Written by Sara Jensen
Building a team is not as simple as it once was. A business used to set out to hire a cohort of steadfast, full-time employees. Today, what constitutes a team can vary widely from business to business. Teams can change day by day, with temporary, contract, and freelance workers taking up shorter-term roles and collaborating with full-time employees.
Is this makeshift workforce an extra stressor for HR? Or could it actually help companies gain control over their approaches in challenging times?
Why Today’s World Is Tough on Workforces
There’s a lot of uncertainty around the workforce today. Across the world, shaky economies have led to layoffs, budget freezes, and mass resignations.
Economic uncertainty is the largest culprit. A looming recession has had economists on tenterhooks, and experts still predict that a global recession is likely to hit sometime in 2023. Businesses have had to prepare for this eventuality by cutting back on spending and investing in order to prioritize survival.
On a day-to-day level, global inflation has hit a peak, pushing the cost of goods and services up and up and necessitating further cutbacks. As companies try to keep costs manageable, their workforces are affected. Businesses are now having to do more with less, including HR. They start to turn to layoffs and hiring freezes to try to control the situation.
Throw into the mix that the U.K. is facing specific economic challenges of its own, and HR leaders get headaches trying to solve more uncertain challenges. The Retained EU Law Bill (known as the Brexit Freedoms Bill) proposes to remove EU-retained employment laws, including several protections of employee rights related to transfer of employment, max working hours, and paid leave.
As all these factors play out, companies are left reeling. Their business goals are still lofty, and yet they have less to work with. They have to get creative to piece together more dynamic teams.
A Contingent Workforce Strategy to Ease the Workforce Crisis
Using contingent workers can be a critical move for organizations that are hiring after layoff periods, but it can also be a great long-term strategy. Here’s how these workers can help:
- Use contingent workers for flexibility.
A contingent workforce management strategy allows companies to be agile in meeting unexpected business needs. Engage contingent workers for specific time periods to meet a pressing objective with a fresh burst of energy and expertise. If there’s an opportunity to gain a sudden revenue hit, use contingent workers to seize it.
- Use contingent workers to save money.
As well as seizing opportunities, contingent workers can help you cut costs. You can fill gaps in the workforce without adding long-term commitments or fixed costs to the company, such as benefits and other full-time-employment-related expenses. Engaging contingent workers as a strategy for cost-cutting is not relegated to crisis times — in fact, it is predicted that over 50% of the workforce in the U.S. alone will be contingent by 2027.
- Use contingent workers to give projects a boost.
Leveraging contingent workers with specialized skill sets can give projects a leg-up in difficult times. Even during layoff periods, companies still have mission-critical projects and priorities to accomplish. Hiring contingent workers to fill talent gaps allows critical work to get done and might even boost employee engagement after layoffs.
We are living in a time of massive changes in how the workforce looks and acts. HR leaders who embrace the creative nature of building contingent workforces will be the ones to reap the benefits of change and adapt to the challenges of an uncertain economic era.
About the author
Sara Jensen is the senior vice president of growth & strategy at Innovative Employee Solutions (IES), a leading provider of remote and contingent workforce solutions specializing in global Employer of Record, Agent of Record, and Independent Contractor compliance services in 150+ countries. Founded in 1974, IES is a woman-owned business, certified by the WBENC, and partners with companies to provide compliant employment solutions that empower people’s lives.