Permanent vs Temporary Staffing – The Pros and Cons

Many companies, across industries, use a mix of permanent and temporary staff to conduct their operations. However, both permanent as well as temporary contracts can have their own impact on the output of the employees.

Here is a list of pros and cons you need to consider before you decide on any employment option:

Pros and Cons of Permanent Employment

Job security, financial stability, and long-term prospects are a few factors that encourage and motivate permanent staff to do well in their jobs.

Having worked for many years in the same company, they will be in a better position to understand the goals and values of the company and align with its mission.

They will be more inclined to develop skills so as to progress through the ranks in a faster way.

It is these members of your staffs that meet their targets, exceed expectations, and maintain high standards of performance.

Also since they are permanent, they establish strong relationships with the other stakeholders of your business that helps them become experts at their jobs.

Their growth will be well-aligned to the growth of your company and are more committed and loyal to their roles.

That said there are high chances that your permanent staff members can get involved in office politics that might impact their performance negatively.

Pros and Cons of Temporary Staffing

Temporary staff is brought in to complete short-term projects or attend to the demands of a particular event or season. In most cases they might even outperform your permanent staff in their efforts to prove their worth.

Having said that, one of the main advantages of hiring temporary staff is that you can maintain ideal staffing level at all times. At no point of time will your current workforce feel overworked or over-burdened. You will have happy and productive employees throughout the year that can do wonders for your organization.

Cost-reduction is another advantage of temporary administrative staffing. You don’t have to worry about providing benefits such as employee perks, worker compensation, health insurance, retirement security, and vacation days to your temporary staff. Also if you hire temp workers who are already skilled and experienced, you won’t have to bother about providing them any training.

Hiring and recruitment is a very time-consuming process that involves training, managing payroll, and completing HR and compliance functions. But when you hire temp staff, all of this would be done by the staffing agency.

If you are not happy with your temp staff, you can ask the staffing agency to replace them at any point of time. At the same time, if you feel that a particular temp employee can be a great asset to your team, you can always hire him or her on a full time basis.

Temporary staffing thus gives you an opportunity to test your employees and assess their skills much ahead of time. Not only will this reduce your hiring risks, it will also help you build a strong team that you can always rely upon.

You don’t have to choose between temporary and permanent staffing. The ideal thing to do would be to use temporary staffing as a means to find your permanent staff members.