Staff Augmentation
Staff augmentation is an outsourcing model where external professionals are added to a client's existing team on a temporary or ongoing basis, working under the client's direction. It differs from project outsourcing, where a vendor owns the deliverable rather than supplying individuals.
Staff augmentation is a staffing model where a company adds external, vendor-sourced workers to its team for a defined period or project, without becoming their employer of record. The staffing agency or vendor handles recruitment and often the worker's employment/contractor relationship, while the client company directs the work day-to-day, similar to how it would manage a direct hire.
Staff augmentation differs from both EOR and PEO in a key way: it is fundamentally a resourcing/recruitment solution for immediate talent needs, not an employment-compliance solution for entering a new country or offloading HR administration. Companies typically choose staff augmentation when they need talent quickly for a defined scope of work, and choose EOR or direct hiring when they want a long-term, integrated team member with full statutory employment protections in a specific country.