The benefits of engaging contractors are numerous and far reaching, from helping to keep overheads low to ensuring you have the perfect skills you need for a digital transformation project, or a systems implementation, a new product roll-out, or critical security patching.
However, while they can be parachuted on to a project when they’re needed, their temporary nature can create a few challenges when it comes to easily facilitating project delivery. That said, these challenges are relatively minor and only require a little forward planning to overcome and are far overshadowed by the benefits of contractors.
The challenges to overcome when engaging contractors
Onboarding
Onboarding can present some challenges if the end-user business doesn’t have a process in place to get contractors up to speed with the project and embedded within the team.
Providing adequate access and security clearance on-site or remotely
If the end-user business has not assessed how much security clearance a contractor will need to complete their tasks and provided them early on, this could delay the delivery of the project. The seniority of the contractor and the specifics of the project could dictate different levels of security clearance and access needed and will have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Setting this up in advance will smooth the onboarding process.
Maintaining project momentum and focus
While contractors can be a great way to inject momentum back into a project, particularly very senior-level ones, when the parameters of the project aren’t clearly defined and expectations continually change projects can still lose focus.
Ensuring that you’re clear about the project specification in the statement of work and having reasonable expectations about flexibility and adaptable deliverables will help your contractors stay engaged and productive whilst working on your project(s).
Getting permanent staff to collaborate
The temporary nature of contractors can make it challenging for permanent staff to be enthusiastic about collaborating and supporting contractors in their work. This can impede contractors’ work as they can struggle to get input from permanent staff in a timely manner.
How to manage contractors effectively
Create a standardised onboarding process
Creating a standardised onboarding process for your contractors is just as beneficial as it is for permanent employees. It helps your contractors become productive much faster as you’ll have a clear road map for their first day or week; introducing them to various team members, processes, software, completing any required training, etc.
Your onboarding process can set the tone for the entire engagement, so if you have a well thought out process prepared in advance that covers the full remit of their responsibilities, facilitates their technical requirements and introduces them to the core functions of your organisation, your contractor will better appreciate your commitment to the engagement.
Schedule regular meetings and catch ups
As we briefly outlined above, sometimes the parameters of a project can change. If this is mishandled this could negatively impact your contractor engagement, however, if you remain open and flexible to their ideas and problem solving then your project should progress regardless.
Scheduling regular meetings to catch up with your contractors on their progress, or how they feel the project is going will help you stay abreast of any challenges they’re facing, or accommodate changes the contractor feels the project may need. Ultimately, having good communication between the end business and the contractor leads to better problem solving and better chances of your transformation project’s success.
Remember that in-person, on-site meeting will need to be carefully organised to support your own and your contractors safety in the wake of Covid-19, or virtually for remote-working contractors.
Encourage collaboration
Properly outlining and communicating the importance of their work with the required permanent staff will help encourage collaboration and the success of your transformation project.
Get in touch and let’s find the right technology and digital contractors for your project
With a global network of more than one million candidates cultivated over 14 years of recruitment expertise, Energize empowers organisations to access high-value local contractor talent. Our specialist Consultants are experienced in supporting projects and scaling businesses with the experts they need.
The Energize Group offers niche, premium staffing solutions on both a permanent and freelance basis to customers in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and the United States of America.
Providing you with the best-possible recruitment experience is what drives us. We pioneered service standardisation within the recruitment industry via our implementation of Net Promoter Score®, and through our continual pursuit of customer excellence, customers choose Energize time and again, forming lasting relationships and enjoying a more effective hiring process.