A contingent workforce entails a pool of talent that a company temporarily brings on for a project. It includes contractors, freelancers, temp workers etc. Essentially, it’s your backup on demand when your in-house teams are not enough for the workload or work type. Many companies nowadays heavily utilize a combination of contingent and permanent staff for their operations. Here are five key advantages that investing in a contingent workforce brings to your business.
Short-term and long-term flexibility
Investing in a contingent workforce drastically improves your business flexibility. When you have additional workers readily available at any point, it becomes much easier to adapt to any market changes. Your contingent teams can expand or shrink according to your requirements, including mid-project. Unlike with a permanent workforce, there is no waste of resources during long idle periods. If a type of expertise is no longer required, simply end the contract and bring that talent back on when needed with no repercussions. One notable way of gaining maximum flexibility is hiring contingent workers for skill transfer. When a technological advancement or large social shift impacts your business, you can bring in talent that will help your permanent workers adapt. Examples include coaches to help you update policies and workplace culture, or device operators to make a technological transition in the office smoother. When their contracts expire, your in-house staff will have learned the necessary skills to maintain that flexibility going forward.
A more diverse perspective
Contingent employees are an excellent way to obtain a neutral and fresh point of view on a project, especially when facing bottlenecks. To begin with, these workers have no close tie to your company. This means that they won’t have the same inhibitions and biases that likely plague your in-house teams. Moreover, each contingent worker has their own expertise and skill set to bring to the table. Their specialized abilities can provide invaluable insight into related aspects of the project. Sometimes an issue hinges on some niche detail and it takes a niche perspective to correctly identify and troubleshoot it.
Better cost-effectiveness
Since contingent workers are usually hired short-term, they come at dramatically reduced expenses compared to onboarding additional full-time employees. You don’t have to bear the overhead costs. You likewise don’t have to provide them with benefits like paid time off, health insurance, various perks, etc. In addition, if your contingent workforce is remote across different countries, you can handle all payments at once via a global provider instead of navigating the hassle of local banks. Your best option is to utilize international payroll services for the purpose. Outsourcing contingent payrolls to a dedicated third party is safer and more efficient. Your workers get their payments accurately and reliably, and you have one less administrative worry on your daily schedule.
Affordable access to niche expertise
As we already mentioned, contingent employees can often bring some niche skill sets to the projects you hire them for. This is an excellent resource for companies that often require specialists in different areas but not on a consistent basis. It holds especially true for enterprises whose work demands catering to different specializations from project to project. Since niche-specific skill sets are rare and more costly, it makes no economic sense to maintain an in-house workforce with expertise in many different areas on a permanent basis.
Easier project scaling
It tends to be much more efficient to onboard a new contingent worker as opposed to a new permanent employee. You don’t have to go through the application process, recruitment, screening, training, orientation, and all adjacent formalities. Simply search a relevant platform or contact a mediator service, select the necessary staff, negotiate their payment and responsibilities, and hire the appropriate contingent workforce for an immediate start. In the practical sense, this translates to flexible and smooth scaling of your company’s projects. You can increase or decrease the size of your contingent talent pool at any time. You can change its composition according to whatever skills and expertise the project requires. Since these workers are not your permanent employees, you can do all this without the slightest blow to the project quality.
In conclusion, investing in a contingent workforce is the optimal way for an international business to future-proof against the volatile global market. It is a cost-effective and flexible alternative to maintaining a traditional employee structure, especially if your teams are remote. It’s also financially more feasible and easier to manage. Use contingent talent to supplement anything from a task force at peak season to one-project niche expertise.
