Has Your Company Considered Contract Employees?
See that waiter pouring coffee for your fellow patron? How about the smartly-dressed young woman sitting across from you? If you’re wondering why they should interest you, here’s the million dollar answer: the rise and dominance of the gig economy. Intuit and Emergent Research report that on-demand workers are on track to double, from an estimated 3.9 million Americans to 7.7 million by 2020.
That young woman in a pant-suit? A high-flying lawyer who grabs clients off a nifty mobile platform. She performs the work offline, sets her own hours, and lives life on her terms. Meanwhile, that friendly waiter moonlights as a chef by day and software engineer by night. He’s a Shiftgig and Pared professional, the Uber versions of the restaurant and white-collar industries.
Are Temp Workers And Contract Workers The Same Thing?
Both temp workers and contract workers work on a temporary basis, but there are important differences between the two:
Temp workers don’t accrue annual or sick leave, but contract workers may, depending upon the length of the contract. Either way, contract workers usually receive higher pay to make up for the lack of benefits.
Contract workers work for a specified length of time, such as 6 or 12 months. Meanwhile, temp workers work shorter periods, typically a few weeks to a month. Temp workers fill positions that have been vacated by permanent employees on parental, maternity, military, or temporary disability leave.
Temp employment can be terminated without notice, while contract employment lasts for the duration of the contract.
6 Reasons You Should Consider Contract Employees
Easily Scale Your Workforce Up or Down
Contract hiring allows you to meet project requirements and retain organizational agility. Additionally, you reap potential operating expense savings in terms of employee wages, benefits, and training costs. Having a team of professionals at your disposal allows you to deliver business value according to your client’s evolving needs.
In other words, contract hiring gives you the ability to respond to market uncertainty with speed and resilience. If you’re hiring in the healthcare industry, having a team of certified training assistants, nurses, and physicians assistants at your disposal is particularly crucial. For those in the financial services industry, having a contract team of support professionals, finance managers, and administrative assistants is essential during tax season.
Effortlessly Solve Engagement and Retention Issues
You reap substantial benefits when a staffing agency is the employer of record. Here’s why: good staffing agencies often have employee engagement programs and UX-friendly onboarding processes in place. Studies show that engaged employees are more productive. However, Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report submits that 51% of American employees are not engaged.
So, what happens when employees are not engaged? Statistics show that almost 80% of employees would leave their current employer for a more empathetic employer at their current rate of pay. Additionally, a whopping 92% of employees would stay, if only their employers showed more empathy for their concerns.
When you hire a staffing agency to meet your contingent labor needs, you have a partner who’s motivated to increase employee retention and engagement rates. Here’s why: the quality of the contract employee pool (and by extension, the agency’s reputation) is based on employee satisfaction levels. According to the 2017 Businessolver Workplace Empathy Monitor, almost 80% of employees will perform more over-time work for an empathetic employer. Engaged candidates help staffing agencies deliver on their key objectives.
Enjoy More Legal Protections
By definition, contractors are independent agents. When you work with a staffing agency, you enjoy increased legal protections. That said, the modern employment landscape poses a legal minefield for both employers and employees. For example, employment discrimination lawsuits are increasing. According to the EEOC, discrimination lawsuits on the basis of race, disability, and retaliatory employer actions are at the very top of the list. Contract employees, however, have fewer workplace protections. In exchange, these employees often enjoy higher pay and greater freedom to set their own hours.
Enjoy a Shorter, More Streamlined Hiring Cycle
According to the 2016 World Challenge Insight Report, one of the top drivers of change across the global employment landscape is technology-enabled workplace innovations such as remote working/ teleconferencing. Hiring managers: meet 21st-century employment trends.
When you partner with a staffing agency, you stand to benefit from shorter hiring cycles. Here’s how: the staffing agency does the heavy lifting in the hiring process. Pick an agency that utilizes an automated applicant tracking system to organize the talent pool. Such a system automatically categorizes and ranks job candidates according to their skill levels. What you get is a keyword-searchable database of qualified contract employees at your fingertips. A staffing agency that utilizes RPO (recruiting process outsourcing) gives you a definite advantage. Efficient RPO recruiting, matched with a positive candidate recruiting experience, gets you top-notch contract candidates that match your organization’s culture.
Test-Drive Potential Long-Term Employees With Little Risk
If you’re looking to fill high-level or senior positions, you know that Craigslist isn’t the answer. In fact, horror stories about low-quality Craigslist hires fill entire Internet forums. This is where contract employees come in.
The traditional hiring process is imperfect at best, and small to medium-sized businesses have little room for error. Therefore, test-driving a potential long-term employee is a viable option. Trial or probationary employment periods let you identify the highest-quality employees and terminate sub-par employees without legal penalty.
Fill in Talent Gaps at a Moment’s Notice
Employers increasingly recognize the need for a specialized workforce. According to the 2017 Workforce Compliance Report, 82% of employers maintain that productivity is one of the top indicators of financial success or failure in their organizations. And here’s how these employers propose to achieve optimum productivity: 72% believe that an increase in specialized labor on demand is the secret to increased productivity.
What’s more, about half of the CEO survey respondents believe that the cost-effective nature of contractors makes them more valuable than full-time employees. Nowhere is this mindset more evident than in the healthcare industry. In fact, temporary and contract physicians are becoming the norm in many healthcare organizations, especially in light of rising patient demand and physician retirements. When you work with a staffing agency, you get access to highly skilled niche workers who can fill talent gaps at short notice.
Vitalis Consulting: Your One-Stop Shop For Full-Time And Contract Workers
Are you looking for viable candidates for short and long-term contracts? Vitalis can match you with contract employees who have been carefully screened and qualified in accordance with our strict policies. You also get documentation of candidate qualifications upon request.
Whatever your requirements, you can trust Vitalis to deliver the specific talent and expertise for your organization’s long-term success. For more information on how we can help you meet your business goals, contact us. We’re ready to hit the ground running on day one for you!