Contract and Permanent Staff
Permanent Staff
Contract and permanent staff are two different types of worker who each present their own challenges and opportunities. Contract and freelancing work has grown in popularity in recent years as it offers both the professional and the company a greater degree of flexibility.
A contract worker will typically offer her services to a company whilst being either self-employed or working for an outside agency, so is not an employee. Contractors should not be confused with employees working on fixed-term contracts.
Hiring contractors means you can staff up during busier periods to assist your permanent staff. But it also means you won’t be overstaffed with workers with nothing to do at quieter times. A company may also wish to hire in someone with a particular skill or area of knowledge for just one time-limited project in which they are a specialist and will likely need little management.
As overheads for contractor are lower, they may also be a most cost-effective option, whatever their headline hourly or daily rate.
Employers can worry however that contractors may not have the same level of commitment to them as a permanent staff member or that they may have conflicting priorities with different concurrent projects. And although they may be cheaper, the hassle of issuing a bespoke contract for a fixed-term role may be off putting.
You are unlikely to have the same stable and developing relationship with a contractor that you do with a permanent member of staff. You may feel is to the detriment of your business if people working for you aren’t fully invested in it.
However, permanent contracts are more difficult – and probably more costly – to terminate. Your company has greater responsibilities to permanent staff who may or may not be able or willing to develop in line with your own changing goals. You may find you have a workforce no longer well aligned to the work you want it to do.
How Can HM Staffing Help?
If your company is interested in taking on contract staff but fear you won’t quite know what you’re getting it may pay to talk to us. We take the opportunity to get to know the experience and career aspirations of all candidates we work with.
We would never recommend a hire for contract work if we didn’t truly feel they were a cultural match for your business. We also never recommend anyone to you who we are not confident will fulfil the contract you offer to the very best of their abilities.
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