Why Workforce Agility Has Become a Competitive Advantage for Growing Businesses

The pace of business change around the world is becoming faster and faster. One day your sales are in a very good position, and then a while later a new trend or piece of technology emerges that completely turns things over upside down.

Small and growing businesses would find it practically impossible to keep up with such changes. On one hand, you would like to grow your business, but on the other hand, your business would face the serious threat of costly errors if you just followed the latest trends blindly.

Therefore, a major part of solving the problem is making the change in workforce management. Workforce agility refers to a capacity that enables a business to pivot its strategy whenever the market demands such a shift. The main difference from other time periods is that nowadays having an agile workforce would be a great advantage for scaling up businesses, besides it being a good thing for them.

What is flexibility in the workforce?

A flexible workforce means simply how quickly your company can adapt the size, skills, and composition of your team so that different requirements can be met.

The business can avoid being stuck in a hiring process that is fixed and will make it rigid and difficult for the company to make any change. When a company gets a big order, the business can promptly get the necessary support. Likewise, if the business experiences a two-month drop in activity, the workforce can be reduced while no one is being laid off and the company avoids spending unnecessary money.

The problem with traditional hiring for growing companies

If a company is expanding, the standard approach most people think of is to post job ads and hire employees full-time. The issue is that even though traditional hiring is well known in the industry, it has several drawbacks that you might not consider:

• Very time-consuming: In the process of getting an employee to work for you permanently, it is likely for you to spend hours, if not months, to find a candidate, do the interviews, and finally get the applicant on the job. Sometimes they start after the situation that made you decide to hire has already been resolved.
• Quite expensive: Permanent employees have other associated costs such as work permits, insurance coverage, bonuses, and severance packages. These expenses that stay the same for your business can deplete the availability of liquid assets quite quickly.
• Limits you: Your company will be burdened with high wages in the payroll at times that you may not be able to afford these expenses if, for instance, the market changes or your main customer leaves the business.

Why agility gives you a competitive edge

Flexibility is key to the success of a growing company. It can help the business to outperform the competitors and stay in the lead. The ability to adapt quickly will open the doors for you to take different routes in various situations. Some of these key scenarios are the following:

Making use of a situation that comes up unexpectedly

Let's suppose one of your products or services that sells very well just before a big holiday becomes extremely popular unexpectedly, or a big company comes to you and offers an exclusive, long-term contract that none of the rest of your competitors are even aware of.

If you rely on hiring employees full-time, you will not be able to handle a situation like this because there can be a delay in hiring. But a company that's run in a flexible manner can use the service of temporary workers to bring in a skilled staff in days. Not only will you accomplish the work, but you will keep the customer happy. And you will bring in a lot of money too by making more sales.

Lessening the financial exposure

One of the main challenges in running a business is maintaining healthy cash flow. When you create a workforce that is a mix of permanent and contract staff or freelance workers, it helps your business survive, as the employee-related costs that were part of fixed expenses now become only costs of labor that vary with the workload. This means you only spend labor costs for the period when you have work that needs to get done.

You can quickly test out new ideas

In order to know whether offering a new service or entering another market will yield results, you have to commit to the business plan to such an extent that you will no longer get the chance to change it at any later stage. You can hire some temporary workers or work with temp agencies to bring in experts for a short-term trial.

If the new idea proves successful, naturally, you can continue running the project. In the case that it fails, however, you will have no legal and financial burdens that you will be stuck with once you decide not to continue the project.

You solve problem of shortages when you can't recruit people

In case you run into an instance where great talents are few, or if you can't find the right person for the job who has the skills that you desire or need, maybe you cannot afford to have the person work for you even for 8 hours only.

Thanks to an adaptable approach, you are now able to hire freelancers, or those people whose services are paid on a per-task basis and who can solve the issues of your business and then leave once their tasks are completed.

Scale your business safely with TASC Outsourcing

In a situation where you are trying to make the workforce flexible, you need not worry or get yourself bogged down by difficulties that planning may require. TASC Outsourcing offers you services that not only help you scale your business quickly and smoothly but also ensure that the process complies with all applicable laws and regulations.

With our extensive experience and a database of thousands of qualified and pre-sourced individuals, we can offer you the services of contract staffing, outsourcing, and flexible workforce solutions, all at a time that suits you. As long as we handle the recruitment, the visa procedures, and payroll, you, on your part, should be totally focused on growing your business without worrying about anything else.

An efficient, on-the-go, and flexible workforce that is also budget-friendly is something every business person would dream of. If you do, then pick TASC Outsourcing immediately and have your consultation done for free.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the difference between contract staffing and regular hiring?

Regular hiring refers to the situation where one becomes your permanent employee through direct hiring. You have the responsibility of their long-term salary, benefits, and legal protections. Contractual staffing is where you hire a worker for the fulfillment of a particular period or project. More often than not, a third-party agency handles the payroll and legal paperwork for contract workers, helping you save time and reduce risk. 

2. How can temporary employment agencies help your business expand?

Such agencies maintain a large database of pre-vetted, ready-to-work individuals. In a situation where your business quickly needs extra help, such as for handling a busy season or for completing an urgent project quickly, the agency can arrange a number of capable workers who suit your requirements. The burden of finding the right candidates and their screening is on them; hence, you get an opportunity to run operations of the business smoothly.

3. Is an agile workforce model legally compliant in the GCC region?

Definitely, it's allowed by law if you make an agreement with a licensed intermediary. In a country like the UAE or Saudi Arabia, labor legislation is very rigid. Working with a licensed agency means that all visas, work permits, and payroll processes meet national requirements, e.g., MOHRE regulations.

4. Will using contract staff hurt our company culture?

Certainly not, if it is properly handled. Contemporary contract personnel are very professional and can integrate well into a team quickly. A contract worker who is given clear objectives and shown the way of being a team member during their duration of work would not feel any kind of disturbance by his or her work together with the main staff.

5. Can contract or temporary roles turn into permanent positions?

That's a big yes. It's quite common for an expanding business to implement a 'temp-to-perm' approach. With this method, you get to know how the staff member fits into the job, the work environment, and the overall team dynamics by actually witnessing her/his skills and the type of work done before making a permanent employment offer.