Let’s look at the numbers. In May 2022, the U.S. Labor Department’s monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey displayed 10.4 million job openings with 4.3 million people leaving their jobs – the highest level in over two decades. With supply chain disruptions and global labor shortages, companies around the globe are all competing in a deflated labor market caused by ageing workers retiring, people actively leaving their jobs for better opportunities elsewhere and a general rethinking of priorities propelled by the pandemic.

It’s no wonder that businesses across all industries are struggling to retain their staff and hire qualified new staff to meet growing demand!

It’s getting harder and harder to attract and hire qualified contact center candidates

Companies looking to attract IT resources with specific software certifications, accreditations, and work experiences, use their HR departments and outside recruiters to post jobs on job sites, use social media to expand candidate reach, and target passive candidates to engage and attract qualified candidates. Drawing from internal resources and referrals is another path often used.

This time-consuming and often pricey process is exasperated by a limited talent pool that is likely regularly approached by recruiters. Just think of your LinkedIn inbox and how many times you’ve been approached by recruiters to explore new job opportunities. Depending on your skills and expertise, your inbox can become a who’s who of recruiters.

To attract and engage qualified candidates, you need a comprehensive HR strategy that promotes a strong company brand, proactively builds talent pools, and expands your reach by continuously targeting and attracting qualified job candidates. Even then, hard-to-find candidates will need a strong and persuading reason to leave their current employment or choose your offer over the competition.

But what if you need resources today – as in RIGHT NOW – to complete a mission critical project?

Sourcing qualified resources through optimized outsourcing

Don’t have a recruitment-focused HR strategy in place? Struggling to find quality resources?

Give yourself and your team, a break. The truth is MOST companies struggle to fill those in-demand technical or overly specific positions. Some may decide to either hire inexperienced resources hoping to build and invest in their learning over time with the hope that they can fill future positions while overburdening staff in the short-term. However, if you have a time-sensitive, immediate need for a specific resource, that may not fit your needs. You do have another viable option.

Companies can and often turn to a trusted partner with readily available, qualified, and experienced resources to outsource their time and knowledge. Whether you decide on a pure outsourcing (which can involve a range of operations or a specific function) or staff augmentation (the use of experienced external resources to temporarily augment your capacity) model, you can find a quick and highly effective solution to your recruiting challenges.

Keep pace with your business needs through staff augmentation

Staff augmentation is incredibly common within the software and IT world. That’s because companies often require specific resources to complete time and budget-sensitive projects. While many IT and service partners can deliver projects, they generally can also provide resources for staff augmentation to fill positions for temporary or contract periods – acting as a bridge as you work toward developing your internal talent pool.

The contact center industry is also no stranger to the staff augmentation model as it’s a commonly used business strategy. Many contact centers use it as an effective way to quickly source and deploy contact center agents with little to no downtime.

But what about using staff augment to fill strategic or technical contact center positions?

On the operations side, you may be looking for a contact center solution integrator to install and configure your new contact center solution or workforce management platform. This is a short-term need that requires an expert with extensive technical knowledge and contact center-specific experience. The same goes if you have an immediate need for a contact center support specialist to meet high volume demand. In this case, you may look for contact center experts who can provide the experience and bandwidth needed to support your customers until the situation is resolved – without jeopardizing your contact center’s performance or customer experience.

Benefits gained when supplementing your team through staff augmentation

There are lots to think about. You’ll need to consider the type of contact center expert you need, how long you’ll need them and how to best use their expertise.

Let’s look at some of the key benefits of staff augmentation:

1. No requirements for health insurance or employee benefits. The resource works for you but is managed and supported by an external company.
2. Gain their accumulated knowledge, accreditations, and certifications without the human resources investment.
3. Use specific skills to support a project, instead of hiring for a job function.
4. Kickstart your project with little downtime, and quickly understand your project and goals.
5. Increase and decrease workforce on-demand.
6. Gain access to not just that one resource, but to the entire company that may assist in solution solving, resulting in additional cost savings.
7. Keep pace with your business needs, acting on opportunities as they arise.
8. Focus on what you do best and allow experts to manage specific functions.
9. Ensure that you follow industry trends and best practices.
10. Support your internal team with key expertise, rather than replace them.

Build your dream team through staff augmentation

Staff augmentation provides you with an immediate solution to your contact center needs by quickly connecting you with experienced resources. When used strategically, staff augmentation can help your company become nimbler and more adaptive to change. After all, you have full control over the resources you bring on board, how long they stay and what impact they make on your business.

So, the next time you’re faced with a challenging set of skills, consider speaking with your solution and service partner. Like us, they may be able to help bridge the gap with an experienced resource. Over the years, we’ve provided our clients personalized staff augmentation services when they’ve required specific expertise and certifications to supplement their team, work on a project or to fill key positions. From a short to long-term mandate, requiring one or more Inoria experts, it’s a fulfilling experience to extend our client partnerships, helping them succeed in a moment where they required the knowledge and experience of our internal resources. Our clients have also benefited from having access to the entire Inoria network realizing solutions and opportunities that would not have been possible, had they elected to onboard a full-time employee.

Let’s discuss your staff augmentation needs. We’re here to help!