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Guide To Nearshore staff augmentation

Guide To Nearshore staff augmentation

Innovation and swiftly adapting is the key to surviving competition and thriving in today’s fast-paced business landscape.

Either you adapt yourself and succeed, or be ready to perish with time. One of the key factors which helps businesses succeed over its competitors is having a highly skilled, agile, and innovative workforce.

But for all organisations, it may not always be financially or operationally viable to maintain an in-house workforce. Moreover, post COVID, most organisations have either gone completely remote or hybrid, and maintaining a fully functioning office is not the norm now.

Here’s where nearshore staff augmentation works as a strategic solution for organisations.But before we get more into the details of it, let us understand what is staff augmentation and its styles.

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What is staff augmentation?

What is staff augmentation

Staff augmentation is a business strategy that organisations globally use when they have to scale their workforce quickly. It is a cost-effective way to hire employees with exceptional skills when compared to hiring full-time employees.

For organizations that are looking for temporary or project-based professionals to quickly help them with their projects and fill their skill gaps, this is the best approach. Staff augmentation helps supplement the existing workforce, scale operations, and stay agile.

Types of Staff Augmentation

There are three broad categories in which staff augmentation can be classified:


Onshore staff augmentation

Onshore staff augmentation is common for projects where frequent collaboration and communication are desirable. The additional workforce is generally from the same geographic region or country as the business’s headquarters. It makes the overall communication process easy and is free of any cultural and language barriers.


Offshore staff augmentation

Offshore staff augmentation is a process where professionals are hired from locations across the globe. They are hired from locations across different time zones and countries. Although there are certain limitations, such as cultural differences and language barriers, the benefits outweigh the issues.

Offshore augmentation offers businesses the opportunity to hire from a global and specialised talent pool, have extended or continuous working hours, and also save costs. Often it is best suited for business where the external workforce doesn’t need continuous monitoring or interaction.


Nearshore staff augmentation

Nearshore staff augmentation is a balance of strategies between offshore and onshore staff augmentation. In nearshore staff augmentation, the external teams are located in nearby countries.

This reduces cultural and time zone differences while at the same time giving businesses the opportunity to hire cost-effective and talented resources. Additionally, this makes traveling a lot easier whenever required.

Although each staff augmentation practice has its own advantages and disadvantages, in this article we will delve more into nearshore staff augmentation.

Guide To Nearshore Staff Augmentation

Before you dive into the process of nearshore augmentation, having a plan and a well-defined process is important. Here are seven things that you should consider.

Nearshore Staff Augmentation

Identify Your Business Needs

Identifying and understanding why you require nearshore staff augmentation and how you will utilise the augmented resources is crucial before you proceed. Have a detailed discussion with your leadership and your teams to understand the complete requirements. We would suggest, at the very least, having a brief or detailed idea about the following aspects would help you:

  • Identify the functions where you want to augment staff, such as software development, software testing, DevOps, etc.
  • List down the projects or tasks for which you need resources and in what capacity.
  • Using a project management tool or otherwise, estimate and establish a tentative timeline for the completion of the tasks or project.
  • Define the responsibilities, qualifications, and job roles for the augmented team.

Partner Selection

Evaluating and onboarding a credible partner is essential for nearshore staff augmentation. Having the correct partner who has a clear understanding of your business requirements is half the job done.

Ensure that the partner you choose has experience in staff augmentation and has industry insights. Look out for client testimonials and the previous track record of the augmentation partner.

Also, make sure that the partner you choose does not have a limited tech stack and has a wide pool of talent across multiple technologies. In addition to all the above points, your staff augmentation partner should be capable of handling legal, compliance, and security issues. 

Assessing a staff augmentation partner will help you assess its flexibility, agility, scalability, and how it will help your organisation grow in the long run. AI enabled tech talent clouds like Ellow.io provides

Communication and Feedback

Communication is the key to running a successful business. In nearshore staff augmentation, establishing a proper channel of communication helps facilitate seamless collaboration. Effective communication ensures that the augmented team has clear ideas of their roles, goals, and the expectations the organisation has.

It helps in better conflict management and faster resolutions without any probable delays. A proper communication channel helps avoid misunderstandings, quick problem solving, and overall better management of issues.

An effective channel of communication aids in faster feedback, the sharing of regular updates and progress, request changes, and opens up a two-way communication channel. It helps in building trust and fostering strong camaraderie between the organisation and the augmented team.

Use a combination of video-conferencing and project management tools to make communication simple and easy within your team.

Evaluate Nearshore Locations

The next important step in setting up a nearshore staff augmentation team is researching and evaluating the location. You need to evaluate a number of factors before you zero in on one. Consider the time zone and cultural differences, proximity, language barriers, and cost of resources as some of the main factors.

Not only this, but also consider and evaluate the local labor laws, government policies, and geopolitical conditions of the nearshore before considering them for staff augmentation.

Embrace The Differences

McKinsey’s recent study highlighted that organisations with diverse teams are 25% more profitable than their peers and better at solving complex problems. 

While initially the cultural difference with nearshore augmented employees might appear to be a roadblock, embracing it will be beneficial in the long run. Learning and valuing the culture of the nearshore team gives organisations the opportunity to best use the differences.

Embracing the culture of nearshore teams not only creates a diverse and inclusive environment for all employees to thrive and grow but also makes the team receptive to ideas and opinions. Different brains with unique expertise and experiences working together results in better results and innovation.

Invest in Training & Support

The nearshore teams and the in-house teams may not be on par with each other in terms of culture, working styles, processes, and tools. Provide necessary onboarding training and support so they successfully integrate into the organisation and settle down without hassle

Provide online training, mentoring, study materials, etc., so that the employees who are part of your team through nearshore staff augmentation are comfortable. Build a cohesive team by conducting team-building exercises and workshops. It will remove the gaps between both teams and establish a sense of trust and connection.

Continuous Monitoring

Monitoring the progress of nearshore staff augmentation is as important as laying the foundation of the process. Measure KPIs, customer satisfaction, and project milestones to understand whether you are on the right track. Follow an iterative process of sharing feedback with the nearshore team so that they can be agile and quick to respond to changing needs.

Final Thoughts!

In conclusion, nearshore staff augmentation is one of the most effective ways to hire talented, cost-effective individuals. Hiring from neighboring countries reduces labour costs, gives access to a talented pool of individuals, and offers flexibility and scalability.

Having similar time zones reduces time to market, improves communication and collaboration, and provides a smooth workflow between the onshore and nearshore teams. Additionally, they are more culturally aligned and have similar work ethics, leading to better cohesion among the team, which results in increased productivity and efficiency.

Nearshore augmentation reduces the proximity, as it allows for easier travel and more face-to-face interactions. Overall, nearshore staff augmentation is the most effective way for companies looking to ramp up their teams with talented individuals across borders.

AI-enabled talent cloud like Ellow offers a pool of thousands of pre-vetted software developers to choose from and lets you ramp up your team within 48 hours to 7 days.

If you’re interested in working with us, you can fill out this form.

Frequently Asked Questions

The key difference is geographic proximity and time zone similarity. Nearshore Staff Augmentation refers to hiring professionals from a neighboring or nearby country, often in the same or a similar time zone. This can offer advantages in terms of easier communication and collaboration. Offshore Staff Augmentation usually involves hiring professionals from countries on different continents with different time zones.

Some benefits include cost savings, access to a larger pool of skilled professionals, increased productivity, and the ability to easily scale your team up or down as needed. In addition, nearshoring can help alleviate challenges related to communication, time zones, and cultural compatibility.

It’s possible to fill a wide variety of roles through this model, including software development, project management, data analysis, quality assurance, and much more. The key is to find a provider that specializes in the skills you need.

Considerations should include the provider’s track record and reputation, their access to skilled professionals, their ability to understand your specific needs, the cost of their services, their ability to communicate effectively, and their cultural compatibility with your organization.

 Success can be encouraged by setting clear expectations, maintaining regular communication, offering appropriate training and support, and treating your augmented staff as part of your team.

This model allows you to scale your team rapidly and flexibly in response to business needs, access specialized skills that may not be available locally, and reduce costs, all of which can support the growth and competitiveness of your business.

This largely depends on the agreement between your company and the staff augmentation provider. Ellow help you do this seamlessly. 

Picture of Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh

Experienced B2B Content Marketer, Writer, Editor, and Strategist. He is from an engineering background who now loves to play around with words. He is an SEO and a social media enthusiast.
Picture of Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh

Experienced B2B Content Marketer, Writer, Editor, and Strategist. He is from an engineering background who now loves to play around with words. He is an SEO and a social media enthusiast.
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