Apart from being a health crisis, Covid-19 is a massive economic catastrophe from whose impact the world will take years to recover. The gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions in recent weeks being witnessed in the UAE will help businesses revive themselves by allowing the resumption of business activities. At the same time, healthcare services will, no doubt, be preparing for a rise in coronavirus cases as the natural fallout of increased mobility in the country’s streets and public places.

Already, the UN has warned that the global economy could shrink by up to 1% as a result of the pandemic. Statistics reveal that the US could experience an economic contraction anywhere in the range of -0.2% to -2.4%, China between -0.7% and -2.4%, Russia between -0.9% and -4.8%, and Germany between -0.1% and -3.6%.  The IMF estimates that the UAE’s GDP could contract by -3.5%–better off than Qatar (-4.3%) but worse than Oman (-2.8%), Saudi Arabia (-2.3%) and Kuwait (-1-1%) among GCC countries.

In this situation, businesses will be severely tested as they try and restart their operations in the aftermath of the lockdowns. Access to credit, restoring supply chains, ensuring the maintenance of social distancing, and resuming relationships with customers will be among the key priorities for managers. Companies will also try and rationalise expenses through various measures like cost-cutting. Depending on a temporary workforce to get the job done in this scenario could be a viable option for businesses as benefits like scalability and flexibility of the workforce become increasingly important in a situation of economic flux.

Benefits of a Temporary Workforce

With many businesses having to lay off workers during the lockdown, hiring a temporary workforce could enable you to restart operations once again with the aid of trained and qualified employees.

Carrying out business operations using temporary employees comes with several inherent advantages that are particularly suited to an unstable economic situation like the present. These include flexibility, scalability, and access to trained and pre-screened workers who can jump into their roles and start their jobs right away.

• Flexibility

Need immediate access to manpower? Temporary hiring offers the best solution. A good temping agency can ensure that businesses have access to the necessary employees in a matter of days, instead of weeks and months (as would be the case if you embarked on a recruitment spree all by yourself). What’s more, you could cut down the number of employees just as quickly if it is necessary for some reason. No need to worry about layoffs.

• Scalability

Apart from flexibility, temporary hiring also provides businesses with the advantage of scalability in workforce allowing them to adjust the number of workers as per requirements. Is the business doing better than you thought? Grappling with an excess of orders? Just indent for more workers. Similarly, if you are having a lean period, you can easily cut back on the number of employees to match workload to employee count.

• No need to carry out a recruitment campaign

Hiring employees once again after the lockdown can be more strenuous than you think. There is the drafting of job ads, publishing it in newspapers and job boards, waiting for applications, shortlisting resumes, and organising (often multiple rounds) of interviews. Why not just select candidates from a shortlist instead to make it easier for yourself?

One of the biggest advantages of temporary hiring is that it does away with having to carry out a full-fledged recruitment campaign saving the company a significant amount of time and resources, which can be directed to more productive purposes such as reviving supply chains and restoring market share to help the business come around.

• No training required

When temping agencies send resumes to the client, they choose those with the requisite skills, qualifications and job experience to make the task of employee selection as easy as possible for the customer. In other words, you get access to a number of pre-trained and pre-qualified candidates who are ready to hit the ground running. Agencies also perform background checks on candidates to make the hiring process trouble-free for their clients. However, it is recommended that employers conduct their own set of safety checks to satisfy themselves about the quality of the candidate prior to hiring.

• Temp-to-hire

Businesses can also enter into temp-to-hire arrangements with the agency with a view to absorbing employees on a permanent basis after a stint as a temporary worker. This is a win-win situation for all three stakeholders—the worker, the business, and the temping agency (which gets reimbursed whenever a candidate is permanently hired).

Temp-to-hire arrangements bring special benefits to the company which is able to try out various candidates in a temporary position before hiring them on a full-time basis. These are ideal in a post-lockdown scenario where businesses need to strengthen and revitalise themselves before getting down to the business of recruitment.

• No need to provide benefits

Unlike permanent employees, there is no requirement to provide temporary workers with leaves and benefits which is the responsibility of the temping agency. Payroll is also handled by the agency thus ensuring minimum hassle. The role of the hiring company is limited to paying the temping agency in a timely manner in lieu of the services provided by the worker.

Hiring Temporary Staff

Although temporary staff are pre-screened and pre-vetted, hiring companies should satisfy themselves about the suitability of the candidate before pressing them into service. Specifically, it is important to review whether they have the technical skills required for the job, how good they are at handling pressure, and if they can quickly adjust to new work environments. Selecting a good temping agency which understands your business needs and can provide you with a quality talent pipeline is also important.

Temporary staffs are those important cogs in the wheel that can help businesses tide through immediate manpower challenges. The post-lockdown period is an opportune moment to fall back on them to get your business back on track.

Need to hire temporary staff? We can help. Log on to innovationuae.com to get in touch.