Date Added: 30.07.19

While hiring contractors has become increasingly popular in the energy and utilities market over the years, some organisations are still hesitant to welcome an interim worker on board. As a recruiter within the contract space I hear the same concerns all the time – from whether they’ll embed properly into your company culture, to concerns over a contractor costing you more – I can appreciate there’s a lot to think about before taking the plunge into the interim resource pool.

Hiring a contractor can enrich your business and augment your existing team in a way that brings out the best in your organisation. I know the contract market pretty well and wanted to quell your contractor concerns once and for all, so having spoken to a few of my clients who regularly use interim employees to meet their business goals, I’ve put together the below list of tried and tested benefits to hiring a contractor for your energy or utilities organisation.

Flexibility

Taking on a full time member of staff is a huge commitment, hiring a contractor can almost be a way of seeing whether there really is a business need for the role in question before bringing on another permanent member of your team. You could even offer your contractor a permanent role if you find you’re really pleased with them, in fact this is something that happens quite a lot.

Not to mention that having a contractor on board means you’re getting on the spot resource for a particular gap in your organisation, and what’s more, because their role is so focused they are unlikely to be pulled into tasks outside of their role description – meaning your projects get completed quicker.

Also, if for whatever reason things don’t work out with a contractor, most of them will only have a 1-2 week notice period giving you much less commitment if things change on a piece of work/with your business in general.

Broader Market Experience

Another serious pro to hiring a contractor is that you get to tap into their breadth of knowledge. As they’re likely to have first-hand experience of how a multitude of companies in your industry work, perhaps even including your competitors, you can rely on them to breathe new life into your business and your ways of working.

Embedding a contractor into your business means you can stay ahead of the curve on trends in your industry as their experience within many other business types and or industries provides a new perspective making sure the organisation avoids group thinking.

The Cost Factor

It’s a very common misconception that hiring a contractor will cost your business an arm and a leg, when in fact contractors can often work out to be cheaper in the long run for some projects. When hiring a permanent employee, you’ve committed to paying them the agreed salary no matter what happens within your business – with a contractor, you’re able to negotiate contract length based on the level of work that needs to be completed.

While it’s true that contractors cost significantly more per day, when you stack that up against the annual salary of a permanent employee plus holidays, sick pay and other benefits that contractors are typically not privy to – you’re not really talking a huge jump.

Specialised Skill Sets

Many companies simply haven’t had the exposure to new disruptive technologies like Blockchain, IoT and cyber security yet. A contractor is more likely to have gained experience in these new areas due to the transient nature of the contractor lifestyle.

Sometimes you just need a fast tactical deployment of specific skills to meet an immediate business need, like using a locksmith if you lose your key!
You can also work with a contractor as a means of training out specific specialist skills to your wider business. These highly sought after skills can be transferred into the business through mentoring which is no extra cost to the business as you pay for the contractor’s time regardless.

An Impartial Voice

Another benefit to using a contractor which you may not have considered is the fact that they are impervious to internal history and office politics, in a way they are a clean slate. Not only does this mean they get total delivery focus but this also gives the ability to constructively challenge existing thinking without any pre conceived ideas when needed.

Hiring a contractor can rock the boat for sure, but sometimes the boat needs to be rocked for positive changes in the business to be pushed through. Your contractor not being exactly like your existing team may not always be such a bad thing.