Every growing MSP hits the same wall. You need another good engineer, the local talent pool is thin, and the people you’d want to hire are already happily employed somewhere else. So you start weighing the options: keep searching locally, or bring someone on through staff augmentation.
Neither answer is right for every seat. Here’s how to decide.
Is staff augmentation better than traditional hiring for MSPs?
For most remote-capable roles, like L2 and L3 support, NOC, project work, and service coordination, staff augmentation is faster and less administrative, while still giving you full control over who you hire and how they work. Traditional local hiring is still the better choice for roles that need someone on site, in person, with your clients.
Side by side
| Staff augmentation | Traditional local hiring | |
|---|---|---|
| Who chooses the engineer | You | You |
| Who directs daily work | You | You |
| Legal employer, payroll, and HR | The partner | You |
| Candidate pool | Pre-vetted candidates from a wider talent market | Whoever is available locally and willing to move jobs |
| Time to fill | Usually weeks, plus the candidate’s notice period | Often months for experienced engineers |
| Cost | Often 60–70% of a fully burdened US engineer at Scaled | Full salary, benefits, taxes, and hiring costs |
| On-site client visits | Not possible | Yes |
| If it isn’t working | Notice period, and a replacement from the partner | Your own performance and exit process |
When local hiring is the right call
- The role is mostly on site: installs, cabling, hands-on hardware, or in-person client meetings.
- You’re hiring a leader who needs to be physically present with your team.
- A key client requires local, in-person staff.
When staff augmentation is the right call
- The work happens in your PSA, RMM, and remote tools anyway.
- You’ve had a role open too long, or keep losing candidates to bigger employers.
- You want control over who joins without setting up employment, payroll, or HR yourself.
- You need to add capacity without stretching your existing team to the breaking point.
The hybrid model most growing MSPs land on
In practice, many MSPs use both. Local staff handle on-site work and the client relationships that need a handshake. Augmented engineers take escalations, monitoring, projects, and coordination, all from your tools, during your business day. The question shifts from “local or remote?” to “which seats need to be local?”
Questions to ask before you decide
- Does this role need to be physically present? If not, why limit the search to your city?
- How long has the seat been open, and what is that costing your team?
- Do you want to be the legal employer, with payroll, HR, and compliance, or would you rather focus on directing the work?
- If you go with a partner, are the engineers legally employed or contractors? It matters more than most owners expect.
How Scaled approaches it
Scaled was started in 2022 by two MSP owners, Michael Nelson and me, because we lived this problem. You get full-time engineers who work only for your MSP, chosen by you through your own interview process, after they’ve passed our seven-step vetting. They’re legally employed by Scaled Workforce (Pty) Ltd, our South African company, and Scaled Inc. is a US company that invoices in US dollars.
We’ve placed engineers with 112+ MSPs, with 87% placement retention.
Frequently asked questions
Is staff augmentation the same as outsourcing? No. Outsourcing hands a function to someone else’s team. Staff augmentation adds a dedicated person to your team who works at your direction.
Do I still interview the candidates? Yes. You interview them the way you would a local hire, using your own technical exams and process.
How long does it take to add someone? We present pre-vetted candidates as soon as we have your job description. Most candidates give their current employer 30 days’ notice before they start.
Can I combine local and augmented staff? Yes, and most growing MSPs do: local staff for on-site work, augmented engineers for remote work.