Sustainable Use of Contingent Staffing

How temporary workforces can support your business

Temporary workforce solutions offer a robust, flexible approach to your business recruitment. In industries where shifting patterns may deter long-term staff, temporary workforces can fill the gap and ensure demand is met. Industries such as logistics, hospitality, and retail, where an influx in customer demand can put strain on your current workforces, temporary staffing can ensure that your productivity and customer service levels remain high. 

Contingent workforces can also be a way of reaching your sustainability goals without exceeding your budget. Utilising the talent within your local community, to meet demands during peak periods, not only supports your local economy but also can provide your business with the headcount to improve productivity without adding to your carbon footprint.
 
This type of working can also offer benefits to your employees. Robust industries and strong job markets can improve opportunities and create work experience within local economies. It can also offer employees, including students and retirees, the added income they want, while maintaining the flexibility they need within their contracts. 

Understanding your business’ responsibility

While temporary staffing can be beneficial, there are important sustainability considerations that ensure responsible use of temporary staff. Unsustainable use of temporary staff can have detrimental effects on both employers, employees, and local communities. 

Sustainable use of temporary staff can offer opportunities for positive social impact:

Economic benefits:

• Boosting local economies: Responsible and sustainable usage of contingent staff can be beneficial for your local economy. It can help improve opportunities, fund the local economy, and support other businesses within your location.
  
  
• Controlled income: Flexible working hours allows your contingent staff to control their own income, allowing them to find schedules which fit into their lifestyles and earn an income dependant on their needs.

Health and well-being:

• Caring for dependants: Flexible working allows your staff to work schedules that suit their lifestyles. This ensures greater control over their work-life balance with shift rotations offering day or night work. This could be beneficial for employees with childcare needs or additional dependants.
  
  
• Personal wellbeing: Temporary work also allows employees to prioritise their own wellbeing and mental health. For candidates who need flexibility around their working hours, this form of working can allow them the time in their schedule that they need.

Community skill building:

• Industry experience: When a significant portion of a community engages in temporary, flexible work, it can lead to greater skills development in the area. With more opportunities for work across industries, temporary workers will have the chance to build their experience in new areas otherwise unavailable to them.
  
  
• Social Mobility: The correct training and investment in your temporary workforce can improve social mobility, encouraging leadership and skill sharing among employees.

Business reputation:

• Social impact policies: With more customers looking at your business’ social impact as an indicator of a good company, actively working towards social initiatives, such as providing consistently flexible work, can be one way of achieving your social impact and governance goals.

Sustainability:

• Reduced commutes: Not only do businesses have their own sustainability goals, but individuals are looking to make more of a difference with their personal environmental impacts. Temporary work, which supports local hiring schemes can offer opportunities within candidate’s home areas, meaning that they can work more while traveling less. 

Your business can boost your social impact by maintaining a stable and sure work environment which benefits both your business and employees. Implementing a robust temporary workforce structure can offer employees the flexibility to manage their own time and income, while saving your business time and money. 

Using temporary workforces responsibly

As with all business plans, you’ll need to be responsible in the ways that you hire and use temporary staff. Social responsibility in business is a must, with customers looking for companies to reflect their own values and morals. 

If your business is looking to align with the values of B-Corps and have a positive social impact at a local and national level, it’s important you use temporary workers in a responsible way. 

When hiring temporary staff, consider:

1. Utilising local talent: Using temporary workers gives local talent the opportunity to build their experience and skills within your industry. Temporary staffing in this way can improve the local economy and build your reputation within your community. This can also assist your sustainability goals by helping candidates cut down their carbon footprint associated with the daily commute.
   
   
2. Bringing opportunities to more groups: Offering temporary opportunities can help you reach a wider pool of talent, including marginalised groups who might find permanent roles inaccessible. Look to partner with community groups, charities, or specialist recruitment partners to reach underrepresented socio-economic or minoritised groups.
   
   
3. Offering fair and competitive rates of pay: Temporary workers can boost your productivity and growth, developing a stronger local economy, without the commitment to the additional spend. By planning your temporary staffing effectively, you can save your budget during down periods to offer fair and competitive salaries.
   
   
4. Working with other local organisations: Partnering with suppliers, industry associations, and local universities can widen the pool of short-term workers. By providing opportunities, and partnering with key bodies within the community, you can support skill sharing and development.
   
   
5. Improving retention and recruitment: Without the complications of long-term employment, temporary staff can offer valuable feedback on the onboarding, scheduling, treatment, and day-to-day life of your employees. Regularly reviewing feedback can help you set in place better practices in future.
   
   
6. Prioritising training: You can also improve retention, and your candidate attraction, by offering skills development, leadership training, and cross-training so that staff can expand within their roles or transition to other areas of your business. This both benefits employees looking for more freedom and expansion, as well as allowing you to maximise your workforce utilisation across available working hours. 

Businesses can use temporary workforces and flexible working as a means of demonstrating your social impact and responsibility. Candidates are now looking for more convenient working schedules which support individual lifestyles and work-life dynamics. Temporary staffing not only benefits your business productivity but can also be a sustainable and resourceful way of improving community engagement. Recognising its impact and advocating for better labour conditions are essential steps toward building resilient, sustainable, and thriving communities.

Dare to go beyond the comfort of a pledge, factsheet, or glossy brochure? Find out how your recruitment agency contact can support your temporary staffing initiatives to support your sustainable and social impact goals. Get in touch today.