Recruiting is becoming increasingly hard as companies are facing a prolonged period of disruption and uncertainty as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine rules. These are trying times. The economy is still fragile. Rapidly changing business needs demand more flexibility and a contingent workforce can only assist in successfully meeting those fluctuating needs.
What is a contingent worker?
A contingent worker is someone who works for a company but is not hired as an employee. Contingent workers may work under a contract, on a temporary basis, or on an as-needed basis. They are frequently hired to complete a specific project rather than to accept an ongoing, open-ended workload like a permanent employee. Generally, following types of contingent workers are there found in an organization:
- Independent Contractors
- Freelancers
- Consultants
- Temporary employees
What are the advantages of hiring contingency workers?
The benefits of hiring a contingent workforce are mostly financial for the businesses. They are far more economic than engaging permanent employees. Cost reduction is a lucrative advantage of hiring contingency workers. There is no need to collect and pay taxes from the wages of the employees. Companies are not required to provide health benefits, paid sick and vacation days, or pay for overtime. This not only saves costs and resources needed for recruiting permanent employees, but it also saves the administrative costs associated with payroll, human resources and other benefits.
Increased flexibility is another beneficial attribute of using a contingent workforce. Whenever there’s an upsurge of work or an unexpectedly urgent project appears, immediately a contingent worker can be hired to handle the extra work. However, if requirements disappear and the business needs to scale down immediately, the contingency recourse can be removed. The business owner is not obligated to pay a salary to a worker who is not essential. Also, permanent workers are neither recruited nor laid off by the organization.
Another attractive advantage of recruiting a contingency worker is access to a wide range of expertise and experience. Organizations can access the skills and experience they require for a specific project by hiring a contingent worker that is not available internally. It offers businesses access to a rich pool of diverse and highly qualified talent. Candidates with rare skills and extensive experience can be hired as contingent workers to handle complex projects.
A candidate management software can help in searching and locating such candidates and recruiting them. Integrating the hiring and candidate management application with workforce management software for companies will ensure better utilization and alignment of the skills. Companies are preferring candidate management software with such capabilities.
How to Hire Contingency Workforce
In the past few years, there has been an increase in the use of contingent workers. so the organization is creating a hiring process specifically tailored for recruiting temporary staff and resources. Talent acquisition for contingent workers differs from that of full-time employees. Therefore organizations must be prepared to search, employ, and process these types of hires with suitable strategies. Also, they need to put a standard hiring process in place.
A vendor management system or a specialized recruiting application or module can be useful for managing the contingent worker sourcing and hiring process. However, organizations should also be prepared to use their career site and social media marketing to attract contingent employees. The hiring of contingency workers has become essential for organizations. So the recruitment and candidate management software must have options especially designed for the process of hiring and onboarding contingent workers.
Workforce management software for companies are including recruitment and candidate management software to resolve issues with hiring and these applications also should also have the capability to manage contingency workforce recruitment. In addition to that, recruiting professionals can set up various interview techniques and vendor approval procedures with recruitment and candidate management software. So these recruitment and candidate management solutions can make a real difference in contingent workforce hiring.
Businesses will continue to hire contingent workers. Hiring contingent workers is different from recruiting regular employees. Therefore suitable solutions for contingent workforce recruitment will be essential for businesses for achieving growth and success.