Author: Kara Hertzog is the President at Innovative Employee Solutions
Key Takeaways:
- When facing layoffs, companies increasingly turn to contingent workers to fill skill gaps, maintain productivity, and support core teams through operational challenges.
- Contingent talent allows flexibility in staffing, enabling businesses to quickly scale workforce levels according to demand without long-term commitments.
- Hiring contingent workers helps sustain service quality and trust, ensuring stability for clients and partners despite internal changes.
- Utilizing contingent workers prevents burnout by redistributing workloads, allowing full-time staff to focus on high-priority tasks and reducing pressure during transitions.
Layoffs are often a difficult but necessary reality for businesses facing economic uncertainty or operational challenges. In September 2024 alone, U.S. companies cut more than 72,000 jobs, a 53% jump compared to the previous year. While necessary for cutting costs, layoffs can leave businesses understaffed, causing stress and burnout among the remaining employees and impacting overall productivity.
To keep operations running smoothly and reduce the pressure on full-time staff, many companies are increasingly turning to contingent talent. Contingent talent refers to non-permanent workers who typically work on a short-term or flexible basis. Contingent workers can include freelancers, independent contractors, consultants, and temporary employees. This workforce can help manage workloads, support morale, and ensure business continuity during periods of uncertainty.
Here are four key reasons businesses are turning to contingent workers to help navigate layoffs:
Fill Crucial Talent and Skills Gaps
One of the risks of layoffs is losing employees with specialized knowledge. Contingent workers can bridge skills gaps, bringing in the expertise you need without the commitment of full-time hires. Whether it’s short-term IT support or creative talent for a specific campaign, contingent specialists can keep your business moving forward.
Instead of hiring a generalist, contingent workers give you the ability to customize roles based on immediate skills needed. This approach ensures your team stays competitive and ready to meet business goals.
Maintain Service Quality and Trust
Layoffs can take a toll on a company’s reputation, especially if customers start noticing dips in service quality. Contingent workers help keep service levels high. By outsourcing routine tasks, you free up your core team to focus on keeping customers happy and continuing innovation. This helps maintain a sense of stability and reliability for clients and partners, even when things are changing behind the scenes.
When done right, contingent workers help you keep quality and efficiency high, showing clients that your company remains a strong partner despite internal transitions.
Maintain Flexibility and Productivity
Contingent workers give companies the flexibility to scale their workforce up or down as needed. You can bring in skilled professionals for specific projects without committing to long-term employment, which is a major benefit during uncertain times. Not only does it save costs, but it also speeds up processes — especially if the contingent worker is already familiar with your systems and culture and can hit the ground running.
Another key advantage is that contingent workers don’t need to be located where the business is headquartered. If your company is open to remote contingent workers, you gain access to a much wider talent pool, allowing you to fill skills gaps more quickly and with greater flexibility. By delegating routine or time-consuming tasks to these workers, your full-time employees can stay focused on mission-critical initiatives like customer service and innovation. This setup boosts both time efficiency and overall productivity.
Prevent Burnout By Offloading Increased Workloads
When layoffs happen, the workload doesn’t disappear — it just gets redistributed to a smaller team. This can quickly lead to burnout. Contingent workers can improve workload management by stepping into critical roles. Whether it’s tackling complex projects or handling routine tasks, they ensure that things keep moving without overwhelming your core team.
To make the most of contingent talent, focus on high-priority projects where their expertise brings the most value. For example, hiring a marketing expert for a product launch or IT support during system upgrades can take a huge weight off your team’s shoulders, keeping productivity up while avoiding burnout.
How to Support Employee Morale When Bringing on Contingent Workers
Though contingent workers bring essential support, layoffs can contribute to lower employee morale. The key is clear communication — let your team know why contingent workers are coming on board and how they’ll help ease the workload while your team works through the new normal. This transparency can help reassure your employees, reducing feelings of insecurity.
Encourage collaboration by including contingent workers in meetings and aligning them with your full-time staff on goals. When roles and responsibilities are clearly laid out, it helps everyone work more harmoniously.
Long-Term Benefits of Using Contingent Workers
Beyond getting through immediate challenges, utilizing contingent workers can help you build a more agile, resilient organization. Finding reliable contingent talent familiar with your company can save you time and money when new projects arise down the road. Having these workers in your network means you can scale quickly when business picks up again without committing to permanent hires. This adaptability positions your company to face future challenges head-on.
Of course, successfully integrating contingent workers requires careful planning. Make sure your team has updated procedures for smooth transitions, and assign someone to oversee contingent workers’ onboarding and work. Regular check-ins will keep everything on track and ensure your operations continue without any major hiccups.
At Innovative Employee Solutions (IES), we specialize in all aspects of managing a contingent workforce — including handling the complex details of onboarding, payrolling, benefits, offboarding, and more — so your business can navigate layoffs and stay agile and efficient during times of change. Want to know more? Learn how we can help with hiring after layoffs.
Kara Hertzog is president of Innovative Employee Solutions (IES), a leading provider of remote and contingent workforce solutions specializing in U.S. and global Employer of Record, Agent of Record, and Independent Contractor compliance services in 150+ countries. Founded in 1974, IES is a woman-owned business, certified by the WBENC, and partners with companies to provide compliant employment solutions that empower people’s lives.
