As a hiring manager, you are under pressure to make sure your team has the resources and skills they need to accomplish critical business objectives. Sometimes, hiring full time workers to do this simply isn’t reasonable. There is just too much work to bring employees on slowly. Contract workers offer a unique affordability and ability to these situations. But there tend to be many misconceptions around hiring contracted workers. Questions such as, “Who do they really benefit? How can managers balance quality with quantity?” While there is not always an easy answer, this article considers the advantages and disadvantages hiring contractors can have on your company.

Disadvantages

It’s important to address some of the disadvantages of hiring contract workers before exploring the benefits too deeply. Issues do come up where businesses looking to bring on large groups of contractors quickly suffer from poor-quality workers, high turnover rate, lengthy learning curves and costly fees from staffing firms. This is a challenge for any business to overcome. But it’s also worth noting that when you pick the right staffing partner, these disadvantages are mitigated substantially. The quality of the contractors is often a direct reflection of the quality of the staffing firm. So, be careful who you choose to work with, know that not all staffing firms are able to provide the same level of support and customer service as others, and weigh the potential disadvantages carefully before you make your decision.

Advantages

The truth is that the advantages of a quality contract workforce far outweigh the disadvantages. One important responsibility you outsource to a staffing firm is the task of hiring and managing your workforce. As an employer, you can assign duties and impose a deadline and work product, and expect your request to be met with little to no effort on your part as to how the work gets done. This includes reduced reporting and tax responsibilities, reduced time and effort on supervision, and timely completion of deliverables. There is more flexibility around contracts, particularly in terms of length and termination, if needed. There’s no need to pay into social security, payroll tax, Medicare and so on. Working with contractors helps you get the job done quicker and in a manner that leaves you free to continue to build your business uninterrupted and undistracted. Recruiting and hiring efforts are cut substantially. Benefits and incentives are managed by a third party. In many cases, the staffing agency works to onboard and provide the right tools for your contractors. This is especially helpful when you need to bring workers on to a project quickly and effectively, but have little to no resources to do so yourself.

The bottom line is that when you are in need of the type of staffing support that gets the job done right, you need to find a true partner in staffing. This takes experience and industry knowledge to do the job credibly. While it’s a good idea to do your homework, and interview a few candidates, make sure Verum Technical is on your list. We’ll help you see nothing but the up side to working with contractors. Contact us today to learn more.