When it comes time to add to your engineering team, it can be difficult to determine the best employment type you should offer. Is it best to find someone who can come in full-time, part-time, or contract? Will you be able to find someone that wants to work based on those hours? At Austin Nichols, we know that there are benefits to all types of employment for the employer, but here are just a few reasons why contract engineers might be the best hiring solution for your business.
What Are Contract Engineers?
Just like in other fields, engineers can offer their services on a contract basis. Generally, contract employees are hired on for a certain length of time, depending on the needs of the client or company that has hired them. Contracts are usually three, six, or 12 months, and they might end up being extended should the work take longer than expected or the company like the contract engineer’s work. In some cases, contract work ends and the two entities part ways. In other cases, the employer might offer an extension to the contract or a full-time position for the engineer.
Benefits of Using Contract Engineers
There are several different benefits for companies that use contract engineers. Here are a few of these benefits.
- Speed – Hiring contract employees takes a lot less time than a full-time employee. This is especially true if you are looking to fill a very niche position. If you are looking for someone who needs to have very specific skills, it can be harder to find someone looking for full-time work. In these cases, contract work allows for more flexibility for the employee, and you may be able to snag someone with exceptional talent that may not otherwise be available. Another way that contract employees help companies get work done faster is that they are less likely to need extensive training. Instead, you can hire someone that has more experience, and is perhaps even over-qualified, for a shorter amount of time without spending a lot of time on training.
- Trial Runs – When you hire someone on a contract basis, you can test them out on a trial basis without worrying about whether or not they are going to work out with your company. At the end of the contract, you may decide that you want to offer a full-time position to the employee based on their skills and previous work.
- Flexibility – Have you ever received a lot of work unexpectedly? When this work isn’t going to last forever, it doesn’t make sense for a company to hire a full-time employee that will later lack an appropriate workload. When you hire contract engineers, you have more flexibility to scale your team either up or down as needed depending on factors such as industry growth and seasonal work. With contract employees, you are also likely to have more flexibility when it comes to budget. While a full-time engineer might be too costly at the moment, you might be able to get away with hiring a contract worker for a higher “salary” for a shorter period of time. This can be especially true for companies that have separate budgets for each project.
- Fewer Risks – Hiring people is always risky. However, when you are only hiring someone for a few months at a time, the risks diminish quickly. In some cases, when work slows down, companies risk having to lay off employees that they can no longer afford to pay. This becomes much less of an issue when contract workers are involved because when the job is done, they just move on to something else.
- Financial Savings – While this can be linked to flexibility, many companies can save themselves a lot of money by contracting labor to engineers instead of hiring someone to be on staff. Not only do these companies not have to pay a full years’ salary for shorter commitments, but benefits are usually not on the table, which can be a huge financial burden for companies.
How to Hire a Contract Engineer
There are many ways to hire a contract engineer. Some companies like to handle hiring on their own; these companies will use online job boards specifically asking for contracted labor. Other companies prefer to use a recruiting service to help them find qualified contracted engineers.
In the Kansas City Metro Area, Austin Nichols Technical Search can help companies looking for contract engineers find the perfect fit. To start working with our recruiters, give us a call today at 816-471-5575.
