Managing your contingent workforce more effectively in FY24–25

Understanding how to get the best out of your contractor and casual line-up will help your business navigate challenging conditions, writes Brendan Maree.

Are you hoping to keep a lid on outgoings by using part-time and contingent workers to see your enterprise through peak periods of activity this financial year?

You and scores of other Australian business leaders around the country, after struggling to secure the labour they needed during the COVID-19 years, many organisations have cut back on full-time hiring over the last 12 months.

Job creation rates have slowed significantly, and many of the positions on offer are now part-time ones, according to the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group).

“Since July 2023 … the number of new jobs created has crashed to around 25,000 per month. This is far lower than during the post-pandemic boom and also lower than the number of new jobs required per month,” Ai Group’s director of research and economics, Dr Jeffrey Wilson, said in his research note: Has Australia’s labour market turned a corner?

The case for temporary talent

From an employer perspective, utilising a contingent workforce of casuals and independent contractors and consultants, rather than hiring additional full-timers, has plenty of upside. It allows you to bring people on board on an “as-needed” basis and dispense with their services when demand or activity levels decline. That means you can scale your operations up and down quickly in response to market fluctuations, seasonal demands, or the requirements of discrete projects.

Aside from superannuation, there are no overhead costs to be borne – no entitlements or employee benefits to be budgeted for, and no paid leave periods to be covered.

And having fresh faces on the team – albeit for a limited period – can bring new perspectives and creative solutions to issues and challenges.

Making the most of your contingent crew

But it’s not a given that the flexible talent you tap into will get up to speed quickly, or get the job done efficiently and well. For that to happen, you need to implement a contingent workforce strategy, one that incorporates tried and true best practices for managing teams of temporary talent.

Ensuring your organisation is compliant with the latest industrial relations and workplace health and safety legislation is the first of these. Doing so will prevent you from falling foul of the Fair Work Commission and other bodies charged with policing workplaces in this country.

Having a streamlined onboarding process that includes the provision of essential company information and training materials will enable your new hires to hit the ground running.

Defining your goals and expectations clearly and developing open communication channels will make it easier for you to share information, keep contingent workers abreast of project progress, and resolve issues in a timely manner.

Fostering collaboration between permanent and contingent workers, via regular workshops and meetings, should lead to the creation of a healthy team culture, one that’s devoid of the sort of “us and them” rivalry that can stymie productivity and progress.

So will the provision of regular performance feedback and recognition of workers – both permanent and contingent – who are consistently strong performers.

Tools to make the task easy

Managing a contingent workforce can be challenging in the absence of the right tools – namely, operations and enablement technology that allows you to empower and oversee a workforce comprising both full-time and temporary talents.

Deploying an operations enablement and workforce platform will enable you to streamline many aspects of the management process.

You’ll be able to introduce automated onboarding, conduct in-depth data analysis, monitor your employee engagement metrics continuously and extract insights that can help you foster a culture of commitment and achievement.

It’s a foundation technology that will enable your human resources and leadership teams to drive profitability and growth while optimising labour usage and costs across the enterprise.

Towards a stronger future

In today’s uncertain times, Australian businesses have no shortage of challenges to contend with. Utilising on-demand labour can help yours become more agile and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

That’s provided you have a platform in place that enables you to manage your contingent workforce efficiently and effectively. If increasing profitability and growth are priorities for your business in FY2024–25, it’s an investment you can’t afford not to make.

Brendan Maree is the vice president and country manager for Australia and New Zealand at ProHance.