This blog may well turn into a general conversation on why you should hire contractors over perm staff, but I will try to articulate the importance of it relative to Covid-19. Before I get into it, check out our website on the skilled candidates we can provide, we cover both perm and contract but I think the below may steer you in a particular direction…..
Hiring and Onboarding – contractors are very used to a 1 stage interview process which is predominantly skills base. You may well be thinking about specific post covid-19 campaigns or have a project which was delayed, contractors need little to no inductions or training and naturally the role will have a time constraint, consider your project done in 6 months.
Self-sufficient – results and outcome focussed and will very much be geared up to working from home in both an equipment capacity and cultural. Working from home is soon becoming the new normal, the confidence that a contractor will bring knowing they are being predictive from home is invaluable. Contractors are also constantly updating their own skillset outside of work (well the good ones anyway). They can bring new tech and ideas to the table, would probably help out training others as well if you ask nicely.
Contract recruitment agencies – shameless bullet point this but we do have excellent databases and notifications on when contractors in the market are becoming available. This makes planning for projects much easier, allowing you to concentrate on your other pressing matters.
Risk vs Reward – Contractors are highly skilled and of course as an agency we do our best to get references (formal or informal) to fish out the best ones. However, hiring is always a risk that is spread across the client and agency but lets weight up the risk vs reward. The risk is that they do not complete the project to your standard, the reward is that they aren’t with you forever. The reward resulting in a successful project, well only you know the answer to that one.
Cost myths – The association with contractors has always been they are expensive. Let me clear this one up for you. They will not receive from you; national insurance, pension contributions, pay for holiday, sick or parental pay, equipment (they won’t permanently keep anything), training, induction costs, rewards or bonuses. Hope that sums it up and you also get someone who can already do the job at hand. Tighter wallets after the virus? The above should eradicate that concern.
Evidence based hiring – This might be relative to a handful of job roles but considering we operate in the tech & digital space, lets take a UX Designer as an example. As well as a CV, an interview, a reference and your confidence in us as an agency, They will have evidence of their previous work, either by a portfolio or literally the product itself they have worked on. How much more do you need!
In summary, contractors are going to be the quickest way to pick up any project that got left behind pre covid-19, the quickest way to complete your “back to the new normal campaign” and the quickest way to complete any piece of work you have in the pipeline. They are not as expensive as you may have once thought and the evidence they can bring during the interview process is compelling.