The world of work is changing and there’s now more demand than ever to bring flexibility into your workforce planning. Relying solely on a fixed team is no longer enough and more often, businesses are looking to grow a flexible workforce with adaptable workers. Flexibility has become a crucial focal point in the professional lives of an expanding group of people. This is supported by CBS statistics indicating that nearly 1 in 4 workers is currently a flexible worker. This means that the working population consists of nearly 4-million people structuring their work lives flexibly.
If you're seeking a way to maximise your growth and remain competitive in a changing job market, Temper is here to help you get started! In this article, we share useful advice and tips on how to leverage flexible working in your business.
What is a flexible workforce?
A flexible workforce refers to the people an organisation can employ on a short term basis. Almost every organisation has a core of permanent employees and an additional group of flexible workers. The permanent group consists of people directly employed by the organisation indefinitely. The flexible workforce includes employees working on a temporary basis, such as those with temporary contracts, on-call staff, freelancers, or people with zero-hour contracts.
Why consider a flexible workforce?
An efficiently organised and flexible workforce provides the necessary agility and flexibility a business needs. During busy times, you can fall back on temporary flexible workers, potentially leading to extra revenue growth. Additionally, these short-term workers ensure continuity during sickness and leave. Another benefit is that you get to add valuable expertise and experience to your team, even if it’s just on a temporary basis.
A flexible workforce for the long term
A well-established flexible workforce adapts to changes in the company and avoids costly disposable contracts. It's important to focus not only on the present but also on the future. The changing job market means the needs of workers are evolving and businesses must respond to remain competitive, and attract and retain the best talent.
The benefits of a flexible workforce:
- Scale up and down easily and quickly: You can respond smoothly to peak demands, sickness, or leave. During busy periods, you scale up; during quieter times, you scale down, without long-term obligations.
- Simplified management through the Temper platform: You have the choice of who works for you and when. This keeps your business in control without third-party involvement. Based on required skills, you can select the right candidate as a valuable addition to the team.
- Address the needs of the new generation of workers: Not only do businesses benefit from a flexible workforce, but workers are increasingly choosing flexible work options. Workers want to decide where and when they work, facilitated by flexible work platforms like Temper.
- Attract and retain new talent: The next generation of workers prefers to have less predictability in exchange for more variety and freedom. Flexible workers are used to diversity and quickly adapt to new work environments, having consciously chosen this flexibility. Businesses must adapt to this new reality to attract and retain new talent and continue to grow.
How to effectively set up a flexible workforce
A flexible workforce provides solutions to various challenges. Below, you'll find 5 steps on how to effectively set up the most efficient flexible workforce for your business:
- Identify your needs: Do you face challenges in staffing due to unexpected events that you want to quickly and easily address? Do you prefer working with a group of flexible workers you've collaborated with before? Are you looking to add experience and specific expertise to your permanent team? In all these cases, you can turn to a flexible work platform like Temper.
- Centralise everything: Managing extra help can be chaotic. centralising this process allows better oversight of collaborations and costs. With a digital platform like Temper, you can access all information in one place, with direct access to over 50,000 30,000 freelancers, each with the desired skills and expertise.
- Integrate work processes: After integrating a flexible layer into your workforce planning, you can gain more control by merging work processes. Temper's advanced API ensures seamless integration with your workforce planning tools and management systems, allowing you to manage everything related to your staff effortlessly and quickly from a central location.
- Profile your business: Showcase what your business offers to thousands of freelancers on digital platforms. When you use Temper you also receive evaluations from FreeFlexers allowing others to see what it’s like to work with you.
- Benefit from the top talent: Once your business has attracted flexible workers, it's essential to harness and use their talents, so that the flexible group complements the permanent team.
Temper: your partner in flexible work
Deciding to establish a flexible workforce is a positive step in the dynamic landscape of the modern job market–and Temper is an ideal partner.
With Temper, you can quickly and easily find the right professionals, and retain complete control over who joins your team. The platform offers the flexibility to respond to changing needs in the short term while giving you opportunities to attract the best talent.
Thanks to Temper, you can quickly build a flexible workforce and manage and optimise it effectively. Whether you need temporary staff for busy periods or specific skills for short projects, Temper provides the versatility you need in a changing work environment. In short, Temper lays the foundation for a flexible workforce that not only meets current needs but is also ready for future challenges.
