We all are aware of the term “staffing”, and very much aware of its compelling role in any organisation. As a process staffing has a very essential role, it’s the protagonist of any successful story behind any organisation. But most of us might not be aware of Contingent Staff in our organization, Contingent staff refers to temporary workers in casual employment who supplement a company's workforce. They are also known as freelancers or temporary contract workers.
Contingent staff may be hired through a staffing firm and they usually work under a contract for a fixed period of time or for a specific project. They are very popular in businesses with fluctuating seasonal staff demand – retail firms, call centres etc. As the trend going in the market especially after excruciating phase of 2020 year due to pandemic, contingent staff number has increased all across the globe. Many regular employees indeed lost their job and for the worst case scenario they hop into working as contingent staff for organization. Some of the qualities that may define contingent employment include lack of a contract, part-time hours, low job security and informal pay arrangements (e.g. cash in hand).
But when we emphasis US Market These workers currently represent a substantial portion of the US workforce, and "nearly four out of five employers, in establishments of all sizes and industries, use some form of non traditional staffing". According to BLS (Bureau of Labour statics) this type of work is categorized in non traditional staffing, there are many organization across the globe that horrendously prefer working with contingent staff as this helps them with no legal formalities required and help them giving space of negotiating with time and prices for each projects. The contingent workforce acts as a variable workforce for companies to select from to perform specific projects or complete specialized projects.
Now, many companies predominantly those who are into resource augmentation come across with lot of demand for contingent worker for their niche projects. And there are many companies who emphasis on contingent staff because they find it more benefit to earn from them mostly on per hour basis. There is horrendous polarization among companies and their preference for resources, vice-versa if we look contingent workers they benefit quit good salaries as compared to what they get a fixed income from a regular job and by the time they end up with their project they can start questing for better pay and for better projects. As these are some of the peculiar choices for many organizations, one of the biggest benefit enjoyed by contingent staffs are:
No tax responsibilities- With regular employees, employers must handle federal, state, and local income taxes as well as Social Security and Medicare taxes. When an employer withholds Social Security and Medicare taxes for their employees, they must make a matching employer contribution.
Because contingent workers are not employees on your client’s payroll, your client is not responsible for withholding and depositing employment taxes like they would for regular employees. And, they do not need to make an employer contribution for Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Less financial obligation- Generally, a business must spend money on benefits to attract and retain employees. Your client does not need to offer health insurance, personal time off, retirement plans, or other contract employee benefits to contingent workers.
This type of staffing is transpiring into a robust way of performing more productive work in much more flexible terms, being so peculiar from others its clearly stated that most of the organization although has resumed their work from home, but this could last for coming years which would surely create contingent staffing a great role.
