You might be hearing the term “Blended Workforce” more and more frequently, as flexible staffing solutions become more common. To know whether you could benefit from implementing Blended Workforces, it’s important to understand what they are and the reasons behind their growing popularity.
Understanding Blended Workforces
Employee pools that combine permanent, contract and temporary staff (i.e. internal and external labour) are referred to as “Blended”. By using staff on different employment arrangements, businesses can provide flexibility, both to the team members who seek it, and to their own wage costs against productivity and revenue.
Why Are Blended Workforces Becoming More Popular?
Due to the flexibility Blended Workforces lend to businesses and employees, their use is on the rise. Already, 34% of the workforce is comprised of the contingent or temporary workers that make Blended Workforces possible. As more and more people seek choice over where and when they work, the availability of contingent workers increases, and so does the opportunity for businesses to build and benefit from Blended Workforces.
There are three key factors driving the popularity of Blended Workforces:
1) Demand: As more people seek work/life balance, the demand for flexible working arrangements increases. As the pool of flexible workers grows, so too does the opportunity for businesses to bring in short-term or temporary labour to complete seasonal, project or relief work.
2) Accessibility: With increased technological development, the ability for businesses and contingent workers to connect is improving. Via temporary staffing platforms, workers and businesses are able create employment arrangements in as little as a few hours. This means that problems that used to take hours or days to resolve, now have simple, speedy and affordable solutions.
3) Scalability: The business environment is becoming increasingly competitive. The demands for almost impossibly tight wage to productivity margins are rising. As businesses begin to grow or battle with seasonal peaks and troughs, they are crying out for more flexible staffing options that allow them to scale temporarily, relative to demand.
Should Your Business Use A Blended Workforce?
The key benefit of a Blended Workforce is its ability to respond almost instantly to fluctuations in work – whether the work be seasonal, project-based or reliant on business growth. Additionally, Blended Workforces alleviate the need for continual recruitment for high-churn roles. So, if your business currently experiences any of the following, building a blended workforce could be the best solution moving forward.
– Part-time roles that are difficult to provide consistent hours for
– High-volume or high-churn roles for which recruiting is time-consuming
– Seasonal fluctuations in work
– Periods of new and not-yet sustainable growth
In order for Blended Workforce to provide all their true benefits, it’s important that businesses fully understand them and implement them with the best intentions for the staff. For the vast majority of organisations, the flexibility a Blended Workforce brings has a number of applications that can ensure business is more productive, profitable and staff are working more effectively.