The benefits of temporary staffing have been somewhat overlooked in the traditional outlook of employment by both employers and employees. It was primarily seen as unsteady, the less-preferred option to permanent employment.
Thanks to the changes in the hiring outlook brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the stigma surrounding gig workers has been dispelled gradually and both candidates and recruiters are more open to the benefits of temporary staffing. Looking beyond boundaries, it is possible to see that Staffing Companies can step in to alleviate a lot of the hiring stress of companies. Among the benefits of temporary staffing lie options such as being able to cultivate new skills among gig workers and contingent workers, and offering them lucrative, progressive deals that rival the very best traditional employment contracts. When such staffing contracts are drawn up carefully, plenty of benefits of temporary staffing emerge, and the “unsteadiness” pales in comparison to the many benefits enjoyed by consultants, independent freelancers, and temporary workers.
The benefits of temporary staffing are germane to the present because organizations have been through a lot. Most have frozen hiring for at least six months. Some went so far as to prevent lateral movements, new deployments, and even retrenchment as a matter of policy. While stalwart MNCs like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google made policy decisions to not lay off people during the pandemic, some even going so far as to hire people virtually or at least pay hourly wages, several companies were not as fortunate. Closer home, Bajaj Auto, Essar Group, and Vedanta group trudged a similar path, not right-sizing their headcounts even as demand in the market slowed down due to the coronavirus pandemic. While this had an impact on the bottom line, companies consciously took measures toward being people-friendly, creating ventures for training and upskilling, perquisites that helped them collaborate and work virtually, and provide support in a myriad of ways.
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The virtualization of the workplace, in specific, paved the way for a lot of benefits of temporary staffing, individual contributors pivoting into distributed teams and delivering the goods, and sometimes even pitching toward multiple projects and getting more done.
The benefits of temporary staffing have to be considered by for-profit businesses regardless of whether there is pressure to virtualize in view of the pandemic or not. Here’s why:
Cost of hiring: Conventional employment contracts have a notice period ranging from 15 days to 90 days, with more exceptions also present. A considerable amount of the budget goes into screening candidates’ CVs, scheduling interviews, planning for the availability of several members of functional and staff managers to be present to take each applicant toward a suitable hiring decision, and so on. There are so many man-hours spent on recruitment that hiring itself is a full-time activity at several companies. Staffing companies bring talent into roles for a fraction of the price, time, and effort.
Attrition: Another cost factor to organizations is a candidate leaving the fold, specifically if it is within the first few months of a hire. Attrition is costly because the entire effort and expenditure of time and resources have to be put in all over again, all the way to training and deployment. The benefits of temporary staffing include candidates whose training costs are not borne by the parent organization, but rather, can be outsourced to the staffing company for a blanket fee.
Pressure of competition: The ultimate goal of for-profit businesses is to gain a cost advantage over their expenditures compared to their competitors while increasing their own market share. Using staffing companies with competitively priced solutions is one way to reduce the cost of hiring. If a candidate supplied by a staffing company decides to quit, a replacement is instantly found.
Savings in time: In the nearly unpredictable market conditions that face companies today, scaling up and down quickly is a precious superpower that employers would pay anything to have. Staffing companies make this possible by keeping their contracts open and their networks wide. Onboarding a candidate from the first discovery call to actual deployment in a role takes anything from 1 – 90 days or more in the conventional setting. This might mean missing out on crucial business opportunities for a company. Staffing companies subvert these risks for the parent employer and also handle crucial administrative functions like payroll and compliance. These savings in time and operational effort are significant for companies and count as benefits of temporary staffing.
Cost of down-sizing: In an unpredictable business environment, lay-offs and right-sizing become necessary, as has been evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In several cases, this meant paying salaries/wages during the termination notice periods, or retaining a huge body of staff when the demand was not nearly as high. With the use of staffing contracts, the terms might be different, since staffing companies create more financially viable arrangements.
Access a hidden pool of talent: When the benefits of temporary staffing are ready to be considered by a “mainstream” employer, a whole new talent pool of contingent workers, freelancers, and consultants opens up to them. These candidates may be workers who avoided conventional employment arrangements for a range of reasons. They have a greater comfort liaising with and allying themselves to staffing companies, which, arguably, do have temp worker-friendly terms in their contract. These repositories of talent become available to companies with staffing contractors.
These benefits of temporary staffing could not have risen to the limelight at a better time. There is an overarching prediction made at the turn of the decade that in the next five years, i.e., by 2025, 10% of the entirety of India’s workforce might be contingent workers and gig workers.
The use of temporary staffing contracts and consultant arrangements have gathered speed in the IT/ITES industry in India, which continues to be a major employer sector. The argument for this rise is that the required skill-sets are not directly available in the conventional talent pools to employers and they are forced to look to temporary staffing companies to fill crucial roles. Some of the major industries looking to stem the glut in talent through the benefits of temporary staffing while also gaining a competitive advantage in cost are retail, FMCG, automobile industry, telecom, BFSI, manufacturing, and power sectors.
The movement toward leveraging the benefits of temporary staffing is accelerating in India and is sure to see a peak in the next few years. This is especially true as Indian companies take a cautious approach to hiring, filling only roles critical to growth and recovery. The cost-effectiveness of each hiring decision will continue to be key, and temporary staffing can tip the balance favorably. It’s a win for both employers and employees.
References:
- How Staffing Companies Can Save You Time and Money as Your Business Reopens | Bonney Staffing | Jul 6, 2020
- India: a temporary workforce hotspot | Manu Saigal | Deccan Herald | MAR 11 2019
- All The Tech Companies That Have Pledged No Layoffs | Analytics India Mag | March 31, 2020
- TEMPORARY STAFFING: IS IT THE RIGHT OPTION FOR YOUR COMPANY | Perito Admin | November 11, 2019
- COVID wave freezes hiring, but jobs boom seen ahead | Sulekha Nair | Freepressjournal | May 11, 2021
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