Hiring Contractors: A Guide

The skills you need, for when it matters most.

Are you planning on hiring temporary or contract employees?

If ‘yes’ is the case, then you’re definitely not alone: An increasing number of organisations are hiring contractors in order to be more agile and reactive to changeable market conditions.

Many companies have recognised that they need specific talent to start as soon as possible. The best way to secure the right people you require at a quick turnaround? By hiring highly-skilled, agile contractors.

Whether you are trying to find specific skills to help formulate a recovery plan, or you are increasing headcount to help with a surge in demand for products/services, or even preparing for upcoming, business critical projects, companies always need to hire.

In this guide, we are going to give you a whistle-stop tour of how to hire contractors in the current market. Broken down into two key areas - as outlined below - this guide will give you an overview of how to find and hire contracting talent.

• Information about the market and the benefits of hiring contractors
• How to find and hire the right contracting talent you need

What is contracting and is a contract workforce the right choice for your business?

Contracting roles are typically positions that are required for a set period of time. As an employer, you may focus on contract recruitment when:

• You require individuals with specific skills for important projects
• You are looking to optimise growth so need expert abilities
• You are seeking an immediate solution where there has been a sudden departure
• You require additional cover for busy periods
• You need cover for maternity leave or absences

Whatever is going on in your industry, there are business-critical processes that must come first, but they may require extra headcount or additional skills that existing employees do not possess. Many hiring organisations are finding that contract professionals are the best way to meet their current needs.

“Engage with a contractor who has the niche skills and experiences to help your situation.”

How hiring a contractor normally works

A contractor is essentially an external business that bills you for their services over a set period of time, according to a fixed project fee or daily/hourly rate.

Most businesses find their contractors through a recruitment or staffing agency. In that instance, the agency will pay the contractor’s wages.

Alongside looking after invoicing and payroll, the agency’s contractor experience team is likely to provide additional support that will help the assignment run smoothly for both you, the hiring organisation, and the contractor.

This can include assistance with onboarding (in the office or remotely) and regular check ups to provide progression feedback to both parties.

So the agency handles most of the admin side of it all. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Are there any clear benefits of hiring contractors?

Businesses should engage with specialist recruiters, so that roles can be filled quickly and by the right person. Beyond being the right decision for meeting your current needs, the benefits of hiring contractors through a contract recruitment agency are vast:

1. Fast turnaround

Contractors can often begin immediately, have specialist expertise meaning they require little-to-no training and are not subject to time-consuming employment laws.

2. Easy for your teams

If hired through an agency, everything from onboarding to offboarding, payroll demands and costs are all managed, meaning less work for your finance department and other teams.

3. Efficient processes

All necessary paperwork and background checks (when necessary) for contractors are completed, checked, saved efficiently and stored securely by the onboarding team.

4. Agile and adaptable

By their very nature, contractors are agile and adaptable having worked in various locations day-to-day, so are well practiced in the art of remote working and hitting the ground running

5. Cost effective

Given the various savings you can benefit from, it’s likely that hiring a remote contractor will work out as less costly than the process of recruiting a permanent employee.

6. Valuable addition of quality to teams

Contractors always have to work to strict deadlines so have the perfect blend of strategic, tactical and technical skills to quickly turn things around.

7. Greater diversity

If working remotely, you can source talented contractors from further afield, meaning your talent pool is much wider and more diverse than ever before.

How to work out your contractor pay rate when hiring

You’ve come to a decision on the contractor vs employee debate. The allure of adaptability, niche skills and flexibility swayed you; hiring a contractor is the right move for this specific role.

Regardless of the reasons why you think contract recruitment is the most suitable way to go, you always want to ensure you hire the best person for the job.

It's well documented that a lot of professionals move into the contracting world in the pursuit of the opportunity to earn more than they would in a similar role on a permanent basis. Therefore, an important aspect of being able to attract the right contracting talent is meeting agency’s expectations in terms of fee.

So, how can you calculate what you should pay your contractors?

If done via a recruitment agency, most of the ‘after hire’ admin work to make sure the individual is paid the right amount - at the right time - will be covered. But you do still need to figure out how much budget you can allocate towards the hiring of each contractor.

Contacting a contract specific recruiter is a great way to get an insight into market rates - they deal with them everyday, after all.

“Always bear in mind that location, industry, seniority of the position, current demand, length of assignment and other variables can impact this amount.”

Perhaps the most important consideration when deciding on how much budget to allocate when hiring your contractor is the length of time that you require their services for - 3 months, half a year or longer?

The value of the role to your business

It has to be a real balancing act when choosing the right contractor to hire.

At the one end, you can go for a highly experienced, senior professional who will provide direction to other employees on business critical and complex tasks - but you will have to pay for such a privilege.

You may conclude that it’s worth the investment for the long-term benefits of the value they will add.

But if you’re not so sure you can justify the high cost of a senior contractor, why not look at the other end of the spectrum...

Have you considered hiring multiple less experienced - but still perfectly skilled in their particular area - contractors to spread across the duties instead? You may even find that their abilities and varying experiences complement each other nicely and bring unexpected benefits!

Benefits for your contractors

It’s important to remember that one of the best ways to attract top performing contract talent is by offering a highly competitive package.

When establishing what you are able to offer, take the time to research what other companies pay to onboard their contractors. Benchmark the role by title, industry, complexity of tasks, duration of the assignment and the region where your business is based.

If you aren’t able to match the package offered by employers with larger budgets, you can still attract the attention of top contractors by conveying:

• Your strong employer branding
• The learning opportunities
• How the role can improve their professional profile
• Any non-financial benefits that you can offer

5 key things to remember when attracting and hiring contractors

1. Establish which projects or roles require temporary talent

One of the primary benefits that comes from hiring temporary talent is the ability to scale up or scale down headcount as and when needed. Before you press on and recruit contractors, carefully consider your business objectives and pinpoint where there may be talent deficits.

This will allow you to identify whether hiring contractors - as niche specialists - is the right move for your business, or if a permanent employee would be a better decision.

Taking this approach will help to reduce recruitment costs and having a clear plan of who to hire will ease stress levels of your existing teams who may be concerned about workloads.

2. Figure out the different contract options you can offer

After you’ve worked out which projects or openings require temporary talent, next you need to finalise how long you will need them for. You may have a certain date or deadline for a project in the diary which will essentially signify the ‘end’ of when you need their assistance, but their job contract shouldn’t necessarily be tied to that.

Contracts that are on the shorter side could fail to attract the attention of top temporary professionals as they don’t display a strong commitment to your contract employees.

On the flipside, some contractors are put off by overly long job contracts as they have a tendency to want to change assignments relatively often to constantly improve their profiles.

Find the middle ground and be sure to have regular discussions about contract extensions - there’s a good chance they will have their next assignment in mind already and you wouldn’t want to lose them before your project concludes!

3. Challenging opportunities attract the top contractors

Talented contractors want to be tested. A challenging assignment is tempting as it will not only be a great addition to their CV, but it will also help bolster their skill sets.

When you’re considering a temporary hire, pick out the most challenging aspects of the project or tasks they will be undertaking and make sure you draw attention to them. This will demonstrate how much value the contract opportunity could offer to a prospective new starter.

4. Contact a recruitment agency to help hire contractors

Recruiters that hire contract professionals will have numerous people in their contact book who have the skills and experience you need. They will also likely have placed them on assignments in the past, so will have a clear understanding of what they want from their next role and will be able judge whether their biggest strengths match your key requirements.

When you approach the agency about assisting with your contract recruitment, there is every chance that they will already have someone in mind. This means that the hiring process is more likely to be faster and easier for you.

5. Plan ahead for smooth onboarding

It’s well documented that a strong and engaging onboarding process is directly linked to decent retention rates of permanent staff and a high level of employee engagement.

For contractors, a thorough onboarding process allows them to hit the ground running and crack on with the tasks at hand.

Speak to your team members before the new contractor starts to establish a clear definition between roles and responsibilities of the contractor and your permanent employees. Without such clarification, work flows will be overlapping and productivity will not be what it could be, resulting in the contractor not being able to deliver maximum value.

Are you looking to recruit contractors or temporary staff?

If you have already decided that a temporary employee or contractor is the right hire for your requirements, get in touch and one of our specialist contract recruiters will contact you to find out more about what you exactly need.

We have the resources and capacity you would expect from a top-class temp agency. We have a dedicated Contractor Experience team who ensure the whole process runs smoothly for you and your contractor, from onboarding to completion.

The attention and level of onboarding every new contractor receives when they are placed through us lends to minimal stress and an enjoyable experience, meaning the process is just as smooth for the business hiring them.