As companies begin to increase hiring and recover from the recession, contract workers are a flexible resource. They are experts in their fields and have low impact on businesses' bottom lines.
Staffing agencies handle the salaries and benefits of contract workers, saving the companies that hire them money. Hiring temporary workers on contract also gives human resources departments the opportunity to audition new employees. Richard Wahlquist, the American Staffing Association president and CEO, told the source that approximately 70 percent of people who work with a staffing firm hope that the experience will help them transition to a permanent position.
While the contract workforce can solve HR headaches such as seasonal rushes and understaffed major projects, its members also require HR to take steps to successfully integrate then with permanent workers who may feel threatened by their presence, Human Resource Executive magazine notes.
The Society for Human Resource Management sponsored the report Global Firms in 2020: The Next Decade of Change for Organisations, written by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which surveyed human resources executives. Sixty-two percent of respondents predicted that there will be a growing proportion of contract workers over the next decade.
