Contract Staffing – Simplified

What is Contract Staffing?

Contracting staffing, a recruiting process when human resources are hired on a contract basis. This contract could take place between a staffing firm and an individual or between two companies. Contract Staffing supports companies to quickly ramp up project teams with as few or as many qualified consultants as are required to cover short-term and long-term needs.

Importance of Contract Staffing

Contract staffing is the need of the hour for organizations as businesses look for alternatives. It provides flexibility and additional benefits. The specific reasons that companies trust contract staffing services for hiring temporary projects are:-

Firstly, it’s cost-effective. When companies choose to work with contractors they eliminate various expenses. It helps in reducing many internal expenses which are associated with hiring activities.

Secondly, it gives leverage to recruiter while providing qualified staffing. Contract staffing offers organization with skilled-employees in various arenas. So, the client gets the right candidate for the job rather than train an inexperienced worker. The recruitment firm caters to all talent sourcing, background checks and preliminary interview before providing well-qualified talent.

Flexible arrangements

Contract employees are available when extra support is needed at the office or on the job site. When a permanent employee takes time off, contractors can provide the ability to keep progressing at full pace for several days or even for weeks.
Contract Staffing decreases business liability. Permanent hiring puts significant accountability on the employer’s shoulders. Safety and security of the employees is the employers’ responsibility but they can reduce the liabilities with are connected with regular employees.

Current Trends in use of IT Contract Workers

Many recruiting companies have a comparatively less turnaround time for qualified contract hiring. Contract staffing bridges the gap as it matches the right candidate for the right company every time.

Managing contract staffers is a humongous but important task for IT companies. Having stated that, staffing agencies, the internet and vendor management systems are making the job less-complex, but IT managers still require to create an efficient balance between permanent and temporary workforce. Currently, very few companies are using contractors effectively and aggressively, they are more focusing on independent contractors for more than half of the staff.

Today, approx. 5% of the IT staff revolves around contract staffing. The use of contract workers differs as it depends on the size of an organization. Conglomerates use the contract employees at a larger scale in comparison to smaller companies. Initially, recession forced many organization to ‘fallback’ on the use of contract labour, this made organization to use contractors aggressively. Having stated that, the balance between temporary and permanent staffing is still stable for most of the organizations.

Contract Staffing Solutions – A Great Utility for Companies

Organizations are largely benefited by hiring contract employees. Many business goals are being achieved through contract hiring. Companies are taking this advantage to build a better, larger and consistent growth. Contract Staffing directly or indirectly provides various benefits such as:-

  • It reduces cost at a great pace.
  • There are high-chances where companies get desired results within their deadlines
  • Maintenance of payroll becomes easier.
  • Door to door campaigns and sales-pitches need contractual employees who can search the market within the given time-frame.
  • Companies are also provided relevant information of candidates who have the caliber and can be hired as a permanent employee.
  • Organizations have the greater authority to decide the terms of employment.
  • It may clear the route of cost efficiency access to an experienced employee.
  • Organizations can hire contractual employees at any point of time, depending upon their project.
  • It keeps wages cost low when a company is not growing rapidly.
  • Contract staffing may allow to meet demand in high-pressure time.
  • Contract staffing decreases the burden of sick leave and other such elements which are employee and cost-related of the company.
  • It brings down the business liability as the terms of an employment contract may vary.

Contract Staffing is the New IT Recruitment Model

As Contract staffing comes with various benefits, it has become a new IT-hiring model among companies. Organizations avails the best expertise through flexible staffing models.

Project- Centric Workforce

IT is a work-centric field where various teams have the precision on various aspects, such as software, systems upgrades, developing a new platform, etc. Contract staffing supports companies to expand their core teams without any massive financial pressure. Teams can be managed, shifted to meet the project needs, such as technical developers for initial-stages and quality check at the later stages.

Consulting – Contract staffing is ideal for firms whose requirements which may vary month-to-month or project-to-project. It helps organization to get expertise deeply and can implement best-in-class knowledge to present problems without affecting the cost of permanent staff.

Contract-to-hire placements – The job market is mainly candidate-driven, most talented candidates are selective regarding job offers. Eventually, candidates prefer those companies that offer contract-to-hire placements, this way candidate can ‘preview’ the company before accepting a full-time offer. This approach is beneficial for the organizations too. If a candidate is up to mark then this factor could hurt the management as well as the productivity of a company, which is disastrous for IT teams on high-pressure project and tight deadlines. In a contract-to-hire placement, contractors usually treat every day as new and like a working interview. They are very well self-informed that anything good or bad could go in their favour or in against as far as the final hiring decision is concerned.

Immediate start dates – Contract staffing is well inspected and hiring a temporary talent is a fast and efficient process. Precious time can be saved, as there is no time lost in background check, compensations, negotiations or paperwork. Choosing the contract talent can reduce the onboarding time from months to days, doesn’t affect the company in terms of being ahead in the market.

Over-staffing, Avoided – This is most unique feature of the contract staffing. As project-based hiring is more financially stable and overstaffing can be avoided. IT sector is growing at a rapid pace, which makes tough for companies to predict future staffing requirements. New operation tools and cloud architecture keep evolving and it requires less manpower for support, so IT departments become smaller. Once, an IT solution is implemented then there is no requirement to hire or keep an expensive workforce or staff for low-level maintenance issues.

Culture Fit – IT talents have mainly two concerns when they choose full-time employment. Can a company support them to retain their skills fresh or will there be internal barriers that prevent project success? Talented professionals do not want their skills and strengths to be neglected and they have to raise the matter to upper management now and then. They are cautious about making a full-time commitment to a company and look for reassurance that the company’s internal culture aligns with external planning. If an organization needs a full-time hire but is struggling to get your top candidate to accept the offer, then a contract-to-hire position may be the perfect solution. The candidate can “test drive” your company so they know exactly what to expect. They can then accept your offer with confidence, positioning everyone for success.

Best of both worlds – Contract employees generally have the unique combination of professional skills and vast experience as they have the exposure of various companies over the years. They are updated with the latest technology and can give a fresh, professional, sound approach to respective projects. They can offer Innovative solutions that permanent employees may not have considered.

To conclude, contract staffing is a procedure of alternative staffing where a business hires someone for a role under a contract. The nature of this arrangement can vary greatly. However, as a general rule, it is a short term employment arrangement dependent on contract terms.