Wonolo
Not sure if contract workers are making a difference in the workforce?
The answer is an emphatic yes. Today, we’ll explain the reasons why contract workers can be the best asset to a growing company and how placing a high value on those workers helps you in both the short-term and the long-term.
We’ll explore how these workers can help your company grow and also how they can have an impact outside the hiring environment. There are hidden advantages behind a contract workforce that can benefit your business in ways you didn’t expect.
Let’s get started!
Craft and Improve Your Logistical Processes
Ever wish you could test the processes that drive your business—before tiny errors grow so important they could hurt the company?
Research by the Startup Genome Project has shown that premature scaling is one of the biggest risks to companies still in a growth stage. In their words, these companies “tend to lose the battle early on by getting ahead of themselves.”
One of the reasons scaling doesn’t go very well is because the processes behind the work aren’t clearly defined or effective.
This is the foundation of the so-called “E-Myth,” made famous by the 1986 book of the same name by Michael Gerber. The technician handling day-to-day work at the company needs to develop this into a repeatable process, or the business is doomed.
This is where contract workers become extremely valuable. With each new worker, you can continue to refine processes and increase efficiency.
Leverage a Wealth of Diverse Skills and Perspectives
Every business benefits from diverse skills and perspectives.
A 2015 study by McKinsey & Company showed that diversity improves the bottom line. For example, their findings showed that the most racially and ethnically diverse 25 percent of companies are 35 percent more likely to have better financial returns than their industry medians.
Why? One of the reasons is that diverse workers offer new perspectives, and that’s where hired contract workers shine. Workers come from diverse backgrounds outside the business and offer unique insights you hadn’t considered before.
You can get outside perspectives from a diverse workforce on demand. With new 2018 research by NPR showing that as much as one-fifth of the workforce is contract, you have access to a huge variety of diverse talent.
The workers provide unique skills, perspectives, and ideas that can contribute to what you’re doing. Every contract worker brings an outsider’s perspective.
Contract Workers Can Become Your Next Permanent Hire
Finally, you can start finding your permanent hires from a temporary workforce.
Every manager knows it’s hard to find great employees. According to a recent survey, 96 percent of hiring professionals said they wanted better access to qualified candidates. A potential worker might look like a perfect fit on the resume. They might ace the interview. But when it comes to the actual task … it turns out they’re not a good choice.
Maybe they really don’t have the skills they claim. Or perhaps they’re qualified on paper but lack the soft skills they need to interact with coworkers and supervisors. Or maybe they just aren’t a good cultural fit for the team.
Using contract workers is a low-risk way to find your next hire. To start, you’ll choose a worker from a pool of motivated and driven individuals, excited to work and able to manage themselves in a variety of roles.
But even better, you can learn early on if the candidates are a good fit for their role and team.
Another advantage of contract workers? You can find someone to fill the role within a few days (or in some cases, hours). Compare that to 39 days, which is the average time to hire a new employee. During the weeks you’d be waiting, you could see how a worker fits into his or her new environment.
For those workers who are a great fit, you’ve made the hiring process much easier with the perfect candidate already familiar with your company and processes.
Conclusion
Do contract workers matter for your business?
The answer is yes—contract workers can make a huge difference. By using contract workers, you’ll start to figure out your processes and develop efficiency to help you scale and further develop your business.
Contract workers can provide a huge number of skills and outsider perspectives—all without the time-consuming hiring process you’d usually have to use. You’ll get the advantages of a diverse workforce with any team of contract workers—a team with outside perspectives and ideas to help you grow.
And finally, contract workers can make the hiring process easier by presenting you with great matches up front. Instead of searching for the perfect candidate, you can look to a team of qualified workers for your next long-term hire.
If you’re looking for a shortcut to a better business, contract workers might be your answer.
