Services
Our experienced consultants partner with you to improve your processes and procedures.
We find buried inadequacies, unlock capable opportunities, create, and implement measurable resolutions to keep you ahead.
Our Capabilities Include:
Staff Augmentation
Training & Career Development
Program Management & Evaluation
Research & Evaluation
Coaching and Consulting
Staff augmentation is a strategy businesses use to fill a temporary skills gap. That description is accurate as far as it goes, but it also applies to hiring a consultant or a contractor, engaging a managed services provider, or outsourcing a project entirely.
While staff augmentation is in some ways similar to other types of third-party staffing and outsourcing, it is different in ways that impact cost and the control the business has over the hiring and management of the people who work on its projects.
Staff augmentation is the recruitment of temporary staff who provide capabilities a business lacks or would like to scale up. Any staffing can be augmented, including interim executives at the director, VP, and even C-level.
Three Qualities Distinguish Staff Augmentation:
Staff augmentation leads to the temporary employment of new staff. The new staff are not consultants or contractors; they are employees.
The business chooses which candidates to add to its staff. In contrast to outsourcing, the business retains control over staff selection.
Staff who join a business via a staff augmentation program are managed by the business’s internal hierarchy, not by a third party. However, a staff augmentation agency helps the business to find suitable staff.
Staff Augmentation vs. Independent Contractor
A business engages a contractor to perform a task: to write code for a software project or carry out administrative work, for example.
Contractors are not employees. With staff augmentation, the business employs new staff temporarily. Contractors perform services for the business, but the business does not employ them. This distinction is crucial because contractors are not subject to state and federal withholding tax laws, whereas employees are.
Because of the rules that distinguish contractors from employees, a contractor cannot be a line manager or executive, but in some circumstances, they can be a project manager.
Staff Augmentation vs. Temporary Consultant
The difference between a consultant and a contractor is not clear cut. “Contractor” is a legal term, whereas “consultant” is a vague term that has no legal meaning. Anyone can call themselves a consultant, but laws regulate who can call themselves a contractor.
Many consultants are independent contractors who refer to themselves as consultants because they provide advice and services within the domain of their expertise. Consultants may also be the employees of an agency. In either case, unlike with staff augmentation, consultants are not employees of the business they provide services to.
Staff Augmentation vs. Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the most hands-off of the models we look at here. When outsourcing a project, businesses contract with a third-party who takes over the project in its entirety. The third-party is responsible for hiring staff, management, and delivery of the contracted service. Common examples include outsourcing development or support to a third-party provider. Staff augmentation gives a business the most control over the recruitment and management of a project, and outsourcing gives them the least control.
Staff Augmentation vs. Managed Services
Managed Services have many similarities to outsourcing; in fact, the terms are used interchangeably, even though there are key differences.
Managed services providers (MSPs) have the expertise the client lacks. They provide services and consultation to help the client use their services, often working closely with the client. This is in contrast to outsourcing, where the third party takes over a project and does not typically provide consultation services.
Cloud infrastructure hosting is a typical example: a cloud MSP manages the data center, the network, and the software that supports its cloud platform. The user manages the cloud servers and the software installed on them. The MSP consults with the clients and may provide value-add services.
But, as with outsourcing and in contrast to staff augmentation, the MSP controls hiring and manages the day-to-day operation of their area of responsibility. The staff, infrastructure, and business processes are managed by the MSP, not the client.
Staff augmentation empowers businesses to enhance their capabilities while retaining control of hiring, management, and processes. Griffiths Prince & Associates helps businesses to find quality interim, on-demand leadership, and project managers to augment their staff.
Contact a staff augmentation specialist to find the executives and managers who can help your business overcome its temporary challenges.
Research & Evaluation
Griffiths Prince & Associates offers management and technical assistance in research, data collection, and all types of program evaluation, often in diverse environments and in a wide variety of areas—from education to public policy organizations.
Organizational culture and implementation solutions
Griffiths Prince & Associates provides organizational culture and implementation solutions that help clients improve their folks, practices, and agendas.
Clients engage Griffiths Prince & Associates for data-driven organizational performance results, which include:
Competency assessment and development
Recruitment, selection, and retention
Leadership development
Individual and organizational performance assessment
Applied behavioral research and analysis
Coaching and Consulting
We provide coaching and consulting to help leaders and teams make informed decisions and take more effective action, whether in the cabinet, community center, or classroom.
We design and provide professional learning experiences for educators and other leaders to support them in transforming their systems.
Our services build culture, conditions, and competencies for excellence and equity in districts, schools, classrooms, nonprofit organizations, and communities.
