Top 3 reasons why leading companies hire external software experts

Did you know that over half of Google's workforce consists of contractors and freelancers? Working with external experts is a common practice for some of the world's leading companies. But why do they choose this approach? And should you consider it for your own organisation? In this article, we'll explore the top 3 reasons why leading companies hire external experts for their software development teams.

Team augmentation, the practice of adding temporary or contract team members to a project or company, is an effective way to fill skill gaps, increase productivity, and support existing teams in achieving their goals. This approach allows organisations to quickly scale their workforce, bring in specialised expertise, and keep up with evolving market demands without incurring the long-term costs of hiring full-time employees. In other words, with freelancers you can accelerate development, bring insight to your organisation, and flexibly manage your workforce. Let’s dive deeper into these three aspects.

1. Accelerate – Deliver high-quality code with speed

With the help of external experts you can accelerate software development significantly. Bringing in new top class skills to the organisation speeds up the development process and ensures faster time-to-market with high-quality code.

Experienced external team members can increase productivity, allowing projects to be completed more quickly and efficiently. At the same time, freelancers with an external perspective might ask questions that haven’t been thought of before, ensuring quality of the project. Together these two, productivity and quality, create an unbeatable combination.

In addition to the increased project efficiency, the speed of recruitment and onboarding is significantly faster with external experts. Let’s take an example. You have a product or business goal and you know that hiring an in-house team to work on this goal will take approximately 3-6 months.

On the contrary, it usually takes approximately one month to build a team of a few external consultants and a couple of in-house employees. Comparing the number of months, the project should be completed 2-5 months earlier with a team consisting of both external consultants and in-house employees. In short, when freelancers are embedded in the existing teams, things happen at the speed of light.

2. Bring insight – Tackle your most difficult problems with the right specialists

Augmenting teams with external professionals from diverse backgrounds can bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table, leading to more innovative solutions. With specialised expertise you can fill skill gaps and enable teams to tackle more complex and specialised projects.

Take advantage of the knowledge-sharing of external experts. For example, when onboarding a new technology, it is a good approach to take in a few external talents who are familiar with that specific technology and then implement their know-how into your internal team members. This is a great and appreciated learning opportunity for your in-house employees and it ensures a smooth transition to using a new technology.

When working with the best talents in the market, you can also increase the attractiveness of your company as a workplace. The best talents want to work with other talented people.

3. Enjoy flexibility – Manage risks by scaling up and down with ease

Augmenting teams provides greater flexibility and allows companies to quickly scale their workforce up or down as needed. This is also a way to manage risks. When there is a need to reduce people in your software organisation for whatever reason, getting rid of freelancers is faster and easier than getting rid of your own employees.

When considering your resourcing strategy, cost is one important element to take into account. However, it is not only about the costs but also about the value. You need to estimate the cost-value ratio, return on investment, and price-quality ratio. Hiring external experts is not just a cost, but an investment that pays off in the long run.

Using freelancers is fast, insightful and flexible

To summarise, team augmentation with external software experts is a smart choice for organisations that want to fill skill gaps, increase productivity, and tackle more complex projects. With specialised expertise, fresh perspectives, and greater flexibility, companies can stay competitive and achieve their business goals more efficiently.

Thriv is focused on augmenting teams where you have the lead but lack the right people. We specialise in matching you with the best tech talents out there regardless of their affiliation. We provide a carefully vetted selection of senior software professionals to your fingertips, so that you can save both time and effort.

Interested in hiring freelance developers? Contact us today and let your team thrive!

Read more how hiring a full freelancer team can take your business to the next level.