The job market for the engineering industry has undergone a significant transformation in the last few years. Skill requirements are evolving due to digital transformation; hybrid and remote working options are becoming the norm, and companies face challenges recruiting the skilled staff they want within budget.
These changes have prompted countless companies to consider hiring temporary workers and contractors over the past few years.
In fact, in 2022, the number of temporary job placements in the UK rose from 22.4 million to 25.7 million.
In 2023, permanent placements fell to their lowest rate in February, while opportunities for contractors reached a 14-month high.
It’s not just UK employers exploring the benefits of temporary and contractor hiring; the trend is rising all over the globe.
With contract and temporary staffing, companies ensure they can continue to grow, serve their customers, innovate, and earn revenue, even when the economic outlook is unclear.
In today’s guide, we’re taking a closer look at the benefits of growing your organisation with temporary and contracting team members this year.
US data references
https://www.westaff.com/temporary-staffing-in-2022-the-stats-and-what-they-mean/
https://data.oecd.org/emp/temporary-employment.htm
Defining Temporary and Contract Workers
Temporary and contract workers are two types of non-permanent employees intended to bridge the skill gaps in a engineering business, preserve productivity, and facilitate growth. However, there are differences between the two options.
Temporary Workers
Temporary workers are engineering employees hired to do a job for a limited time. They’re often flexible employees who aren’t guaranteed a specific period of employment. However, the employer gives a contract that lasts a defined period and includes job responsibilities, notice periods, and termination clauses.
Businesses advertise temporary employment positions for several reasons.
- Emergency cover: Temporary team members who fill gaps when permanent employees are sick, on holiday/vacation, or otherwise unavailable.
- Seasonal and Increased Demand: Team members who increase the capacity of the business during times of high demand, be that seasonal or due to new business won by an organization/organisation.
- Project-based employees: Staff hired to focus on a specific project, such as a new product launch or a business challenge.
Temporary jobs are a win-win scenario for both employers and workers. For a company, they fulfil an immediate need while allowing candidates to work for many different companies, giving them a chance to gain insights into how various organisations in the engineering industry work.
Contract Workers
Contract workers are often specialists in their field who are flexible about when and where they work. They can add their expertise to an organisation to fulfil a short-term project gap or need that does not require a permanent employee.
This might be adding a new software or HR system, or a new salesforce specialised in selling in a specific product area.
A huge benefit of using contractors is the flexibility and expertise they bring to your company.
Depending on the project’s complexity, contractors generally work for a fixed period. This could be months or years. Contractors typically prefer more extended contracts of six months and over.
The Role of Recruiters in Building Contractor or Temporary Teams
Hiring temporary or contract workers in the engineering industry can support a company’s ability to manage seasonal demands, access talent for specific projects, and mitigate unexpected staff shortages.
When engineering businesses hire contractors or temporary workers, they often need to act fast, filling gaps in a fraction of the time it would take to choose a permanent employee.
The interview process for these roles is shorter and less involved depending on the role in question. Generally, it takes weeks rather than months and one or two stages rather than multiple interviews and assessments.
Consequently, many companies use a recruitment firm that understands the market and can streamline the hiring process in various ways. Often, they already have talent pools of potential contractors or temporary workers that they can use to fill the gaps in your business in record time.
They also offer:
- Industry expertise: A dedicated engineering recruitment team will understand what type of talent and skills you need, and they’ll know where to source the best candidates for your team. They can instantly and effectively identify candidates that meet your technical skill requirements and match your company’s culture.
- Screening and selection: Recruitment teams can deal with screening candidates and filtering through your options. This saves you time making the right choice for your business needs, accelerating time-to-hire.
- Cost savings: Working with a recruiter can save you money on the recruitment process by reducing the time you spend searching for a new staff member. They help you fill the gaps in your team quickly so you don’t suffer from lost productivity.
- Compliance management: Employment laws and regulations surrounding temporary and contractor workers can be complex. Recruitment agencies deeply understand these regulations and can ensure you remain compliant with all legal requirements.
The Benefits of Building Your Business with Temporary Talent
In the engineering industry, as businesses innovate, the needs of your business can change faster than anticipated. You may find yourself launching projects, new products, or services that require access to specialised skills for specific periods.
Hiring permanent employees would be a time-consuming and expensive process that isn’t necessary, but working with contractors and temporary staff gives you the flexibility you need.
It ensures you can adapt to changes in market demands and business cycles and scale and downsize your workforce as needed.
It even allows companies to experiment with adding new staff to their team on a “try before you buy” basis. For instance, if you believe that a new employee would benefit your team, hiring a temporary staff member initially allows you to assess their impact immediately without committing to a long-term hire.
Specialist Skills and Expertise
The number one reason employers value contract and temporary workers is that they offer access to specialist skills and knowledge.
Hiring temporary employees allows engineering companies to augment their teams with new skills, experience, and insights, for as long as they need to.
It’s even possible to hire executive or manager-level employees for a short period to help restructure a business or improve productivity.
These professionals can benefit the business long-term by passing their skills and experience on to other permanent team members.
Cost Savings
Hiring temporary and contractor workers can be cost-effective for businesses investing in growth. With these arrangements, employers can avoid the long-term financial commitments of hiring permanent employees, such as pension contributions and severance pay.
Employers recognise and comment that working with contractors is the most cost-effective way to bridge skill shortages and gaps.
Other Additional Benefits
Aside from the significant benefits of working with contractors and temporary staff already mentioned above, there are several other advantages:
- Agility: With contractors and temporary workers, you can rapidly respond to changes in your team and reduce the risk of lost productivity. Temporary workers allow HR departments to adjust rapidly for seasonal fluctuations, absent employees, and resignations in the workforce.
- Improved hiring decisions: Temporary employment reduces the risk of making hiring mistakes with permanent employees. It allows you to experiment with new staff members, finish contracts early, or extend them as needed.
- Better employee experiences: Hiring temporary or contractor workers ensures you don’t have to overwhelm your existing engineering staff members with extra tasks when demand increases or permanent employees are absent. This reduces the risk of burnout and improves the likelihood of retaining long-term team members.
- Stronger talent pipelines: Even if a permanent position isn’t available for an impressive short-term employee in your business immediately, you can add them to your talent pipeline. This means you have a proven candidate you can return to when another role or position becomes available, speeding up the hiring process.
Strategies for Effectively Managing Temporary Workers
While temporary and contract workers are excellent resources for engineering companies, managing a team of temporary or contractor staff members and ensuring they can thrive in their roles requires a strategic approach to workforce planning, coordination, training, and onboarding.
Here are some of the ways you can ensure you get the most out of your contract and temporary staff:
1. Implement an Effective Onboarding strategy
Although temporary and contract workers may only be with your business briefly, they still need a clear understanding of how your organisation works, your processes, standard operating procedures, and company culture.
A great onboarding experience ensures they can integrate into the business quickly and efficiently.
Unfortunately, many contractors have shared that this does not always happen. It appears that the length of the contract can be a factor in poor onboarding, which is a disappointing reason.
Contractors complain that communication channels can be vague at best.
This is an easy fix for most companies.
Provide company training, where necessary, to ensure all temporary or contract workers are familiar with your operating procedures and processes through one-on-one sessions or online courses.
Additionally, you may consider creating a mentorship or peer support program where existing staff members can support a contractor or temporary worker during their initial days or weeks on the job.
2. Immerse them into the Company Culture
Many business leaders think that temporary or contract employees don’t have to be integrated into the company culture because they won’t be around forever. However, ensuring every staff member feels like a valuable part of the team is essential.
Making your temporary hires feel welcome, and introducing them to the components of your company culture ensures they can thrive and feel satisfied in their role. The happier your engineering employees are, the more productive they will be.
Embedding temporary team members into your company culture also helps to minimise the risk of disruption from staff who might not follow the same processes or share the same values as other permanent staff.
3. Invest in Comprehensive Performance Management
A proper performance management strategy is crucial for all engineering employees, including your temporary or contract staff members. It’s the key to ensuring you can make the most of your short-term hires and potentially identify leaders and long-term employees.
Start by setting clear expectations and goals for your contractors. Tell them what you want them to accomplish during their time with your business, the deadlines they’ll need to adhere to, and how their performance will be monitored and evaluated over time.
This will help minimise the risk of misunderstandings, promote accountability, and improve workflow in your engineering company. Throughout the period your team member spends with your business, conduct regular performance reviews and give them constructive, helpful feedback they can use to improve their work.
Remember, 75% of employees believe regular feedback is crucial to unlocking their full potential.
4. Gather Feedback from Temporary Employees
Feedback isn’t just a valuable way to optimise the performance of your temporary and contract workers. It can also benefit business leaders interested in growing their businesses and expanding their teams. Asking your temporary workers for feedback about your management styles, the engineering specific software you use, and your company culture is valuable.
It can help you to identify areas where you need to improve your temporary hiring strategy and determine where you might need to provide extra training. It can also further your understanding of which parts of your company culture will attract potential future employees to your business, boosting your employer brand.
Gathering feedback from temporary employees on your processes and business strategies also gives you access to more diverse perspectives from people with different knowledge and skills to your permanent team. This can help you uncover new growth opportunities.
Navigating Uncertain Times with Temporary and Contract Teams
Temporary and contract teams aren’t new in the sector hiring landscape, but they have grown more valuable in recent years. According to a study on ‘Raising the resilience of your organization’ by McKinsey, since the pandemic, companies have updated their processes, operations, and hiring strategies to ensure they have a focus on resilience.
The current landscape is fraught with challenges, from an uncertain economy to rapid employee turnover, and technological developments. Creating a strategy for hiring flexible and contract teams allows you to navigate this uncertain landscape more effectively.
It can help you tackle challenges like:
- Employee turnover: Employee expectations and priorities rapidly change in the engineering industry. As demand for talent grows, team members have more opportunities to leave their existing workplace for more flexibility, higher salaries/wages, or better benefits. Hiring temporary workers can ensure you avoid some of the disruption and damage to productivity caused by sudden resignations and employee turnover.
- Talent shortages: With the support of a engineering recruitment agency, hiring temporary employees can be much easier than hiring long-term staff. In a talent-short environment, you can access new professionals rapidly. Plus, you can test the skills of your temporary workers and build your talent pipeline with skilled professionals who have already proven their worth and know your business and its culture.
- Economic uncertainty: Today’s engineering businesses must evolve and experiment constantly to stay ahead of the competition. However, finding the budget to hire long-term employees in a complex economic environment can be challenging. Temporary and contractor employees allow you to experiment with adding new talent to your team quickly and cost-effectively, keeping your costs low.
- Business transformation: Hiring temporary and contractor employees allows you to experiment with new ways to grow and evolve your business. You can hire people with specific skills to work on new projects, involving innovative technology like AI and automation. You can also hire skilled professionals to share their knowledge with your team, paving the way to opportunities for growth.
- Sudden market changes: As customer preferences and trends evolve, hiring temporary workers allows you to stay one step ahead of the competition. It ensures you can adapt to sudden changes in demand, try out new projects and strategies before committing to hiring permanent staff, and stay agile in a complex landscape.
Contract and temporary teams ultimately allow engineering companies to improve their business resilience with agile and flexible talent. With the right strategy, you can ensure you’re ready to adapt to changing economic conditions, seasonal fluctuations and more without disrupting your business unnecessarily.
Grow Your Business with Temporary and Contract Teams
As economic uncertainties, talent shortages, and hiring complexities continue to grow throughout the engineering landscape, the demand for contract and temporary teams will only increase.
While permanent staff will always be a valuable part of any engineering business, temporary and contract workers will give your organisation the flexibility, agility, and resilience it needs in difficult times.
With the help of a dedicated recruitment team, companies can rapidly access temporary workers to fill talent gaps, boost productivity, and achieve specific goals.
You may even find your contractors and temporary workers become valuable parts of your talent pipeline, ensuring you can continue to access the skills you need in the years to come.
All the best
Steve
At Coalesce we have been partnering with engineering businesses for over 27 years; if you would like to find out ore how using contracting teams can support your business growth then get in touch on 07512 821708 or email us here.