In the past, the desire for an employee to stay with a company for decades was seen as a desirable trait and listed as a sentiment a candidate absolutely must convey in an interview. It has confused some business owners to see the tides turn, with shorter term candidates being favoured by rival companies and their competitors heads turning in favour of a contract worker. If you are a business owner who is considering the benefits of contract recruitment as opposed to trying to secure loyalty from an increasingly self-focused workforce, your adaptability is likely to be rewarded.
Candidates are different to those of yesteryear. Nowadays, candidates get the sense that flexible working and remote opportunities are not the outlier. The narrative of securing a long-term job to provide for a nuclear family is less pertinent than what was once conveyed to prior generations; mainstream media focuses less on glamourising career obsession and TikTok has reduced everybody’s attention span. While this may sound like a trend that will surely change again, once candidates become more individualistic, they are less likely to return to a model that has been promoted as compromising to their best interest. Instead, ‘job-hopping’ has become the norm – thanks in part to the notion that they will receive monetary gains from frequently changing their place of work.
While it may sound like contract work mostly benefits the contractor themselves, it comes at a great benefit for the company, too. These include:
- Less risk involved than taking on somebody as a permanent member of your team and trusting them to invest their all in your company
- There are no national insurance or PAYE (pay as you earn) costs to administer
- If a contracted employee performs poorly, at least you know their time at your company has an expiration date
- Quick access to a particular set of skills.
- A faster recruitment process
Another great thing about contractor placements is that a recruitment agency can help you with the hiring process. Contractor recruitment is more fast paced than full-time recruiting as a general rule, with experienced teams able to screen their candidate pools for the essential and desirable skills you are looking for in order to find the right fit. Often, a contract hire is used to fill in a temporary position – such as in light of medical absence or for maternity leave, so the positions need to be filled urgently. What better way to do this then, than to use the help of a recruiter who specialises in your chosen field.
Once you have become familiar with a short-term member of the team, you will know first-hand the benefits it can bring. Given the power the employer has, you can also extend an offer for them to become a permanent member of the team.
