When it comes to hiring new workers within your business, the first step you’ll need to consider will be whether you engage them on a permanent or temporary basis.
What’s the difference between permanent and temporary recruitment?
It may sound extremely obvious, but it’s important to differentiate between the two. It helps to identify the key factors that are important to a hire, such as their geographical location if you want them to be employed on a permanent basis in one of your offices. Or whether the skills and qualifications they hold is more relevant to where they reside if you want them to support you on a temporary assignment. Whether it’s scaling up for a new project or filling a newly created job position, the right recruitment strategy can make all the difference.
We’re a recruiter with over 40 years’ experience supporting specialist and global engineering companies to find the best talent, so we’re a strong advocate for retaining the expertise of a recruitment partner to help you with your talent requirements.
Using permanent recruitment to plan for the future
Permanent recruitment focuses on hiring individuals to fill long-term positions within a company. These roles are typically essential for the core functions of the business and require candidates who not only possess the necessary skills and experience but also fit well with the company culture.
How can a recruitment partner add value?
Agencies have the expertise to assess both the technical skills and cultural fit of potential candidates, ensuring a seamless integration into your team. They’re also actively working within the sectors you operate, meaning they have invaluable insights into the local candidate base, skills availability and competition within the market.
They can draw on their proven recruitment techniques to reach a wide range of candidates, across different demographics and industry sectors, including identifying transferable skills. With an extensive network of resources to help with candidate resourcing, they can ensure your roles are advertised to a wide range of candidates to pull together the best shortlist.
To support sustained business growth, they can work with you to create the right workforce strategy that plans your permanent recruitment needs right now and well into the future.
Using temporary recruitment to create flexibility and scalability
Temporary recruitment, on the other hand, refers to hiring individuals on a short-term basis. This can cover seasonal peaks, short-term projects, or any scenario that requires a quick engagement a workforce that you need to retain on a permanent basis. Temporary positions can vary in duration, from a few days to several months, depending on the need of the role.
It's particularly beneficial where organisations want to be able to scale up with operations, such as taking on multiple projects, or increasing production to meet temporary demands. Allowing businesses to gain access to talent without needing to find budget to make positions permanent.
Another significant benefit to temporary recruitment, is being able to secure specialist skills within your business, that your existing workforce does not have. Helping you to elevate your service offering and upskill employees in the process.
How can a recruitment partner add value?
Recruiters have immediate access to a wide talent pool they have previously spoken to for similar roles, making them an important partner when looking for temporary workers. They can quickly set-up job adverts to advertise roles across a range of job boards and channels to spread the message further and attract new candidates.
Fundamentally however they can significantly reduce the administrative burden of undertaking temporary recruitment in-house. Taking responsibility for timely processes such as CV screening, vetting and security clearance. Pulling together a shortlist of suitable candidates that are an exact match for the skills needed to undertake the temporary work. For larger requirements, where hundreds of temporary workers are needed, organisations can choose to ask their trusted recruitment partner to manage the full recruitment process on their behalf, undertaking interviews and candidate selection, before managing onboarding.
Recruiters like NRL also operate their own contractor payroll, with a range of options to support Pay As You Earn, Umbrella and Limited Company pay models, engaging temporary workers on behalf of the client to take responsibility for all payroll and regulatory measures.
Choosing between permanent and temporary recruitment
Determining whether to opt for permanent or temporary recruitment depends largely on your company’s specific needs. If you’re looking to build a long-term team with a keen interest in your company’s growth, permanent recruitment would be a better solution. On the other hand, where you require flexibility to navigate peak seasons or projects, temporary recruitment can offer the adaptability you need.
Whilst permanent and temporary recruitment serve different business needs, both play crucial roles in a company's workforce staffing strategy. Partnering with a recruitment agency can offer businesses the expertise, efficiency, and strategic insight necessary to navigate the complexities of hiring and ensure that they are well-equipped to meet their current and future challenges head-on.
We’re here to help with your workforce planning
Whether you’re looking to expand your core team or need short-term support, understanding the various recruitment strategies and leveraging the support of a specialised agency can have extensive benefits.
If you’d like to discuss the ways in which NRL's regional recruitment teams can assist with your recruitment requirements within the UK and globally, please do not hesitate to get in touch.