The sudden boom of the IT industry created a demand for IT professionals that many were eager to fill. Nowadays, thousands of new university graduates from IT-related courses are competing for any given position in just about every state in the U.S. With such a massive available workforce, it has become an increasingly available option for employers to hire IT professionals on a temporary basis so that they’d be able to continually replace employed IT professionals with ones that are newly trained and therefore more updated on new trends in the fast-moving IT industry.
Nothing Permanent but Change
There are some advantages to hiring temporary workers that are immediately obvious. First, there is the fact that new employees are more probable to have experience with new technologies and new standards, which are updated quite frequently in an industry as fast-paced as IT. Chances are good that you won’t have to spend as much on temporary workers, too, because things like retirement benefits and tenure packages don’t exist for them (or, at least, such benefits are not as extensive as those for permanent employees).
Hiring mostly temporary IT professionals can have cost-related drawbacks, too, although they’re not as obvious or as visible as the benefits. The biggest disadvantage of hiring IT professionals temporarily would be the cost of the replacement and the consequent training of the new employee. The former entails work hours for the hiring authority (usually the manager or someone from the HR department) that has to read through all the resumes, screen them and then pick out a shortlist. Interviews also consume precious time and resources. Training will use up resources as well. You spend money to pay the trainee on top of what you’ll have to pay for whoever will train your new employee.
The Benefits of Permanence
Getting IT professionals as permanent employees isn’t as bad as what some people paint it out to be. For one, you are assured of continuity and consistency if the same group of people from previous projects will be planning and implementing your next one. The experience is also a critical factor because permanent workers would be more familiar with the needs of your company and would therefore be able to make solutions better tailored to those needs. Permanent employees also do not need the same kind of training as entirely new IT professionals and will only need supplemental knowledge to augment what they already know.
Some employers view the tenure of IT professionals as a disadvantage because, as has been stated, higher salaries (as if their salaries weren’t already high to begin with) and benefit packages come into the discussion.
Which One to Pick
The decision to get temporary or permanent IT professionals depends entirely on the IT needs of your company. If your company’s demand for IT skills and solutions is pretty much constant throughout the year, it would be a good idea to get permanent IT professionals on board. If, on the other hand, your company experiences seasonal spikes in demand for IT skills and systems, it’s time to think about hiring IT professionals on a project basis. Doing so will get you the skills and expertise you need without having to pay salaries for the rest of the year when that expertise isn’t required.