Hiring & Payroll Processing services at Nexton.

When to build your own in-house team

Building your own in-house team means that you hire developers directly through your internal processes and don’t rely on third-party providers for their management.

There are huge advantages to having your own team, especially if you require ongoing, long-term talent. With this model, you’ll have 100% control of your hires’ time and work, which is ideal for managing your core team on your own terms.

Remember: Building your own in-house team doesn’t mean the hires have to be local. You can choose remote developers in your same time zone in order to create the same level of team cohesion.

Pros

What’s more, building your own in-house team is beneficial for boosting your software development cycle overall. Here are some key pros of direct hires:

• Build deeper relationships with your developers, which tends to form better team bonds and increase motivation.
• Integrate team members into your company culture. Teams are stronger when every developer is immersed into the culture and feels a sense of ownership.
• Elevate the final product quality. Cohesive teams are more likely to go the extra mile to create amazing products.
• Control and manage your product development processes as you require.
• Grow and maintain your main product lines by prioritizing team efforts.

Cons

Of course, building your own in-house team may not be right for every scenario. Some reasons you might avoid direct hiring include:

• More expensive, as in-house operations will have to cover administrative costs, team member benefits and office/technology needs.
• Time-consuming, for you will need in-house managers to direct teams and resources.

Regardless of these challenges, the benefits of in-house teams outweigh any potential negatives for companies with long-term needs.

When to use staff augmentation

Staff augmentation involves working with an agency to fill gaps on your in-house team. It’s most commonly used for a specific project or a short-term need as you scale up your team.

In this case, you won’t handle the developers’ hiring logistics yourself. Instead, an agency will act as a bridge between you and your talent, which means you won’t have full visibility into their time, pay, benefits, etc.

Ultimately, you’ll depend on the quality of the agency and its specializations in order to have success with staff augmentation.

Pros of staff augmentation

Some reasons why companies choose nearshore staff augmentation include:

• Cost-effective, for you don’t need to worry about paying benefits, administrative costs and office or technology needs. Plus, augmented staff companies take care of your offshore billing as well.
• Scalable according to your needs, so you can stay flexible as you build products.
• Faster recruitment cycles, so you can ramp up the project in quicker time periods.
• Nearshore staff augmentation options allow your team to collaborate in real-time, with a few overlapping hours that allows for synchronous work.
• It’s a good fit if you’re building a product that isn’t your core business.

Cons of staff augmentation

That said, staff augmentation has some downsides, especially regarding your team’s cohesion and the quality of the product you’re developing. Here are some reasons why staff augmentation may not be a good decision for your business:

• Lack of transparency into developer salaries and benefits: Staff augmentation agencies, while taking care of your offshore billing, make it difficult to get insight into how much your developers are earning and receiving in benefits. Most likely, you won’t be able to negotiate and create more competitive packages in order to keep your favorite talent. This also means that you can easily lose top-notch talent to other companies at any point during the project.
• Lack of company cultural cohesion: With staff augmentation, your engineers are prone to feel like they work for the agency, not you. This can make it difficult to incorporate them into your company culture and deepen relationships, which ultimately can reduce effective communication and lead to a less motivated team overall.
• Lack of insight into talent satisfaction: It’s frustrating when you experience high developer turnover with an agency. Typically, this happens because you don’t have insight into your developers’ satisfaction with their salary, benefits, career development goals, etc.
• Lack of participation in the recruiting process: Since staff augmentation agencies oversee recruitment, you might not have much control over their skills tests, interviews and more. In fact, some agencies may not even let you choose between potential candidates.
• Lack of specialized skill tests: Talent agencies also vary widely in their expertise in the tech industry. This can become a problem if they can’t properly vet technical skills and ensure you’re getting the right candidates for the skills you require.
• Rush to fill positions due to competitive industry: Finally, the nearshore staff augmentation industry is quite competitive and agencies often prioritize filling positions quickly over finding the ideal match for your needs.

At the end of the day, if you’re keen on getting an augmented staff, it’s essential to seek expert talent agencies that value transparency and high-quality talent.

How Nexton can help build your own in-house team

The decision between building your own team vs. nearshore staff augmentation may be difficult. Yet, if you’re ready to build your own in-house team, Nexton can support you in finding elite tech talent that meets your long-term goals.

Specifically, we offer two services for building your own in-house team remotely: Headhunting or Hiring & Payroll Processing.

Option #1: Headhunting

Headhunting services involve helping you discover the right candidates, but handing off the rest of hiring and logistics to your own internal team. This is a first-rate idea if your main priority is recruiting outstanding tech talent for the long term. Here are the main benefits of choosing our headhunting services at Nexton:

We have specialized recruitment skills in the tech industry. We use industry-specific networks and databases in Latin America in order to discover the best and brightest engineering talent.
We screen a range of tech qualifications. As engineers and specialists in tech talent, we know how to screen candidates’ qualifications –whether you need senior tech skills or a specific specialization.

Our expert talent tech agency connects you with the ideal candidates for your tech teams. Learn more about our headhunting services at Nexton.

Option #2: Hiring & Payroll Processing

If you require extra support in key hiring logistics (such as recruitment, hiring, payroll and onboarding), we offer Hiring & Payroll Processing services.

In this case, we handle all the logistics of having an international remote team member, so you can concentrate your efforts on building products. Here are the top advantages of choosing our Hiring & Payroll Processing services:

• We provide end-to-end services, so you don’t have to deal with the headache or liability of hiring global talent. Our Hiring & Payroll Processing services support recruitment, hiring logistics, ongoing payroll and offshore billing, so you can focus on your core business.
• We give full transparency into salary and benefits, so you can retain your best talent. We work closely with you to offer competitive job packages, negotiate as needed and ensure developer satisfaction.
• We perform specialized skills tests and cultural fit interviews so that your remote talent is exactly what you need. We put your company’s branding and culture first, making it easy to integrate your new team members.

We handle end-to-end hiring logistics, so you can focus on building winning software products. Find out more about our Hiring & Payroll Processing services at Nexton.

Leverage Headhunting or Hiring & Payroll Processing services with Nexton

You’ve got options when it comes to hiring developers for your next software development product. While nearshore staff augmentation has its advantages, you may also want to build an in-house team for greater team cohesion. Both options give you the option of taking care of your offshore billing, so you don’t have to navigate through the web of international hiring laws.

As you search for the ideal long-term talent for your tech teams, you can leverage our transparent talent solutions at Nexton. We’re your one-stop shop for LATAM tech recruitment, offering both Headhunting and Hiring & Payroll Processing services according to your specific needs.

Get in touch with our team to learn more about how we can boost your development team with top remote engineering talent. Reach out to contact@nextonlabs.com.