Best practices for hiring contract workers this summer season

One in two employers (53%) are planning to hire contract workers between December 1, 2023, and January 3, 2024, to cover employees on leave, according to new research from Robert Half.

It comes as December marks a busy month for companies; whether it’s because they’re getting ready to wind up services for the year or they’re experiencing a peak in operations during the festive season, the Robert Half report said.

Western Australian employers are expected to rely on contract workers the most (59%), followed by Queensland (55%), Victoria (53%) and New South Wales (47%).

“You tend to get people with the skillsets already in place, that don't need as much training,” Andrew Brushfield, director at Robert Half, told HRD Australia. “They've, more often than not, had experience in the area where the skill gap lies so the company can operate on as close to business as usual as they possibly can.”

A busy holiday season

Brushfield highlighted some of the reasons employers are recruiting staff during this time period, including the increased activity during the holiday season.

“For example, if you're looking at event and hospitality sectors, they have a peak in activity to their business during this period of time, which as a result, they get temporary staff in,” he said.

“There's other factors as well in addition to that; for example, project deadlines – making a last push to hit project deadlines – which quite often can be the end of the calendar year. Getting contracts and temp staffing to ensure the project’s completed and met within time and ideally, within budget.”

Other employers may look at getting contract staff in to help with year-end planning, such reviewing budgets and staffing schedules for the new year, Brushfield said, or they could be getting contract staff to cover employee who are taking a longer break.

“I think it's probably exacerbated a little bit post-COVID [where] staff are tending to take longer breaks now,” he said. “And staff, when they do take longer breaks, companies obviously have to look to cover the skills. And as a result, we're seeing people being brought in for short-term assignments to cover people who've gone on longer breaks than what they would have done prior to COVID.”

Best practices for HR

HR teams should make sure the scope of the job is clearly outlined when recruiting contract workers, Brushfield said, “so that when you bring these people on, they know what they’ve got to do and they know what the project looks like or the scope of work… so that you can get as much benefit out of them as possible.”

This also means letting the person know what their performance is measured on, the volume of work that needs to be done and whether there is a deadline, he added.

The next key step for HR teams is to make sure they have everything covered off ahead of the new person starting, Brushfield said.

“If you're looking at an HR person who's not hired a temp before, make sure there's a contract in place that outlines the deliverables and timeframe,” he said. “Make sure you give yourself – in advance of making a decision – some choice as to the type of person by way of cultural fit and personality, as well as skill sets most suited to the role.

“And then from that point, just remove obstacles or hurdles for that person to get their job done. So when you bring them in, make sure logins are done. Make sure appropriate computer equipment, if it's required, is done, make sure access to files is there so that they can get in and do their job without being there longer than you want them to be.”