Businesses with large scale operations and labor demands will often cultivate a contingent workforce to help scale production, generally for a specific project or a seasonal increase. There are a myriad of ways this can be done, and the needs of your business will be the most important factor in determining the right course of action for managing a contingent workforce.
Some employers will choose to manage this process internally, often by bringing on temporary employees as independent contractors, which limits their liability and legal commitments to those employees. These individuals are sometimes sourced internally or through an agency, both of which still create a large HR burden for your existing team, which ties directly into our first Pro Tip.
Using external partners and resources for managing a contingent workforce is a fairly common practice, one that is enhanced by having an Employer of Record for managing a contingent workforce.
An EOR will, for all intents and purposes, be the legal employer of your contingent workforce, even though they will be on your worksite and working for you. This process creates a layer between your permanent internal workforce the contingent workforce. Maintaining a clear distinction between your permanent and contingent workforces is both structurally and culturally important.
With an EOR, all related payroll and HR responsibilities, all legal requirements for employment, taxes and all related compliance are handled by your Employer of Record partner. You may have no problem imaging all the additional benefits in terms of time and money saved regarding the onboarding process, and your HR team will be happy to have one less thing on their plate.
Part of the inherent benefit of a contingent workforce is having an additional layer of liability protection from the potential fallout of a short-term workforce. Insurance costs and other regulations can significantly damper the ongoing effectiveness of a contingent workforce, all of which is easily off-loaded to an EOR. Your EOR partner will have insurance and liability protection against many of the potential legal issues associated with managing a contingent workforce.
A vendor management system, or vendor management software, is a specially designed workforce management tool that acts as a centralized dashboard for everything from time keeping to employee records. Choosing a robust and functional VMS will completely streamlines the process of managing a contingent workforce.
At Career Start, we use our own proprietary VMS, called WAE, as a built-in feature of our staffing and contingent workforce solutions. This tool has built in job posting, roster functionality, time keeping and job site tracking, in addition to dozens of other features useful features. These VMS tools give employers important and valuable insights and visibility on their contingent workforce.
Managing a contingent workforce comes with several hurdles, and high turnover is one of the inevitable ones. The nature of short-term work, without any serious investment or high pay for the employee, unfortunately lends itself to an environment of turnover. Understanding this will allow you to prepare for the inevitability, rather than attempting to fight it.
Another reason why so many employers rely on staffing partners for their contingent workforce is that those partners consistently supply new candidates for open positions. If we understand that turnover is inevitable in these temporary positions, then we also understand that a constant stream of new candidates will be necessary to maintain a functional workforce.
Many partner agencies also offer employers a temp-to-perm hiring service, where contingent workers who are high performers can be transitioned into your internal team. This serves a dual purpose of keeping your contingent workforce staffed with new talent and providing opportunities to find new permanent hires on the job.
Managing a contingent workforce is its own beast in many respects, even if their on-site responsibilities are similar or the exact same as other permanent employees. Managing a contingent workforce often requires its own culture, which should include direct feedback from the temporary employees that come and out of the contingent workforce.
It’s a simple idea, but we recommend being receptive to the temporary employees in terms of feedback, particularly when it comes to the clarity of their roles and responsibilities, as well as the rules and expectations of the work environment. People who are not consistently immersed in the details of a workplace are not going to have the inherent understanding that full-time employees with 5+ years of experience do.
This whole idea of receptivity ties nicely into our final pro tip for managing a contingent workforce, which is to place a string emphasis on clarity.
This is an easy one to overlook because many employers believe it to be a “given,” but that is rarely the case for a temporary worker who is new to the job and the facility, and is doing their best to “fit in.” Clarity and simplicity for their roles and responsibilities is a crucial element of their future success.
At Career Start, we have found that assigning internal team leads within the contingent workforce is fantastic way to help new workers understand the space and the expectations of their new position. A contingent worker with more experience and good understanding of the business is the ideal candidate for one of these team lead positions.
If you’re looking for a partner in managing a contingent workforce, Career Start is one of the best and is positioned perfectly to elevate your productivity. Our EOR services and VMS tools can be a game changer for companies both large and small, and our commitment to customer service is one of a kind!
You can learn more about the different services highlighted within our pro tips at the links below. If you’re looking for more guidance or even a free consultation, you can contact us directly, here on our site to learn more!
©2024 Aboldco, Inc. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy