It’s now ever so important to find the right candidates that will benefit your business. People used to think that full-time workers were the way to do this. However, that is now changing. Having an effective hiring practice that includes the external workforce could save your business money, resources, and especially time. The external workforce could be the way forward for your business, and here’s how.

What is the external workforce?

The external workforce is employees who work for a company but are not on its formal payroll. They can be identified as contractors, temporary workers, freelancers, gig workers, and more.

Fieldglass identified two categories of the external workforce, these are:

• Contingent workers: they’re hired by a company to do role or project-based work on its behalf, but are not classed as traditional employees. Contingent workers could be contracted via suppliers and other talent pools such as staffing agencies, freelance markets, or even sourced directly.
• Service Procurement: also known as services providers are companies that deliver people-based services to an enterprise – such as consulting firms, marketing agencies, or facilities management companies. They’re mostly contracted to do project-based work via a Statement of Work (SOW).

What are the advantages?

Large talent pool:

The external workforce is a large talent pool asking to be tapped into. External workers are in-demand, which could be daunting. However, because it’s such a large talent pool there are many highly skilled workers for the picking.

People are wanting to work from home now, and it’s increasing. The Pew Research Center’s study concluded that 60% of workers want to work from home all or most of the time. That’s an increase of 6% since 2020. This means that people will be turning to the external workforce to meet their homeworking needs.

International talent:

Another advantage of hiring external workers is that you can hire people from all around the world – which in itself can provide tons of benefits. Firstly, you will be diversifying your business which is ALWAYS an advantage – profit, productivity, brand image, and more. It will provide your business with a diversity of cultures and with that a variety of perspectives. This can lead to innovative ideas surrounding your business, and impactful solutions when needed.

Fewer obligations:

Imagine all the obligations that are required when hiring full-time workers. The training, healthcare benefits, bonuses, sick pay, and ways to keep them productive. Well… if you hire external workers then this passes onto the third party. You don’t need to worry about any of this, as it won’t be your responsibility. All you need to think about is the task you want them to do and adopting an SOW.

Statement of work

To put it plainly, if you want to hire external workers you must adopt an SOW. It will help you manage your external workforce, and you only need to pay for the task they’re completing not the hours it takes. Which could save you a huge amount of money. It massively protects your finances, as there will be workers who will take longer to complete a task if they get paid hourly. Nevertheless, this won’t happen with an SOW, instead, they may be more productive, and your tasks will get completed quicker.

Final thoughts

External workers are in-demand and there is a clear reason why – businesses benefit from them. They could provide a multitude of advantages to your business, and the time to act is now. The external workforce is a large talent pool ready to be tapped into, where you can hire diverse talent which in itself will provide advantages. Remember, if hiring from the external workforce is compelling to you look into an SOW. You will be protected, and it is a successful way to save you money.