While large corporations and enterprises used to rely solely on permanent staff members to fill their ranks, more organizations are turning to contingent employees in the 21st century. Maintaining a contingent workforce, or a staff comprised of independent contractors or otherwise freelance employees, is a great way to supplement productivity without maintaining a lengthy roster of full-time staff members.In fact, many enterprises are now using contingent workers quite successfully as a means of bolstering their full-time staff, leading specialty or ad hoc projects and ensuring service continuity.
Direct Benefits
There are many benefits to maintaining a contingent workforce. One of the most obvious and immediate benefits comes in the form of cost savings to the organization itself. Instead of paying full-time employees for their non-productive downtime, an enterprise can simply employ freelance workers or independent contractors as needed. This also helps organizations cut costs through reduced benefits, especially in comparison to a full-time staff.
Administrative Stress
Using a contingent workforce can also alleviate a large amount of administrative stress within your organization. By using a staffing agency or temp service to take care of your recruitment needs, you won’t have to spend so much time on reviewing applications, interviewing potential candidates or tax preparation. Because staffing agencies typically allow you to recruit, hire and even terminate employers with little to no paperwork required, you’ll be able to free up your administrative resources and allocate them toward another area.
Spearhead Specialized Projects
Contingent workers can also be used to lead, manage and execute highly-targeted projects. With a vast pool of contingent staff to choose from, you’ll be able to hand pick the employee who has the specific skills needed for the project at hand. Without access to a contingent workforce, project management functionality may end up falling into the hands of a lesser-qualified candidate.
Training
Another benefit of contingent staff members is the fact that most of them already come with training, certification or other skills needed for the job. While some concepts and processes may need to be explained, contingent workers are far more likely to have the necessary skills at their disposal when initially recruited into an organization. Moreover, your contingent staff members can be moved around easily and re-positioned to fill roles in other departments as needed.
Trial Period
Finally, many employers use contingent workers as a way of assessing individual skill and worthiness beforehand. Acting as sort of a trial period, this gives employers the chance to properly evaluate an employee’s skillset before investing time and money in hiring, training and development.
Leveraging a contingent workforce is an excellent way to fill the gaps in production, efficiency or specialization. However, as far as most enterprises and organizations are concerned, contingent workers are used strictly to supplement staffing levels. It can be disadvantageous to try and use a contingent workforce to fulfill all of your employment needs, but when used correctly and in tandem with a full-time staff, a contingent workforce can be an extremely beneficial way of managing both short-term and long-term staffing needs.Contact Mega Force Staffing Agencies to take advantage of these benefits.