Traditional vs. Contingency Staffing – Which Is Right for You?

Hiring personnel is one of the most important steps on your road to success. However, finding the right person for the job is never easy, especially if the staffing needs of your company are either really specific or constantly changing. In such a case, hiring contingent workers may be an excellent option.

However, it is not that simple. Not every company can benefit from contingency staffing. In numerous situations, traditional staffing is the better option. Why is that the case? And what are the differences between contingency staffing and traditional staffing all about? Here are the answers to your questions and a few tips that you might find helpful!

What Is Traditional Staffing?

Traditional staffing involves hiring employees for a specific period of time, ranging from a few months to a few years. For example, you can hire someone for one year. That will require you to pay that employee a salary during that time. The employee works full time and gets to enjoy the benefits that come with it, such as health care and dental insurance.

What is Contingency Staffing?

On the other hand, contingency staffing means hiring employees on a short-term basis. The worker is paid only for the hours they actually worked, and there is no work for that person for the rest of the day. This type of staffing is often used in industries when there are large fluctuations in workloads, such as agriculture or manufacturing.

What Are the Differences?

Each staffing type has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here are several factors that should help you decide whether you should choose traditional or contingency staffing. Take a look!

Immediate Goals

If you have a project that you have to complete in a short time, then contingent staffing is a good solution for you. However, if you have a more flexible deadline in mind, then traditional staffing is the best option. After all, changing workers every two months while working on a long-term project might make them feel confused and delay the completion of the whole thing.

Cooperation Between Staff Members

If your employees make for a great team, then you should not bother with hiring contingent workers. It might make them feel threatened and unappreciated. Instead, try to talk to them about what new projects you would like to start working on and find a way to make the workload more manageable.

Company Culture

Traditional staffing works well in companies where people are invested in their work and want new challenges, as well as when there is a positive atmosphere. However, if such a culture is not present in your company, using contingents can be a great way to fix this problem.

These workers are not a part of your company and are not used to having the same job responsibilities as your employees. If they end up being more motivated to achieve their goals than your current workers, it might positively affect your company culture.

Additionally, contingent employees usually come with their own ideas and approaches to completing tasks, which might make your team more flexible and productive. All in all, there is a huge possibility that contingent workers might be what your company needed all along!

Seasonality

If the workload that your workers have to deal with fluctuates depending on the season, you should think about contingency staffing. For instance, if you own a hotel and all the rooms are booked in July and August, then hiring a few contingent workers for two months might turn out to be much more helpful than depending on traditional staffing.

Specific Skills

If you are in need of really specific skills, then working with contingents can really help your company grow. Contingency staffing agencies source their workers from all over the country. As a result, they can easily provide you with workers that are tailored to the needs of your business in no time.

Turnover Rate

It is very important to have a look at your turnover rate every year. If it is high and you cannot figure out why that is the case, using contingent workers may be a good solution to the problem. Why is that the case?

In most cases, high turnover rates are caused by the workers not being able to deal with their workload. Contingent workers can help with that by allowing you to figure out which tasks your employees are struggling with. Once you do that, you can make contingents keep on completing these tasks, which should effectively lower your turnover rate.

Risk

With traditional staffing, you take a lot of risks. What if the people you hired end up behaving unprofessionally? What if they do not have the skills they said they had? Luckily, you will not have to worry about that if you hire contingent workers.

Each contingency staffing agency will make sure that all workers are properly screened and verify whether they have the skills necessary to get the job done. On top of that, you will not have to worry about firing them if they misbehave. Instead, the staffing agency will take care of it for you quickly and effectively.

Give Contingency Staffing a Try Today!

As you can see, both traditional and contingency staffing have their benefits and drawbacks. For instance, while hiring contingent workers can be an excellent solution if your business is seasonal, it is not the best option if you are focused on working on long-term projects.

Nevertheless, if you have never given contingency staffing a try, you might want to educate yourself on the matter! In fact, it might come in handy if you ever find yourself dealing with a labor strike or if a bunch of your workers suddenly get sick and cannot come to work.