The Smart Choice: Why your business needs skilled contractors now
In this article, I discuss the benefits of taking on highly skilled contractors in the current market. If you have transformation projects on hold due to permanent recruitment headcount freezes then read on to see how we can help you get your business improvements over the line.
The state of the recruitment market for many sectors in Australia is currently one of consolidation, regrouping and cautious optimism. After years of high demand in the housing market, the current high interest rates have now eased transaction and credit volumes. Buy now, pay later providers have come and gone and whilst some market sectors are growing, others are only recruiting for replacement roles.
The silver lining of any slight contraction is that highly skilled people are immediately available and interested in short and medium-term contracts. These are talented professionals with deep knowledge and expertise who can parachute in and add real value to your organisation by hitting the ground running.
Many commercial and financial services organisations have held off essential transformation projects over the last few years. They have been so busy processing transactions, dealing with increased demand and scaling up to cope with demand that key projects in areas such as treasury and finance have been put on hold. Imagine being able to get these done now, with contract staff to assist, so that when demand picks up again you are already streamlined and transformed!
Our extended networks include professional contractors and business analysts with the following skills:
- Finance
- Compliance and Risk
- Treasury
- Change Management and Transformation
- Strategy
- Human Resources
- Administration / Project Management
The benefits of taking on a contractor in the current market are as follows:
- It Makes Financial Sense
Taking on a full-time employee involves an investment of company time and money in the recruitment process. This investment is significantly reduced when taking on a contractor, both in the cost to recruit and the time involved in getting someone on board.
Something further to consider is that at Oxygen Recruitment & HR we can even arrange the payroll side of taking on a contractor and regularly invoice you. This ensures that they do not make up part of your permanent workforce headcount. We can arrange super payments and workers’ compensation as part of this arrangement, giving you complete flexibility on the financial side whilst still solving your resourcing problem.
- Try Before you Buy
Taking on a contractor gives you an extended period to get to know them and to ensure they are a good fit for your organisation. Contractors enjoy adding value and are often amenable to offers of full-time employment down the track if things are going well.
Taking on a contractor during a head count freeze is also useful because natural attrition will always continue, and some roles need backfilling urgently to keep the wheels of business turning.
- They Can be Brought on Quickly
In many cases, we can have experienced professionals available to join you in less than a fortnight. We have people looking for opportunities for three, six and twelve-month contracts.
- They Can Free Up your Subject Matter Experts
Bringing a contractor in can free up your own subject matter experts for secondments to projects that have been outstanding for some time. Many businesses are taking this time to ensure that their business units are fit for purpose for what the future brings. Some are considering restructuring or pivoting to alternative products. Many are using this time of easing demand to ensure they are doing things efficiently and making the most of market opportunities. Some organisations are bringing in new systems to reduce ongoing resource requirements and risk. All these large projects need resourcing, and someone needs to keep an eye on and a hand in the “business as usual”.
- We take the headache out of bringing the contractor into your organisation
Oxygen Recruitment & HR can help you bring on the contractor by providing the relevant insurance, managing timesheet setup and issuing relevant contracts.
Take a moment to chat about contractors at your next management meeting and remind your colleagues that contractors are quicker to hire, flexible in their tenure, are highly skilled and can either run projects themselves or free up members of your own team on an interim basis to get those frustrating on-hold process improvements implemented. They also make financial sense in the current market – taking on a contractor now is the smart business choice.
Imagine approaching the next period of high demand for the sector with your project slate cleared and your process improvements implemented to a point where scale is easily achieved. It’s hard to predict where we will be in twelve months’ time but having more than 25 years of experience in recruitment in this sector, we are very familiar with the peaks and troughs of the market and know that contractions don’t last long and should be taken advantage of!
If you want to seize the opportunity to take on contractors talk to us about how we can help. You can get in touch with our team here. We can quickly help you solve your short-term pain for long-term gain.