Ever thought about what would happen if your strongest team member has to go on maternity leave, take a sabbatical or simply leave the company all together?

How would you and your team cope with the extra workload, loss of knowledge and shortage of resource that inevitably results from the loss of an employee?

The benefits of using a professional contractor include:

• Additional pool of candidates – There is now a growing pool of professional candidates who choose to work on a contract basis over a permanent basis. This could be due to the specialist experience they develop as well as the diversified nature of the role. There are also various tax advantages by contracting as opposed to working on a permanent basis. As a company uses more contractors, it is able to build up a pool of specialist workers who have the capabilities and experience to work on its future projects.
• Temporary cover - A temporary resource can help ease the workload during busy periods, sickness/ maternity cover or fulfil any required project work with minimal disruption.
• Experienced talent - Temps or contractors have specialist skills and knowledge and are experienced in carrying out a particular role – you don’t have to provide training.
• Access to specialist/niche skills - By recruiting the right contractor, you’ll get huge added value from the skills and knowledge acquired from the different companies the contractor has worked for.
• Speed of response – If you have an urgent need you can turn to a temp resource with immediate availability who can quite possibly start the next day.
• Try before you buy – Contracting allows you to see how the resource beds in with both the work and culture of the environment before you commit to a permanent hire.
• Ease of sign off – It is often far easier to bring a temp on board than it is to get permanent sign off. Hence, if a line manager needs someone urgently, this could be the only available route to getting access to an additional resource.
• Market volatility – With the markets currently stressed, clients may not feel confident enough committing to a permanent resource. Hence, companies may choose the temp option whilst monitoring the market conditions at the same time, which buys them time to decide which is the best way to proceed in terms of human resource whilst covering the current workload.
• Indirect costs – For organisations facing permanent headcount freezes, hiring contractors will allow them to fulfil their resourcing needs thus shortening the recruitment cycle and reducing opportunity cost.