Taking on contractors to boost your IT work might seem like an expensive move, but if you go about it in the right way, then it can bring you a lot of benefits, and it can actually save you money. Here are some of the reasons why this idea is worth considering.
Only paying for what you need
When you take on a new IT professional full time, you have a salary to pay whether there’s actually any useful work to be done. Although contractors charge more per hour, you only have to pay for them when you need them, which can add up to quite a bit less expense for what are basically the same results. You don’t have to pay contractors for sick days; you don’t have to give them access to company benefits, and you don’t have to insure them.
Keeping things simple
When you’re dealing with employees, you’re responsible for handling pay, tax, IR35 status (in the UK) and potentially a whole lot of other issues, each of which comes with its own burden of paperwork. By contrast, working with an umbrella company means that most of this will be taken care of, and umbrella pay is easy to manage, removing the hassle of making lots of small payments to different people when you hire contractors.
Accessing top talent
Hiring people on a contract basis means that you can afford access to workers at a level that might typically be far beyond your means. This is particularly important if you’re dealing with demanding project work or security issues for which you require a very specific skill set. Rather than making do with a general IT worker who has to learn on the job, you can bring in someone who will hit the ground running and is guaranteed to do a good job.
Getting results more quickly
Hiring contractors not only allows you to get the benefit of working with specialists but also provides you with access to workers who are 100% focused on the projects that they have been assigned to. They don’t have the distraction of other work piling up on their desks. They won’t be wasting time socializing with colleagues when they should be working, and they’ll want to do a good job so that they can get a good reference. All this means that work gets completed more quickly and to a higher standard.
Making valuable connections
Every time you have a good experience with a contractor, you can note that this is somebody whom you’d like to work with again, so finding good people keeps getting easier. In the process, you’ll be networking – something that every business depends on – so those contractors can, in turn, make recommendations to you and help you expand your circles. It’s not uncommon for contractors to recommend the businesses that they work for to one another.
For all these reasons and more, hiring contractors can be a really positive way forward for businesses. It could be a great choice for yours.
