Everyone Loves a Fling!

If I was to liken the traditional recruitment methods employed by most companies to something, it would be a marriage. You sign a binding agreement and its almost till death do you part for both. When you boil it all down, hiring is the union between an individual with the right skills and an employer requiring those skills. In fact, getting out of a marriage is easier (and cheaper) these days than going through the divorce of an employee AKA firing someone.

Let’s face it, hiring is expensive, keeping is expensive (Super, Tax, Awards etc.) firing is expensive, re-hiring is expensive and more expensive if you get it wrong. It isn’t easy to be in business and the biggest gripe most employers I speak to is, is finding the right people.

And so most employers stick it out with existing staff without actually ever having tried the entire market (that would be nigh-on impossible) so they do the old luck of the draw approach, by posting and interviewing the best that applies (Let’s face it, that’s all recruiters do as well). Imagine entering into agreements with all of these potentials only to find out they are just not right?!

I think the solution would be to try independent contractors in your business and try to move away from the whole “I must hire full time people on a contract ALL the time”. Think of this army of people as mini-entrepreneurs, each with their own unique skill set, personality and lets face it – pitfalls. BUT – it’s a no strings relationship. You can take these guys and girls on, see how they go, bring more in when it’s busy and less when it’s not and have ZERO hassles when it comes to paying Super, PAYG, Overtime, Penalty Rates (on and on and on).

Welcome to the brave new world of the agile workforce AKA the Gig Economy. They are there when you need them and off to the next shift when you don’t. A trend I reckon every business should hop on because it isn’t going away and makes logical sense.

So if you’re someone who has hired someone or are involved in the hiring process, ask yourself: Do I want to get married over and over again or do I just want a fling?! I know which I’d choose

The next step is finding this mythical band of merry men and women who magically appear and are ready to work and disappear when the show is over – check out Merlin (www.merlin.global) because I reckon we’ve got just the trick.

Cheers,
James

#shifthappens