There are some tough decisions that employers must face when it comes to deciding whether to hire full-time, part-time or temporary employees. For many employers, temporary is becoming a corporate strategy, yet the decision to hire temporary staff should be a strategic one. Evaluating the types of positions needing to be filled, and possibly with temps, weighs heavily on the bottom line.
For some employers who want to avoid the financial burden of the Affordable Care Act, it makes better economic sense to switch full-time employees to part-time status. For others, employing a contingent workforce to perform necessary functions is the best approach to avoid all employee-centric financial obligations. Payroll taxes and benefits, for instance, become the full responsibility of the temporary staffing agency.
Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to employee temporary workers should involve more than the employer’s financial statements. Proper staffing is critical to business success. Therefore, staffing decisions should have a strategic focus on business goals and objectives.
People are a big investment in most businesses. As such, employers should think long and hard about which positions are appropriate for full-time employees, and which ones can be filled with temps. A strong strategic temporary staffing plan will help employers recruit and retain the right workers.
The inability to predict shifts in markets, competition and new technology directly impacts how companies develop staffing plans. Access to the talent pool is another important driver to how companies plan for staffing needs. A contingent staff, which includes temps and contract workers, can help to alleviate those problems.
The growth in using temporary labor is a representation of companies attempting to align their workforce with the rapid changes throughout business conditions. Uncertainty remains a factor even as the U.S. economy is slowly gaining ground. Because of this, many companies remain reticent about hiring.
At the same time, a growing segment of workers are choosing contingent work for steady income rather than using it as employment of last resort. Employers must find the right balance between using temporary workers and permanent staff. In some cases, hiring managers are left with using temporary labor to get the best talent. This results in placing necessary business functions in the hands of workers who do not have firm ties to the company.
To ensure success, there are a few simple guidelines that can help employers with their temporary staff planning. First of all, employers should never hire temporary employees when they know the job is really a permanent one. This does nothing but foster distrust with a worker who is being entrusted with crucial information about the company.
A clear understanding of how temporary workers will impact company goals should be a continuous guide in decision-making. The cost savings should justify the use of temporary instead of permanent workers. Furthermore, senior management should be on board with strategic plans to staff essential and nonessential positions. The staffing agency that will recruit for these positions should have accurate job descriptions and skills so they can target the right candidates.
Taking a strategic approach will help to make sure employers are using contingent staffing in a fully integrated process. Hiring must align with the overall business strategy for the company to continue moving forward.
The benefits of using temporary staffing vary based on the needs of the company. Generally, employers have an opportunity to evaluate the company’s staffing needs effectively. If it makes good business sense to use a contingent workforce for full-time needs, employers should take full advantage of the benefits this type of staffing offers.
This enables them to identify core positions that are best filled by full-time employees and those that can survive flexible arrangements. Nevertheless, because many companies are using temporary staffing on a regular basis, there are strategic ways to also use temporary workers in core positions.
Strategically planning for temporary workers opens the door to fully evaluating the company’s goals and objectives. Similar to staffing plans for full-time positions, this strategic process helps employers see how they could possible outsource some functions without reducing work schedules of permanent employees.
Employees can be the greatest asset and greatest expense for any company both large and small. A staffing strategy that considers the use of temporary workers, especially when the need is project-based, can shift a fixed business expense into the variable category. Business conditions dictate whether the expense adjusts up or down.
Planning for this type of workforce increases workflow choices for managers since the company can add – and subtract – workers as needed. At the same time, the costs of onboarding and downsizing do not increase. Employers get the work done and never incur the costs of unemployment insurance or severance packages. The temporary workforce has become integral in the corporate arena.
Temporary employment is penetrating the corporate labor market at historically high levels. By November 2013, temporary services employment had reached 2.8 million workers according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the economy began climbing out of the depths of the financial crisis, temporary employment has risen 50 percent. The volatile labor force will continue to fuel this permanent corporate strategy.
Staffing agencies are prepared for companies that consistently use their services to deal with the ups and downs of business needs. Now that contingent staffing is integrating into strategic workforce planning and management, many companies are expecting more than warm bodies from staffing agencies.
Companies are expecting greater workforce flexibility with fewer people as the need to rethink economic relationships have changed. Human capital concerns have shifted to cultivating a core 20 to 25 percent of workers who are reliable. This core group is now expected to generate at least 80 percent of enterprise value.
Workflow initiatives are being reorganized as projects to facilitate easier and less expensive temporary participation. Technology has added to these changes by redesigning and refining job descriptions and essential jobs. Not all this is occurring because of a troubled economy shedding more jobs than has been created.
Rather, the ongoing global restructuring of different markets are making temporary employment more appealing to companies. Adding full-time employees is becoming riskier and less rewarding for some companies that want to remain globally competitive.
Rarely do companies fully staff their workforce with temporary workers. There are full-time employees who are expected to interact with temps and vice versa. The best thing to do is include a process to integrate temporary workers with full-time employees so both groups can work together seamlessly.
Collaborative tools and technologies should be employed to maintain an open communicative atmosphere. Employers should discuss with full-time employees the onboarding process of temporary workers who join their department. This will help to improve workflow and ensure full-timers that they are not being replaced.
Following an onboarding strategy is succession planning when a project is winding down. Managers should evaluate whether some temporary workers could potentially fill in-house needs.
Strategically planning the use of temporary workers helps companies manage workflows for special projects, vacations, unplanned absences and peak workloads among other things. Companies that have projects with finite life cycles should give full consideration for using contingent workers. They can have access to needed skills without incurring permanent costs of hiring full-time workers. Once the project is complete, temporary workers can be released without the same liabilities of laying off full-time employees.
This article has been provided by Commerce Commercial Credit, In a factoring company that fund temporary staffing firms in the usa.
