Manage the Recession with Temps!

Life goes on….Even in a recession!

 

There are very few local businesses that have not suffered implications due to the current economic climate.  But what can you do to minimise the impact on your business during this difficult situation?

 

As an employer you may have some hard choices to make regarding how your business cuts costs in times of recession.  When sales figures are not enough to guarantee company profit, redundancies can become an unfortunate reality. 

 

When tough decisions regarding redundancies are necessary many organisations have pre-determined selection criteria.  These may limit an employers’ ability to pick and choose, which staff stay, and which staff they are forced to lose.  This may mean the last people to join an organisation are first out, or cost cutting measures force your hand by losing whole departments, or high earners.

 

As a result of uncertainty within our current economic climate, insecurity can mean companies lose crucial personnel with skills that are important to their business.   Recruitment freezes are often imposed in such situations, preventing permanent replacements.   Or if an employee feels their position is vulnerable, they may also be likely to seek alternative employment. Whether a business has chosen to streamline their staff due to cost, or key people have decided to leave, taking on skilled temporary staff could be the short-term solution.

 

When the local market experiences a downturn the result is an increased availability of highly skilled temporary labour.  Often clients assume temporary workers have limited skills, and only trust them to do the most mundane tasks.  This is simply not the case. 

 

Many people love the flexibility that temporary work offers.  Others have found themselves in a situation where they need to work until they find an alternative permanent role. With the incentive of continually improving temporary benefits more and more people are choosing contract work and assignments. These applicants vary from trainee people looking for commercial experience through to senior managers, the result - high calibre applicants available for temporary work.

 

Employing temporaries can offer many flexible benefits to a company: 

• A temp becomes a supplier invoice rather than permanent headcount
• The recruitment agency pays their NI, holiday pay and SSP
• Managers gain the flexible option of deciding week to week how their labour budget is spent
• An organisation is able to employ the skills required for their business without committing to spend an annual salary
• Recruitment utilising the temp to perm route allows a business to experience an applicants skills first hand in a working environment
• Temporary labour can be recruited quickly
• The employer can control the duration of the assignment
• Flexible labour can be adapted around business requirements, when help is required take on temporary assistance, when things are slow let them go

To find out more about the flexibility of a temporary workforce, or for advice on becoming a temporary worker please call Melanie Richardson at Shepherd Stubbs Recruitment on 01480 470 477 or email melanie.richardson@shepherdstubbs.com 

 

Shepherd Stubbs celebrates its 20^th Anniversary this year.  We have offices in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire and specialise in commercial recruitment.  For more information please visit www.shepherdstubbs.com