While it’s vital to have full-time employees, fluctuations in demand for your construction services can make temporary labor a necessity. Not only can supplementing your workforce with temporary employees give you access to workers with skills you may not have access to otherwise, but it will help you save money during the slower times. Using temporary workers gives you the control to hire as many additional workers for your crew as needed, especially when business is booming.
Some of the most significant benefits of supplementing your staffing with temporary construction workers are:
Keep your full-time employees happy
Temporary construction workers provide permanent crew members the support they need to be successful while preventing them from being overworked. According to the ADP Workforce Vitality Index report, the Construction industry has a national average turnover rate of 58.4%. The top reason employees quit? Forbes says it’s from being overworked. Save yourself time, money, and a lot of stress by supporting your full-time staff via the addition of temporary workers.
Quickly scale construction crews based on your project needs
Hire workers based on the demands of each project. Rather than having too many full-time employees on standby, hire temporary workers to help with larger projects or projects that have tight timelines. If you aren’t already, include temporary workers as a line item on your project bids. As you’re providing estimates for work, or evaluating a potential commercial or residential construction project, consider not only the type of work that needs to be done, but who you have on staff to complete it.
By supplementing your crew with flexible labor, you can easily offer more ‘hands on deck’ to get projects done to completion on time (or even early). Temporary labor also makes it easy to scale your workforce, without the unfortunate downside of having to dismiss or let go full-time crew members once projects are complete. By using an agile crew, you can save money, meet deadlines, and satisfy your clients.
Access workers with specialized skills
Since every project is different, you may run into instances when you don’t have a crew member with the specialized expertise needed for the job. Using temporary labor gives you a way to leverage specialized workers for short-term work. In addition, you may gain other potential advantages by sourcing temporary workers with specialized training or certain equipment. Instead of sourcing the expertise or tools required to complete the job, save yourself some overhead by requiring what’s needed as a pre-requisite for your next temporary hire.
Consider all of the aspects of a potential construction project. Oftentimes various crews are needed for very specific phases or tasks. Break your bid up into its individual components and identify the portions where temporary labor can be utilized. Combined with your timeline and budget, you’ll be able to utilize a fluid mix of full-time crew members with independent contractors to reduce overhead while giving you a highly skilled crew, specialized in delivering the particular services that align to your project.
“Trial run” specific employees
Have you ever made the unfortunate decision to hire someone who was not a good fit? This can be expensive and resource intensive. Hire with 100% confidence by using temporary labor as an additional way to easily vet candidates. Think of it as one more way to interview potential hires.
You can reduce your risk by “trying” individuals to confirm they actually have the skills you require and are capable of completing the job. By testing the waters with a larger selection of temporary crew members, we’re hopeful you’ll have a few superstars you may want to retain — on a repeat basis or even full-time.
We’ve got the easiest way to find temporary construction labor
As you can see, temporary workers can help keep your full-time employees happier, rapidly scale your crew, give you access to specialized skills, or provide an additional means to interview potential hires. You can easily find your next temporary crew member with GigSmart. Our hiring app already has over 10,000 skilled construction workers who are available to assist you with your next project. Sourcing them is completely free, and you’ll only pay once work has been completed.
But don’t just take our word for it. Heather from Right Way Roofing, a Denver based commercial and residential roofing company uses GigSmart to easily supplement their staff.
Heather says, “In the construction business, sometimes we have lots of work, sometimes we don’t, so employing a staff of full-time people doesn’t always make sense. GigSmart solves this problem…it’s the perfect app for finding quality workers when you need them. Like us, you’ll save lots of time, money, and effort by using it. GigSmart is hands down the best employment solution we’ve found!”
If you’re ready to find the insured, background-checked construction workers you need, create a free Gig post on the GigSmart Get Workers app today.