There are times when your labor needs grow faster than your ability to bring on additional employees. Bringing on new employees takes time, effort, and money. The average cost-per-hire in the U.S. is estimated to be over $4,000.00 dollars and can take more than a month to complete. You start the process by putting the word out that you are looking for a new employee and then interview the top applicants. Once you have the person who is the best fit, you then have to train them and maintain all the costs related to having an employee. Keeping an employee on is a major financial commitment that can continue to increase year after year. Compensation costs, employer costs for health benefits and other types of benefits can continue to increase as you keep on a full-time employee.

If the growth of your business continues at the same pace, you may find yourself perpetually in the process of searching, interviewing, hiring, and training new people. This can become a problem when you do not have the finances or time available to keep up with the pace. If you need additional labor support quickly, then this traditional model of bringing on new hires may not work for your situation. You have to find another way to get the labor support you need within your timeline. There are some options available for businesses that need additional labor support quickly. We are going to look at two of those options below: temporary labor and outsourcing.

Temporary Labor

Bringing in temporary labor is a quick way to get additional labor support for your business. Oftentimes you can find a local staffing agency that can provide you with options for temporary labor. In the typical model for temporary labor, the staffing agency spends the time to find, interview, and check out potential hires. Then, when you have a need for additional labor support, the staffing agency gives you some candidates who they think will be a good fit. You can still interview a few of the options but it significantly reduces the amount of time and work you put into the process of finding someone new. Using temporary labor also provides you with flexibility because you do not have to make a long-term hire. You can use the temporary labor as needed which can save you significantly on costs when compared to an actual employee.

The two main issues that can come with temporary labor are turnover and training time. Many times, people who work with a staffing agency are in some type of transition which can lead to a high level of turnover. When turnover is high, it will require you to spend time training each new person that comes in. Ultimately, temporary labor is a viable option for many companies that simply need additional help right away.  

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a great way to quickly find additional labor support. Many of the tasks done in businesses today can be done remotely which means that outsourcing is often an option for quick labor support. You can find outsourcing help with anything from basic business processes such as data entry all the way to industry-specific needs such as medical coding. When you choose a high-quality outsourcing agency, you will have access to a team of highly trained people. You will work with the agency to develop a plan for labor support that meets your current needs. Then, they will take that plan and implement it using the people they already have on staff and bring on additional help when needed. This frees you from having to worry about finding, interviewing, hiring, and training new people.

Once you get everything set up at the beginning, the outsourcing company will take care of making sure your projects are appropriately staffed. This is one of the major ways that outsourcing wins out over using temporary labor. It saves you a lot of time because you do not have to constantly train new people that come in because of turnover or because your needs increase. The biggest advantage of using outsourcing is that it can free up more of your time and that of the leadership in your business. You can spend less time hiring and training and more time focusing on the elements of your business that will lead to growth and increased profitability.

If you need to quickly find additional labor support, both temporary labor and outsourcing are possible options. They are both quicker and often more cost-effective than bringing on full-time employees who expect consistent salaries and benefits. If you are still unsure about which option is best for your company, you can keep learning about your options here.