A scalable staffing strategy helped many managers turn on a dime when it came to staff management during the pandemic. And now, many companies continue to benefit from using this approach. In fact, recent Robert Half research found that the majority of companies in the U.S. plan to add contract staff to their teams.
How does a scalable talent model work? In short, your business brings in contract talent for as long as needed to alleviate staffing and skills gaps and keep high-priority projects on track. This strategy helps to ease the burden on your core team. And, if your requirements or challenges are ongoing, you can consider engaging contract professionals for full-time roles.
Here’s a closer look at five top advantages of bringing in highly skilled contract talent to work alongside your existing permanent staff:
1. Your business can save money
Working with contract professionals allows you to turn some of your fixed personnel costs into variable expenses by paying only for the talent you need, when your business truly needs it. You can also reduce the high costs associated with hiring and training new staff while reining in overtime expenses.
2. You can improve your competitive position
A scalable talent model gives you more control over personnel. That translates to an advantage over competitors adhering to a rigid labor structure that makes them more vulnerable to economic highs and lows — and less agile to respond quickly to change or disruption.
3. You can increase the retention of top talent
When employees see that you’re providing them relief, it helps boost retention. This strategy can also help to prevent your team members from burning out. Your employees can avoid getting overloaded, and it’s easier for them to take time off when they need to recharge.
Tapping the talents of contract professionals to assist with day-to-day team responsibilities also allows your core staff to pursue high-priority challenges so that they can stay engaged and motivated.
4. You can avoid costly bad hires
When hiring for your organization, it’s important to get things right. Bad hires can be costly from a financial standpoint — but they can also bruise your team’s morale.
Supplementing your staff with contract talent helps your business maintain productivity while you search for permanent hires. You might even find that the contract professionals you’ve engaged are strong candidates for the full-time roles you’re trying to staff.
5. You can access specialized skills quickly
There’s a broad spectrum of skills and experience to choose from when you are hiring contract talent. If a new initiative requires specialized knowledge that you don’t currently have in-house, you can find project or contract professionals with extensive skills in these areas.
You may even have the option to bring in the same contract professional on a recurring basis, such as for cyclical projects, while other initiatives could benefit from a team of professionals tackling a mission-critical initiative.
Robert Half can address your talent shortages
A specialized talent solutions firm such as Robert Half can help you look at all your staffing needs from a bigger-picture perspective. We can advise you on what mix of workers your business needs, including contract talent and permanent staff. After assessing your situation, we can then zero in on the most promising candidates and help cut your hiring time from weeks to days — or, in some cases, hours.
We can help find skilled professionals for your business, including remote employees with access to virtual workspaces and secure virtual private network (VPN) connections.
Robert Half also gives you the gift of time as you continue to navigate today’s business environment. Our recruiting professionals handle all the details of the hiring process, including interviews, technical skills evaluations and soft skills reviews. They can also help determine if a candidate is likely to thrive in your unique organizational culture.
We can help you implement a scalable talent model, no matter whether your industry is technology, legal, financial, administrative or creative. We allow you to cost-effectively scale your workforce up or down — and back up or down again — to meet the challenges of today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
