Alternatives to traditional staffing have become increasingly popular. 57 million independent professionals engaged in new opportunities in the past year.
The rise and impact of independent talent have altered the hiring needs and practices of nearly every industry. Most organizations have now begun to rethink traditional staffing approaches in favor of more flexible and effective ways to hire top talent.
This article will illustrate how alternative staffing solutions, such as recruitment through social media, can expand possibilities when it comes to hiring independent professionals.
Traditional staffing shortcomings
“Traditional staffing” typically refers to standard hiring procedures, such as in-office interviews, paper applications, and offers of full-time employment with set hours.
While many might believe COVID-19 is the reason for the swift changes seen in hiring practices, the reality is a bit more complex. Companies considering traditional staffing alternatives are recognizing the shortcomings of traditional staffing and shifting work culture.
Traditional staffing alternatives navigate around many of the headaches of traditional staffing, such as:
- Immense expenditures of time: Whether sifting for hours through applications or hosting job fairs, traditional hiring methods exhaust huge resources of time. Much of this time ends up wasted because there is no way to control who does and doesn’t see, or who responds to the job posting, and there’s no way to filter for qualified candidates in advance.
- Higher overhead costs: Traditional staffing can come with higher overhead costs, such as payroll and benefits. Staffing alternatives can reposition those funds, especially if companies are seeking independent talent, who may only be under contract for a short time.
- Limited candidate pools: Traditional staffing tends to draw from a narrow pool: recruitment agencies, internal promotions, and the active interest of regional professionals. By contrast, many traditional staffing alternatives allow companies to pull talent from all over the world with ease.
The idea of working without limits is attractive to top talent, meaning a willingness to try alternative staffing methods may garner a company a higher quality of potential team members.
This article will address traditional staffing alternatives that can be used to engage top talent. The methods discussed include:
- Using a staffing agency
- Outsourcing specific initiatives
- Offering internship opportunities
- Adding independent talent to your team
Using a staffing agency
One might not immediately think of staffing agencies when listing traditional staffing alternatives. As a whole, these agencies have existed inside the realm of common hiring techniques for decades.
However, due to the pandemic, staffing agencies have also undergone recent changes.
Pros of using a staffing agency
- Increased flexibility: Staffing agencies can put you in contact with individuals who are available for whatever duration you need.
- Decreased overall costs: As any team member you acquire from a staffing agency will technically be employed by the agency and not your company, you can save money on salary and benefits.
- Can fill in for full-time workers: Some of your full-time workers might not be ready to return to business as quickly as others. Staffing agencies can help provide viable and reliable alternatives
Cons of using a staffing agency
- Depersonalized hiring: While the professionals at these agencies do their best to match unique personalities and talents with companies, there is no way to gauge whether a hire made through a staffing agency will gel with your current team’s specialized needs.
- Can increase hiring costs: As a traditional staffing method alternative, staffing agencies generally are not the cheapest route. Beyond the costs of service, companies must often spend money to train the workers they take on in the specific programs or platforms of interest.
Outsourcing specific initiatives
Perhaps your company is looking to overhaul its logo and image. From a hiring perspective, the immediate thought might be to start searching for strong graphic design skills in current team members. What if, instead, the consideration shifted to looking into a project-based partnership with a graphic design firm to complete this same job?
Pros of outsourcing specific initiatives
- Fresh insights and perspectives: Outside talent who provide this kind of alternative staffing solution come in with new ways of looking at old problems. What may have been a struggle for internal personnel can often be approached with greater ease by someone with an outside view of the issue.
- Extended expertise: Deciding to outsource a given project means integrating a high level of experience and talent into your circle that you might not otherwise have.
- Costs are reduced: Independent talent can typically be hired for less than full-time employees. This is large because your company is paying one time, rather than a consistent salary for an indefinite time.
Cons of outsourcing specific initiatives
- Steeper learning curve: Any staffing solution that steps outside your internal team also steps outside your team’s established shorthand. This can mean that clear communication of basic ideas takes longer and requires more in-depth efforts. Creating additional guides may affect the time frame in which a project can be completed.
- Intellectual property or security concerns: If your company deals in content or product that is highly commodified or pre-trademark, you may have legitimate concerns about letting an outside agency view certain projects. Likewise, even passwords and logins often have to be shared with outsourced help, which can raise security issues.
Offering internship opportunities
If one of the reasons you’re seeking traditional staffing alternatives relates to cutting costs, offering internship opportunities could be a good solution. Interns typically work for short periods in exchange for resume credit, professional connections, and work experience. Some companies opt to offer a per diem, others may choose an agreed-upon fixed or hourly pay rate, and still, others may not offer financial compensation at all.
Pros of offering internship opportunities
- Eagerness to learn: An intern is a traditional staffing alternative that represents a blank slate. These young professionals are generally excited and willing to learn tasks and to please management. As many interns today will be joining your emerging hybrid teams, remember that communication is key when it comes to making the most of what your intern has to offer.
- Transition to full-time is possible: In hiring an intern, you may well have placed a future full-time team member simultaneously. This can benefit the company from the standpoint of saving time in the hiring process later and having a hands-on learner who already has a strong knowledge of the company upon transitioning.
- Make positive community connections: Hiring interns is generally very good PR. Communities appreciate and give patronage to companies that provide support and have a welcoming, involved presence.
Cons of offering internship opportunities
- Maturity can be lacking: Interns tend to be on the younger side. They may not have all of the life or world experience needed to be fully professional in the settings in which you need them.
- Administrative support is mandatory: Sponsoring an intern is a traditional staffing alternative that requires a great deal of time investment. A senior administrator or strong team member will need to be around to guide and teach the intern. Questions and mistakes are natural, so mentors need to be patient and available.
- Big tasks may be off-limits: Because they may be younger or their position is only temporary, certain important projects may not be suitable for intern participation. In this regard, interns may not be the most useful to a company’s immediate or long-term growth goals. It’s wise to consider ahead of hiring an intern whether your company has enough meaningful and level-appropriate work to sustain them.
Adding independent talent to your team
Talent identification in the digital age doesn’t have to be frustrating, especially if you understand the value of hybrid teams. Human resources managers and company leaders may get uneasy at the prospect of going fully remote. They may also overlook the possibilities inherent to mixing and matching full-time workers with those taken on as independent talent.
COVID-19 has accelerated the great acceptance of remote work everywhere. The post-pandemic world will likewise demand the agility of businesses striving to continue growing. The benefits of hybrid teams extend far past a healthy bottom line; they represent untried paths forward in collaboration and creativity that can yield positive results for any company.
Where previous ways of doing business were based on in-office workers, the future workforce is headed in a direction where independent professionals carry a larger influence over competitive success.
This shift is a positive one for both companies and independent professionals. Eliminated scheduling concerns, greater flexibility of roles, and enhanced autonomy mean that both companies and workers have stronger selection powers.
For instance, a truly remarkable graphic designer might not have applied to a given company because they had two children at home. At the same time, the company may have had a strict in-office setup. However, with remote-friendly work models, this designer gets the job they want, and the company engages talent it would not have had access to before. Everybody wins.
The most exciting part might be connecting open positions and available professionals with remote talent platforms like Upwork. Companies looking to evaluate and engage independent talent have a one-stop shop in which to do that with Upwork.
Pros of adding independent talent to your team
- Gigantic and ever-evolving talent pool: The ability to connect with a global community of independent professionals cannot be overvalued for any company.
- Lower overall costs: By nixing fees associated with office space, commutes, and other in-office expenses associated with full-time workers, companies have more to spend on the talent themselves. This allows for more attractive contracts to be offered, which, in turn, can attract better talent.
- New creative frontiers: Collaboration between hybrid team members creates possibilities that could not exist if everyone was in the same room at the same time. The fact that you may work with a distributed group from all around the world will increase your chances of coming up with unique approaches to business problems.
Myths of adding independent talent to your team
- Productivity Supervision: Building distributed teams may come with concerns about productivity monitoring, the chain of command, and conflict management. Upwork offers innovative team leadership programs for companies wishing to hire a designated independent professional to manage such issues. Easy access to helpful strategies in remote talent management is also available for managers and company leaders who wish to cover this terrain themselves.
- Duty overlap: Newly hired independent professionals might not know their jobs well enough yet to perform them at peak productivity, leaving a shortfall for seasoned full-time workers. Vice versa, full-time team members may need additional support to confirm their duties in this new structure. Knowing how to collaborate successfully in a remote work setting is essential.
- Communication challenges: Communication can become difficult if not properly managed. Having a designated strategy for everyone’s off-duty hours and a plan for what to do if responses or projects are not available will save headaches.
Transform your team with top professionals
Companies looking to hire top talent enjoy many options to maximize the benefits of traditional staffing alternatives. The challenges each business will face when transitioning to this new work landscape will vary widely. The good news is that connecting with top professionals and projects has never been easier.
This is where Upwork’s unique solutions and services can be the most helpful. Whether your company needs help identifying independent talent, assembling viable management for a preexisting team, or figuring out how to scale growth via hybrid staffing models, Upwork has resources ready and waiting.
Top areas for hiring
The job markets in Charlotte, Columbia, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and San Antonio are rapidly growing, and businesses are looking for highly skilled workers in marketing, tech, design, finance, and more. Through Talent Scout™, Upwork recruiters quickly connect companies with the expert talent to meet business needs.
