Contract staffing gives organizations a great deal of flexibility in hiring the best quality talent when they need it, without taking on the cost of retaining them as full-time employees.
Over a decade ago, the recruitment process was fairly simple and straightforward. The skill demands were fewer, with companies looking for candidates with a set of specialized skills that most organizations sought. However, now, that newer, digitally-driven job roles require multiple, intersectional skills, managing all your hiring in-house can be complex, time-consuming, and expensive.
What is contract staffing?
The meaning of contract staffing is as the term suggests. It’s the process of hiring employees or staff members for a company on a contractual basis, as opposed to permanent hiring. The people who choose to work as contract staff are, in most cases if not all, freelancers or self-employed individuals who wish to extend their services for a shorter period, while gaining experience from multiple organizations.
The practice of contract staffing has evolved significantly over the years with the rise of the gig economy, and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein companies are seek professional support to distribute and thus, reduce the hiring pressure on their human resource department. The best part about outsourcing your contract staffing search and hiring processes to specialist companies like VBeyond Corporation is that you can bypass activities like onboarding, orientation, and training since the professionals you hire would work with you on a contractual basis and for a short term.
Now, there are two main types of contract staffing services businesses can avail. This includes temporary agency workers and individual contractors. The individual contractors are independent in nature and have a direct agreement with your organization, and clearly mapped out responsibilities regarding work commitments and project deliverables. On the other hand, temporary agency workers are hired through a third party, i.e. an external service provider connects contractual employees with the employer, guaranteeing certain quality standards against a fee. Out of these two, contract staffing through a third-party service provider is more beneficial since you have access to more skilled talent with the assurance of high-quality services being rendered.
Benefits of contract staffing
Contract staffing is one of the most effective methods to keep up with the current market dynamics. The talent requirements of organizations are no longer limited to professionals with focused expertise in one discipline and hence, contract staffing has emerged as a more viable option for companies to hire professionals with multiple, converging skills that help them drive business operations more holistically. Besides the reduced pressure of hiring on the human resource department, there are several other benefits of opting for contract staffing, and some of the most significant ones include:
- The first advantage of contract staffing is the increased efficiency and productivity of teams without increasing the burden on existing employees. This allows for increased employee satisfaction within the company along with the ability to focus better on their crucial tasks and create additional value.
- Secondly, as opposed to permanent job interviews and hiring, with contract staffing the overheads are reduced greatly since you do not incur the same costs with contractual workers as you would with full-time employees. Moreover, instead of a yearly package, contractual workers are offered fixed remuneration without the benefits that full-time employees entitled to.
- Another benefit of contract staffing is the reduced burden and pressure of hiring on internal teams, as a third-party staffing solutions provider oversees the entire process of hiring individuals as per your organization’s needs.
- Lastly, an added advantage of contractual staffing is increased flexibility in choosing contractual professionals with highly specific skillsets. This is because these third-party agencies that offer contract staffing services have a wide network of potential candidates to meet every company’s needs and requirements. This way, the companies have the choice of filling up urgent requirements of skilled professionals of different fields for a short-term project or part-time work with ease, because of increased accessibility to a larger pool of candidates.
Why choose contract staffing?
Just as businesses are adapting their models and strategies according to long-term and short-term goals, they are also realizing the effectiveness of reducing the hiring pressure on internal teams by opting for alternative hiring practices than building full-time teams. The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic toll on many small and medium-sized businesses has prompted these organizations to experiment with different methods of work to ensure competitiveness and cost-effectiveness.
To understand this better, it is also important to understand the scenarios wherein contract staffing is strategically more beneficial for organizations. Some of the potential scenarios are as follows:
- Specific Requirements
Many times, organizations may need to hire professionals with very specific skillsets for short-term projects. Hence, when evaluated against the revenues expected from the project and the costs involved in executing it, it would be more prudent for many organizations to hire the necessary specialist talent on a contractual basis rather than full time. This is because the organization does not have to carry forward the financial overhead of keeping employees on the payroll and only pay for the services rendered during the project.
- Urgent vacancies
In many instances, businesses may need to introduce certain changes to their teams and operations to accommodate an increase in workloads or to achieve critical, short-term objectives. In such situations, seeking out candidates the traditional way through long hiring processes can be time-consuming and inefficient. However, with contract staffing, organizations can quickly hire the right talent, whenever they need it.
- Cost savings
The cost of hiring employees impacts a company’s budget and revenue projections. So, when a company decides to hire a person as a permanent employee, the cost of hiring is higher as compared to when it outsources hiring and chooses contract staffing.
The main reasons to choose contract staffing is firstly because it is less costly to hire someone on a part-time or contractual basis as compared to full time and secondly because the expectations of the contractual staff does not include vacations, second paid leaves, medical insurance, etc.
Given the benefits of contract staffing and the dynamic nature of business operations today, it is a win-win opportunity for both the talent and the employer. As the awareness and acceptance of contract staffing increases globally, companies around the world will increasingly need reliable, efficient, and outcome-driven contract staffing services. VBeyond Corporation works with a vast pool of global talent and connects organizations with the right candidates possessing the skills and experiences needed to further business growth and innovation objectives.
If you are looking for support with contract staffing strategies and solutions, feel free to reach out and talk to our experts.
