In a time of uncertain economic conditions, falling confidence and talent shortages, utilising temporary workers is a key strategy for many organisations, and the benefits of this cannot be underestimated. A recent report by Deloitte indicated that an estimated 1.6 million workers in Britain (6% of the total workforce) are infact temporary workers.
Below we set out 7 key situations in which the use of Temporary workers should be considered. All of which are high in the rationale of many organisations, as highlighted in recent Job outlook articles by the REC team.
In a recent post, we covered many of the key characteristics which temporary workers possess that make them such a vital part of the UK economy growing by 40% over the last 10 years.
1. To Help You Meet Peaks in Demand
Organisations who are unsure whether a current spike in activity levels will be sustained may choose to dip into temporary labour pools. Hiring and firing permanent staff can be both time-consuming and detrimental to workforce morale.
Being able to bring on more workers or scale back the workforce to respond to the ebbs and flows of demand is highly desirable to many business owners.
2. Can Allow You to Reduce Costs
While the exact logistics of temporary hires differ within organisations, the process is usually far more cost effective than making a permanent hire and can result in quicker returns for the business.
However, temporary assignments that are expected to run for more than a couple of months may actually end up costing you more than making a permanent hire.
Make sure you do your sums before you make any decisions.
3. Provide Short Term Access to Key Expertise
Temporary staff can bring new skills and perspectives to a role that can, in turn, improve efficiency or streamline production. If a new project or product requires skills outside of your team’s current area of expertise, a temporary employee can provide that new talent to quickly keep things moving forward and ensure your targets are met.
We recently had a client who wanted a Project Manager with Prince2 Qualification to run a fixed project for them, and another who wanted someone with detailed pivot table knowledge to help a team out with some remodelling work on systems. Temporary employment can work very well for organisations with clear goals of what they wish to achieve.
4. Covering Leaves or Absences
If a key member of staff has gone off on long term sick leave or is on a three month sabbatical, the obvious solution where workloads need to be picked up and cannot be absorbed by other team members is to seek temporary cover to ensure work is completed.
This is one of the most common reasons organisations use temporary workers.
5. Responding to Growth
A spike in business levels may not allow you the time to recruit permanent team members if deadlines need to be met. So the most cost effective solution would be to utilise a temporary pool of workers. It may be that some of these are taken on permanently if growth is maintained and they demonstrate the attributes and capabilities required.
6. Responding to Fast Changing Organisational Requirements
In larger organisations, the imminent relocation of teams or departments or the need for urgent projects to be completed, can necessitate the need for a temporary workforce to be considered for a period of time.
7. Managing Uncertainty
In times of economic uncertainty, when budgets are pulled or reduced and full-time headcounts are under the microscope, the entrepreneurial hiring managers of large organisations often look to exploit loop holes in their system and consider utilising temporary workers.
This can also be the case in smaller organisations where managers are unwilling to replace departing staff for fear of uncertain future orders and workloads. In these situations, temporary workers can also fill the void and the organisations can regularly reassess.
Can We Help?
Our experienced temporaries team at Lucy Walker Recruitment have been working the Leeds and West Yorkshire market for over 30 years and placed well over 100,000 candidates within temporary assignments. We have an extensive database of experienced, versatile, skilled and flexible temporary workers.
If you would like to talk to one of our Consultants, you can contact us here and complete our Temporary Recruitment Checklist to enable us to assess and partner with you going forward.
