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Contract
Staffing Increases in 2012 as Employers Start to Realize
Advantages
Contract staffing appears to be the
hiring solution of choice for 2012.
Even though
companies have learned to do more with less during economic
uncertainty, there comes a point where they have to bring
impact players on board to improve productivity, promote
growth, or stay ahead of the competition...BUT what about
those who are nervous when it comes to moving forward with
permanent employees? Contract staffing allows them to put
their toes back in the water without making the jump into
hiring full force.
Recent studies, surveys, and reports
show that employers want to "ease" into hiring this year for
reasons that include not only employee salaries, but also the
unknown insurance costs related to healthcare reform and low
confidence levels in the financial arena.
When it Comes to Contract
Staffing...Survey Says:
According to a
Wall Street Journal article authored by David Wessel titled,
What's Wrong with America's Job Engine, (published
July 2011) "In a survey of 2,000 companies earlier this year,
McKinsey Global Institute, the think tank arm of the big
consulting firm, found 58% of employers expect to have more
part-time, temporary or contract workers over the next five
years and 21.5% more outsourced or off-shored
workers."
CareerBuilder.com
conducted an online survey in late 2011 that asked
approximately 3,000 human resource professionals and hiring
managers about their hiring intentions for 2012.
The
survey results were released in a press release posted on
their website in early January of this year titled,
Temporary and Contract Hiring to Increase in 2012,
According to CareerBuilder Survey,
the release says, "Thirty-six percent of companies will
hire contract or temporary workers in 2012. This is up from 34
percent for 2011, 30 percent for 2010, and 28 percent for
2009. Of the companies hiring temporary or contract workers
this year, 35 percent have plans to hire them on a permanent
basis. Recruitment for temporary jobs will begin right away
for some companies--27 percent of companies will hire
temporary or contract workers in Q1 2012."
External recruitment and
staffing professionals have also taken notice of the upsurge
in the contract staffing business in the last couple of years.
David Stevens, Contract Staffing Manager at MRINetwork, one of the
world's largest search and recruitment organizations,
continues to drive home the
point that while contract staffing was scaled back during 2008
and 2009--it has started to make a strong comeback.
According to Stevens, "While the entire
staffing industry saw revenues of around $113 billion in 2011,
contract staffing finished the year with strong growth and
accounted for about $88 billion of that total. Numbers
released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show growth in
contract staffing rising by almost 25,000 last September,
almost 16,000 in October, and continued to rise by just over
22,000 contract workers in November. I see this trend
continuing throughout 2012."
How Contract Staffing Benefits Both Companies
and Workers
So, what is it about contract
staffing solutions that attract companies, and how does it
benefit workers?
Organizations that decide to take the
contract staffing route can bring an impact player on board
quickly to decrease downtime when the goal is to increase
productivity as the need arises and turn around and downsize
when things slow down. A contract worker can also bring great
value to a company when it comes to problem-solving by
offering a fresh perspective. His varied experiences make it
easier for him to think out of the box more so than the
company and its employees that get used to seeing things as
status quo.
A company can also gain other benefits from
contract staffing such as not having to worry about adding to
the payroll permanently since the costs are temporary,
eliminating unexpected layoff scenarios (contractors know
their time is limited), allowing companies to find out if a
contractor may be a good "permanent fit" for the company if
they decide to ultimately keep him or her, and cutting down on
an organization's benefit, payroll tax, insurance, and other
costs.
On the flip side, workers can use short-term
assignments to sharpen their current skills and keep up with
the latest methods and techniques, enjoy flexible schedules,
get a change of pace from project to project, meet and network
with an almost unlimited pool of talent, and more often than
not, command and get higher wages for their expertise since
their stay is temporary. Additionally, a contract worker is
already strategically positioned in the right place--at the
right time--if the company decides to offer a more permanent
opportunity.
It's anybody's guess whether temporary
staffing will ultimately become the permanent solution for
hiring managers in search of talent, but for now, it has found
its place in the current economic climate--at least for the
time being--or at least while both the financial and
employment landscapes seem
unpredictable.
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