Johannesburg – Some South African businesses are rethinking how they build high-performing teams.
At the same time, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and changing customer expectations continue to reshape industries.
Businesses are finding that traditional hiring models often struggle to keep pace with the breadth of specialist skills now required to deliver successful digital products and customer experiences.
According to the 2025 Xpatweb Critical Skills Survey, 89% of organisations reported that unfilled critical-skills vacancies were already negatively affecting their businesses through project delays, reduced productivity and constrained innovation.
As a result, many businesses are rethinking traditional hiring models and turning to more flexible ways of accessing specialist capability.
“We’re seeing a fundamental change in how businesses access expertise,” Specno CEO Joshua Harvey said on Monday, 28 September 2026.
Specno is a product consulting firm that helps founders and technology leaders in highly regulated industries, including FinTech, MedTech, renewable energy and enterprise retail, de-risk complex software builds and reach a working, revenue-generating product on time and on budget.
“Companies aren’t necessarily looking to build larger teams. They’re looking to build smarter ones,” Harvey said.
“Rather than trying to hire every specialist permanently, organisations are increasingly bringing in experienced product professionals at the moments they can create the greatest impact.”
Recent research by Deloitte found that 87% of surveyed managers considered external contributors part of their organisation’s workforce.
These contributors included contractors, service providers, gig workers and other non-traditional participants in organisational delivery.
In that regard, some companies increasingly view their workforce as an ecosystem, rather than as a fixed group of permanent employees.
In that model, capability may come from permanent staff, specialist partners, contractors and technology providers working together..
“Creative ideas remain incredibly important, but today’s brands also need exceptional digital experiences to support them,” said Harvey.
“Team augmentation allows agencies and businesses to access specialist capabilities as projects evolve, without compromising speed or quality.”
Harvey said this shift will fundamentally reshape how businesses build capability over the coming decade.
“The future of work isn’t about replacing permanent teams; it’s about giving them access to the right expertise at the right time,” Harvey explained.
“The organisations that move fastest won’t necessarily be those with the biggest workforces.
“They’ll be the ones that can assemble the best combination of skills to solve complex problems, adapt quickly and continue delivering value as technology and customer expectations evolve.”
Responding to this shift, Specno has expanded its specialist team augmentation offering, partnering with agencies and organisations to provide experienced product managers, UX designers, researchers, software engineers and digital specialists.
These experts integrate directly into existing teams to accelerate delivery and strengthen in-house capability.
