Experts-on-Demand vs In-House Talent

Establishing an in-house team requires time, patience, and money. Experts-on-demand, otherwise known as staff augmentation, can increase customer satisfaction and employee morale while decreasing costs and delivery times. The goal is to seek out highly skilled and experienced individuals who are well-versed in the latest technologies. Let’s explore the underlying pros and cons of both.

What is in-house talent?

As the name suggests, in-house talent involves assembling a team using in-house resources from scratch. It is, essentially, like hiring permanent staff. The hiring process itself can be long and cumbersome. It involves job posting, checking job applications, filtering them, scheduling and taking interviews, and hiring the most suitable candidates for the job.

In-house talent is recommended when a company is working on long-term projects and has plenty of capital to invest with complete control of the project with no data compromise. Corporate giants like Amazon and PayPal mostly prefer to go with in-house developers. Although the cost is significantly high, this allows them total control of the project.

Let’s explore the pros and cons of relying on in-house talent:

Advantages of In-House Talent

Team Alignment with Company Goals

Bigger companies typically prefer a highly motivated team members who understand the company’s vision or goals and embody its core values. In-house development allows this alignment. When a team works in synergy, the business yields better results.

Direct Communication

Direct communication is a straightforward benefit of an in-house team. Usually, in the experts-on-domain approach, the primary point of contact is the project manager who may not always understand the technicalities involved in the project. It’s quicker to contact the in-house team as they are physically present in the office space. Face-to-face communication speeds up discussions, particularly during the project requirement finalization, ultimately saving time and eliminating any chances of misunderstandings.

Immediate Support

Having direct communication also means having immediate support when needed, which is another privilege of in-house development. Any issues that crop up during or after deployment can be addressed immediately by the in-house team.

Cons of In-House Talent

High Costs

The high costs incurred by the company are from the visible cost of hiring an in-house team; the first hire being HR. Some of the hidden costs include health insurance, sick leaves, public holidays, gratuity, etc. The company also has to bear the costs even if sometimes, there is no task for the team.

Talent Search Challenges

Finding the right talent to meet business requirements can be a challenging task. One may ultimately have to rely on existing employees to do the job and in the process, end up incurring costs in providing them with better benefits; otherwise, the business might end up losing some of the talent they already have.

Skill Specialization

Industries witness continuous evolution, with technologies and tools changing at a high pace. Therefore, organizations must ensure that their teams keep up with these changes and invest heavily in their training.

What is experts-on-demand?

Experts-on-demand involves hiring outside talent from an external provider for a specified time. Instead of hiring and managing these talents as full-time company employees, they are hired only for a specific business requirement. It is one of the most effective hiring models that increases the number of hands on a project with specialized skills, without the need for a long-term commitment. The experts-on-demand approach is recommended for companies that are operating under budget or time constraints or lacking available talent or project clarity.

Let’s understand the pros and cons of an experts-on-demand approach.

Advantages of Experts-on-Demand

Cost Reduction

Undoubtedly, opting for experts-on-demand saves the business quite a lot of money as there are highly talented individuals who work at very reasonable rates. The company essentially saves on extra office space, downtime, insurance, recruitment bonuses, and other employee benefits.

Large Talent Pool

Companies have the flexibility to find the right talent as per their requirements, thereby, no longer restricted by a limited choice of candidates or geography. The company saves the hassle of going through numerous applicants to find highly skilled individuals for the job.

Scalability

Scalability with on-demand expertise is not a headache. It is easily able to meet the changing needs of a project with no roadblocks.

Quick Resources

Companies no longer need to spend valuable time to start a project. Experts-on-demand means ready-to-go resources are quickly assigned as per the requirements to start the project immediately.

Proven Workflows

These experts are highly skilled and experienced and have already worked across varied projects and multiple industries, which means they are quite capable in a collaborative environment. They also use well-defined and optimized workflows for better productivity and to deliver excellent performance.

Quality of Work

When it comes to quality, having experts on demand is a better choice as these partners have a number of resources that they can consult in case of roadblocks or for knowledge sharing.

Time to Market

Again, having experts on demand is a better option if the project is under time constraints and has to reach the market as soon as possible. By outsourcing the project, the company doesn’t have to worry about gathering a complete team like business managers, team leads, agents, etc., who will ensure the project’s quick execution.

Cons of Experts-on-Demand

Less Control

With experts-on-demand approach, the team may have its own way of working, standards, and practices. Therefore, companies will have little control over the execution, progress, and troubleshooting. However, sometimes, there is an appointed project coordinator who is responsible for sharing regular updates with the client.

Communication Barrier

Scheduling conflicts due to different time zones, troubleshooting turnarounds, and delayed responses can be some of the communication barriers. But now, many companies also communicate in the client’s preferred time zone.

Trust Issues

Sometimes, trusting a third party can be concerning, especially when organizations have to share their confidential data. One may be worried about the privacy policies and whether they can use or share sensitive information with competitors.

We have weighed the pros and cons of both experts-on-demand and in-house talent. Let’s compare both approaches to get a better picture of which one best supports organizational requirements.

Experts-on-Demand vs In-House Talent

The choice can vary as per the project requirements. Opting for experts-on-demand is the best choice if you don’t want any of the hassle of hiring and dealing with technicalities, and if you simply want to focus on the business side of things. However, hiring in-house talent will give you full control over the project from start to finish, which can be appealing to some on tight deadlines and other contributing factors to needing that absolute control.