Managing a workforce that includes both full-time employees and a roster of contingent workers is no easy task. If you’re reading this, you probably know that first-hand.
The challenges of keeping communication lines open, maintaining consistent productivity, and ensuring strict compliance are immense. Yet, despite the stakes, traditional management techniques often fall woefully short, leaving companies scrambling to keep their operations on track and their full-time and contingent teams aligned.
One of the biggest challenges in managing a large contingent workforce is ensuring seamless coordination between your permanent staff and contingent workers. These two groups often have different levels of experience, familiarity with the company’s processes, and even commitment to the job. This disparity can lead to communication breakdowns and misalignment in goals, especially when they are spread across multiple shifts and locations.
When contingent workers are introduced into the mix without adequate preparation:
- Communication can become fragmented, as contingent workers may not fully understand the established channels and processes.
- Roles and responsibilities may lack clarity for contingent workers, leading to confusion about their specific tasks.
- Operational delays and mistakes are more likely, as contingent workers struggle to keep pace with their more experienced, permanent counterparts.
Let’s dive into the challenges you might be facing as you navigate working with both types of teams.
Productivity: Bridging the Gap Between Permanent and Contingent Workers
Maintaining productivity becomes particularly challenging when your workforce is a mix of permanent and contingent workers. While contingent workers might receive basic training, they often find themselves in roles where they must quickly catch up to the tasks and responsibilities that permanent employees already know well. Unlike their full-time counterparts, contingent workers aren’t as familiar with the company’s workflow, culture, or the finer details of the job, which can lead to misunderstandings and mistakes.
This lack of familiarity can make it difficult for contingent workers to integrate smoothly into the existing workflow. They may encounter several challenges:
- Struggling with specific processes due to limited experience.
- Finding it hard to match the company’s established pace, which slows productivity
- Missing the subtleties of what’s expected in their role.
- Lacking the confidence to approach their busy leader with questions
These gaps in understanding and experience can create a disconnect, leading to slower performance and more errors compared to permanent employees who are already well-versed in day-to-day operations.
When adding a large number of contingent workers to your operations, simply blending them in with your full-time team without additional support or structured onboarding can backfire. These workers may feel overwhelmed and unprepared, which not only hampers their productivity but can also drag down the efficiency of the entire team. To prevent this, companies need to implement more regulated onboarding processes that are specifically designed to get contingent workers up to speed quickly and effectively.
Compliance: Ensuring Consistency Across Permanent and Contingent Workers
Compliance is a critical concern in industries with stringent safety and regulatory standards, and it becomes even more challenging when managing a workforce that includes both permanent and contingent workers. Contingent workers often have varying levels of training and awareness regarding compliance standards, which can lead to inconsistencies and potential violations.
These issues can arise because:
- Contingent workers may not be as familiar with specific regulatory requirements.
- They might miss crucial safety protocols due to less comprehensive training.
- Inconsistencies in adherence to compliance standards can lead to violations.
Traditional compliance management methods, like periodic audits and manual record-keeping, are often too slow and cumbersome to effectively oversee both permanent and contingent workers in large-scale operations. To ensure consistent compliance across the board, companies need to implement proactive strategies, such as continuous monitoring, real-time reporting, and automated tools that can quickly identify and address compliance issues before they escalate.
Why Traditional Management Techniques Fall Short
The challenges of managing a large workforce, especially one that includes both permanent and contingent workers, highlight the inadequacy of traditional management techniques. Contingent workers have unique needs that require more than just a top-down approach; they need a manager who works directly with them, offering personalized help and guidance.
Traditional management methods, which focus on control and rigid structures, often fail to address these needs. In contrast, a modern approach requires leaders who act as coaches—motivating, guiding, and encouraging contingent workers as they navigate their roles. These leaders should be trained not just to supervise, but to empower their team members, helping them integrate into the workforce smoothly and efficiently.
For many contingent workers, particularly those new to benefits like health insurance, understanding and utilizing these opportunities can be daunting. A leader who takes the time to explain how benefits work and how they can improve the worker’s life is invaluable. This personalized support helps contingent workers not only succeed in their roles but also recognize and seize the full advantages of their employment.
By focusing on flexibility, agility, and responsiveness, rather than outdated, rigid control mechanisms, a coach-like leader can bridge the gap between contingent and permanent workers, ensuring that everyone is fully supported and productive. This approach transforms management from a mere supervisory role into a proactive, life-enhancing guidance system for the workforce.
The Need for Specialized Solutions
Given the challenges of managing a large contingent workforce alongside a permanent team, traditional management techniques are no longer enough. Companies need specialized solutions that are flexible, scalable, and capable of providing real-time insights into workforce dynamics. With the right tools, managers can tackle issues quickly and keep operations running smoothly.
Ōnin’s Onsite Program offers just that. By placing an onsite leader who provides personalized assistance and coaching, this program helps contingent workers integrate seamlessly, boosting productivity and reducing turnover.