Discover the game-changing hiring strategy for your startup – based on my personal experience!

Startups face a unique environment when it comes to adding the talent you need during your early stages of operations. Of course, hiring a few full-time employees seems smart, but if a start-up business grows too fast, spending on salaries could outpace your initial funding sources. Too many people-related expenses remain a leading cause of startup failure, especially when considering the difficulties encountered in hiring technology professionals.

Related to that last point, even with rumors of a recession and the wide publicity of various tech layoffs, today’s IT job market still heavily favors candidates. This situation makes any staffing process fraught with risk. Spending vital capital on a recruiting effort that results in little success is something start-ups should avoid.

As such, any startup should consider taking advantage of the staff augmentation approach for at least some of your early recruiting needs. Adopting this strategy provides a pipeline of talent at a fraction of the cost compared to onboarding full-time employees. It gives a start-up the critical brainpower and budgetary flexibility it needs to improve its chances of success. So let’s take a closer look at both approaches to see what makes sense for your startup.

Related: 5 Ways to Organize a New Business to Harness the Future of Work

Traditional recruiting provides a simple methodology to add talent

A startup using a traditional staffing approach is comfortable with its straightforward methodology. Your new company simply posts a job ad detailing the requirements of your opening. However, depending on the scope of your advertising, you may be faced with hundreds of candidates that need to be screened. This situation becomes a waste of resources for start-ups that lack a complete HR department.

Simply having to sift through a large number of resumes requires a significant amount of effort on the part of a startup’s management team. Productivity for entrepreneurs it is critical, and this time is best spent examining business ideas or developing the requirements for the new business’s first minimum viable product. Again, taking this traditional approach to staffing may not even result in successful hires, wasting time and resources for a company that needs to limit its capital expenditures. In the early stages of a startup, only consider using it for a few key hires, and be sure to work with a strategic HR team to hire team members who believe in your company values, which Gallup poll finds is important to 1 in 4 employees.

Staff increase gives startups more flexibility

Strategic flexibility within startups is a fundamental advantage impact on exploratory innovationbut in the same way, new companies also need flexibility to ensure that they have the right level of resources at the right time to scale development, drive growth and advancement at key moments. When using a staffing strategy, a startup typically adds talent on a temporary basis to fill a specific need. It may be someone with some background in technology, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, that your new company wants to complete a project. It also provides a way to test a candidate on your team before potentially offering them a permanent position.

Ultimately, it helps the startup scale its operations in a responsible and manageable manner, especially compared to engaging in risky recruitment processes that result in few meaningful hires. This approach is still more conservative and wise when considering the limited income status of most new businesses. Of course, using contract professionals also saves money compared to the full salaries and benefits packages of a permanent hire.

Typically, a startup works with a managed staffing service provider or startup studio that operates as an agency builder to access hired professionals based on increased staffing. Building a partnership with a talent provider ensures they understand the specific needs of your business and office culture. Ultimately, it ensures a good fit between a startup and its temporary workers.

Related: How to increase revenue per employee by taking advantage of this effective strategy

Other benefits of staff augmentation for startups

Of course, startups reap a myriad of other benefits from taking a staffing approach to their talent needs. For example, many start-ups lack mature processes or even the concept of a productive team. When you partner with an agency builder as a source for staffing professionals, you have the option of bringing on an entire project team. This approach adds additional collaboration-related synergies, ensuring an efficient project highlighted by focused teamwork.

Additionally, staff augmentation allows your startup to quickly close a critical skills gap on a major project. If the startup’s core business idea involves a mobile app with real-time data analytics powered by machine learning, bring in an entire team with tangible skills and experience developing, training, and deploying ML models. It keeps your project on target and also allows your permanent employees to gain valuable experience working with top-tier software engineers with significant AI experience.

Trying to find a similar team-based talent influx when engaging in a traditional hiring process remains impossible. Your start-up company may make one or two permanent hires, but these new hires still need to learn how to work effectively as a team.

In the end, staffing for startups provides the flexibility they need to thrive during their early operations. They save money while still benefiting from top-tier tech talent that many startups struggle to hire. Startups now have the perfect scalability to grow in a measured way, not too fast and not too slow. It’s the right approach for any new business looking for the best chance of success.