Staffing is one of the most consistent headaches for business owners and managers who focus on the growth of their brand. Whether someone leaves or the business is in a state of growth, your first instinct may be to start the search for a new full-time employee. However, there are a variety of reasons why immediately bringing on full-time staff might not be the best decision.

Instead, you may want to explore a more strategic option: contingent workforce staffing, also known as temporary staff. Here’s what you need to know about contingent staffing and how this approach to hiring can help you achieve your business’s long-term goals.

What is Contingent Workforce Staffing? 

Many businesses find that they may not need to hire a full-time staff member to fulfill the more temporary roles within the company. Instead of bringing on permanent staff members, you can gain access to the skills and talent needed with contingent workforce staffing. 

Contingent workforce staffing is the business model of bringing in people on a temporary basis to meet your unique needs. With a contingency staffing approach, you will bring in more workers from the gig economy to supplement your practices. These can include temporary workers from a contingent staffing agency, freelancers, independent contractors, and even some types of consultants. 

These workers will contribute to the projects that are ongoing within your business. Plus, you can bring on workers who have skills that your existing team might lack to supplement those skills. 

However, it lends you a greater degree of flexibility in how you handle those projects. It allows you to scale up or down without the delays that often stem from the hiring and onboarding process required for new full-time team members. 

Strategic Advantages of Contingency Staffing

If you are thinking about adding a team member, you may want to first consider whether it could be better to utilize contingent staffing. Here are a few of the advantages that you can expect if you expand your team with this strategy. 

Handle Unpredictable Business Challenges

Do you know how your business will ebb and flow over time? Because growth and workloads may not remain consistent, you might have a hard time justifying bringing on a new team member. In lieu of hiring, contingency workers offer a solution to unpredictable business challenges, allowing you to keep pace while strategizing a long-term solution. 

Contingency workers allow you to quickly scale up and down to handle influxes of work. For example, your needs may shift due to seasonality, new business contracts, or launched initiatives. You can also use this workforce to fill temporary gaps, such as when someone leaves the company unexpectedly. 

Calculated Growth

When your business is in desperate need of workers, you might find that you feel rushed to hire someone to fill in the gap.

Instead of jumping into a hasty hiring decision, temporary staffing buys you time to make the ideal long-term decision. It allows you a bit of breathing room so that you can properly evaluate candidates and wait for the perfect fit to come along. 

Contingency staffing also gives you the opportunity to have a quality onboarding process rather than rushing to get someone up to speed. Your onboarding process should start during the early stages of your recruitment, eliminating guesswork and helping new workers find their place in the company. 

After bringing on contingent staffing, you may even realize that you do not need a full-time worker for that position. Instead, it might be some other position that needs a full-time employee instead. 

Restructuring a Business

Restructuring your business is a messy process, but you can keep the lights on while you go through these difficult changes. Trying to hire full-time staff while things are still in flux is a bad idea. You may not even have a clear idea of which roles or positions need to be filled until things settle down. 

Not to mention, your full-time workers may be uncomfortable with the instability and fluctuating expectations. On the other hand, contingency workers are used to this. They expect a certain degree of uncertainty and are experienced in quickly adjusting to a new working environment.

Cost Efficient

Hiring temporary workers is great for your budget. A temporary worker may cost less than a salary paycheck with benefits, but it is more than just that. A lot of time, effort, and money goes into hiring full-time – and it can all be for nothing if you end up hiring the wrong person or the wrong role, as we mentioned earlier. 

In the long run, a contingent workforce saves you time and energy when it comes to employee turnover. By filling your business’s temporary needs, you have the time you need to hone a job description, properly evaluate candidates, and even provide proper training and onboarding after they’ve been hired.

Common Misconceptions and Concerns about Contingent Staffing

While the benefits of bringing on contingent staffing are clear, there are also some common concerns that should be addressed. Consider how these misconceptions may have influenced your opinion of this strategic hiring move: 

Loss of Control or Quality

It’s true that temp work can get a bad reputation in every industry, but the truth of this matter will be highly dependent on the contingent staffing agency. Some staffing agencies have little to no screening process and place workers without properly analyzing their qualifications. Understandably, a process without strategy is less likely to achieve the results your business needs. 

Alaska Executive Search builds long-term relationships with quality, highly-skilled contingent workers. With over 3,000 vetted individuals in our contingent staffing network, you can rest assured that you will have access to the skills and qualifications you need. 

Lack of Passion

Without a full-time investment in the company, many people worry that contingent workers will not put forth their best effort or contribute to the long-term vision. Again, a quality staffing agency curates a network of contingency workers that have the work ethic and passion to commit. 

A good contingent staffing agency won’t just look at the technical qualifications and skills but also at the cultural fit. At Alaska Executive Search, we’re dedicated to finding the needle in the haystack that you’re looking for – someone who not only fits your technical qualifications, but also integrates well with your company values and culture. 

Alaska Executive Search Takes Away The Guesswork

Finding the right person can be a frustrating and time-consuming endeavor, whether you’re searching for contingent workers or a full-time position. With decades of experience finding and filling the perfect person for every role, Alaska Executive Search can help you take the guesswork out of staffing. 

We’re not here to put any person in any seat. We use a proven intentional hiring process that is based on KPIs, culture, personality, and fit. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with your contingent workforce staffing needs!