As the job market continues to improve within the Canadian market, more and more companies are looking for dynamic and innovative ways to satisfy their workforce needs, and to support their bottom line. A growing trend is to augment your permanent workforce with contractors on a temporary basis. This may seem puzzling at first glance, as contractors tend to earn more than an employee on salary would. However, you may find that hiring a contractor has many benefits for your organization.
Here are four ideas that make a case for hiring contract workers:
Flexibility to hire per project
Hiring contractors allow an organization to remain flexible in an ever-changing market place. Whether you are launching a major project or preparing for a seasonal change in business, hiring contractors allow you to add to your workforce to satisfy specific needs. Should there be an unexpected downturn in business, you are not obligated to renew the contract once it expires. Utilizing contractors effectively allows you to remain lean when budgets are of concern, and to expand as business moves forward.
Cost Savings
You are probably thinking, “What cost savings? You already told me that contractors earn more than salary employees”. This is true—but the fact remains that hiring a contractor still represents significant cost savings. Full-time employees cost an organization more than mere salary. Consider costs associated with training, providing benefits, vacation pay and sick days, and all the administrative ‘housekeeping’ that goes along with it. Once you consider the “loaded” cost of a full-time employee, hiring a contractor can actually be much easier on the bottom line.
Productivity starts immediately
Often times, when engaging a professional contractor, you are engaging a specialized skill-set. These individuals require little (if any) hands-on training. Bottom line, a specialized contractor can become productive a few days after joining an organization. A salary employee, on the other hand, often needs a few weeks (or months) before they become productive. In addition, organizations may opt to hire their contractors through a professional staffing firm. This alleviates the burden of carrying out the recruiting process on your own. Since staffing firms typically have a pool of professional contractors to deploy, you should find that filling that role will happen a lot sooner than otherwise.
Take a “Test Drive”
Hiring a contractor may also be a good way to give a potential employee “test drive”. We have all come across the candidate who looks great on paper, delivers a tremendous interview, but falls short of expectations once they are on the job. Bringing on an employee as a contractor first is a great way to gage an individual’s true value to your organization. If they do not live up to your expectation, you can amicably part ways once the contract expires.
Have you hired on contract for your business? What have you found to be the pros and cons?
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Carmine Palazzo is a Technical Recruiter with Procom Consultants Group, a
leading IT Staffing Services provider. If you are looking to take the
next step in your career, contact Carmine at carminep@procom.ca or follow him on twitter @CarminePalazzo