Talent Solution #2: Contractors
Next up in our series of solutions to sourcing talent, we're going to talk about contractors.
Why contractors?
Because contractors are an excellent way of securing a resource when times are tough but isn’t always considered by organisations who are more focused on finding and keeping talent in-house. By opening your search to include freelancers and contractors, you may just find the recruitment process isn’t such a never-ending nightmare.
As with so many things, Covid gave almost everyone the opportunity to sit and reflect on their life up to that point and what they wanted going forward. Unsurprisingly, a whole bunch of folks decided that their job was something that needed fixing, and stat!
Just as Jessie J sang back in 2011, “its not about the money” proved to be true in 2020/21 when so many of us determined that feeling appreciated was as important as feeling valued. It became more about being set up to achieve a true work/life balance and knowing that our mental health and wellbeing was being factored in by our employers, rather than being knowing there’d be fresh milk in the fridge and beers on a Friday afternoon.
We experienced a dramatic shift in how we were expected to work, and while for some the work from home situation proved to be more nightmare than fantasy, a whole bunch more people understood what hybrid working opened for them and their loved ones. Practically no one wanted to be tied to their desks anymore and decisions were made that allowed more personal freedom.
For some, these personal freedoms included the decision to become a freelancer/contractor and in the year to March 2021, over 355,000 New Zealand men and women* were working on that basis.
Given that nearly 14% of women and 3.5% of men had made the decision to move into the self-employed/contracting space that March 2021 year, it’s entirely possible that the person you’re looking for to join your crew wants to do so but on a temporary basis.
You may be asking yourself why on earth someone would choose to walk a path of uncertainty, but it’s a win/win for you and them when you really think about it:
3 Reasons Why Contractors Are Worth Considering:
- Forget Perfection
Knowing that the candidate is going to be with you on a temporary basis gives a certain amount of freedom that seeking a permanent fix doesn’t allow but doesn’t mean you have to compromise on quality of skill.
Contractors or freelancers are often experts in their field which means that they can truly hit the ground running without any expectation of training or upskilling. - Flexibility for the Win
By hiring someone for a particular project, job function or timeline, there’s a flexibility there that you can’t achieve when hiring permanent staff.
By establishing and maintaining an open dialogue between yourself and the contractor, your bases are covered without much fuss because the resource is there for as long as you need them to be there. - Fixed Price
Onboarding and retaining staff requires long-term commitment while outsourcing to consultants can come with a hefty price. If you look at employing your own resource for a finite period, it’s easy to factor them into your financial forecasts.
It may be helpful to also note that the HR red tape is reduced significantly as a contractor is set up to manage their own holiday pay, KiwiSaver etc.
At Alexander James, we pride ourselves on our top shelf contractors and freelancers who have made the choice to work purely on a contract basis. We’re confident our candidates are as good as they claim to be so there’s no sacrificing quality when securing temporary talent. The only difficulty is that the contracting world is fast-paced, and the saying “if you snooze, you lose” applies.
If you’re willing to shift your mindset to accommodate this type of worker, the only question left to ponder is what took you so long.
Nga mihi nui
*143,500 women and 211,600 men working as self-employed, sole traders, independent contractors, freelancers etc. according to the Household Labour Force Survey – Stats NZ
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