For many complex scheduling environments that depend on their employees 24 hours a day, seven days a week, organizations are investing in contingent workers to fill in gaps when needed.
Manufacturing accounted for 38% of the US temporary staffing market in 2016, representing the largest chunk of industries utilizing temp workers and contractors. A Contingent Labor survey by Accenture found that a typical energy company’s workforce is made up of 30-50% of contingent workers.
Despite a dependence on temporary labor, they are not being fully integrated into the day-to-day flow like permanent, full-time employees. In fact, Deloitte’s 2018 Human Capital Trends Survey reported that only 16% of oil and gas respondents claim to have a well-defined strategy for their hybrid workforce in place.
Your contingent staff needs defined performance goals and proper training. Temp workers and contractors should be subjected to the same cultural norms that full-time employees adhere to, and there are safety hazards to consider when employees receive disjointed training.
It’s time to integrate your temp workers fully into your scheduling and skills evaluation process. And it’s easier said than done! Here’s how.
Why Temp Worker Integration Starts with Your Scheduling System
Fully integrating temp workers isn’t just an HR initiative; it starts with your scheduling infrastructure. When contingent staff is managed in silos separate from your permanent workforce, the risks compound quickly:
- Scheduling gaps go unfilled because temp worker availability isn’t visible in real time
- Overtime costs spike when managers don’t have a complete picture of who is already working
- Safety and compliance risks increase when temp worker certifications aren’t tracked alongside full-time employees
- Temp workers feel disconnected, reducing engagement and increasing turnover
Treating temp workers as a true part of your workforce, in your systems and not just on paper, is the first step toward a hybrid workforce strategy that actually works. Without the right tools in place, even the best intentions around contingent labor management will fall short.
Mitigate Rogue Spend
Picture this: you’re the COO of a food and beverage company, and a new lemonade is about to hit the market in time for summer. You need to have a chat with HR about your intended production needs, and there are three ways you can viably go about getting more manpower to hit these production targets. You can either a) leverage your best, most qualified employees and have them put in overtime hours; b) hire new, full-time workers and train them specifically for this product line; or c) bring on some temporary workers to work exclusively on the product launch.
If your current scheduling process doesn’t act on real-time workforce analytics, you’re not going to be sure which option is best. For example, you could choose Option A, only to realize that previously unmonitored overtime hours are now through the roof, and it actually would have been cheaper to just onboard new people part-time.
Monitor Performance (and Keep Compliant)
Only employees with the right certifications/permissions should be scheduled for specific tasks. It’s easy to lose track of employee qualifications and certifications when you host all your employee information in an Excel spreadsheet or on paper, especially when there is a revolving door of temp workers.
If information on your permanent workforce is scattered, then it’s safe to assume that certifications for your contingent staff are as well. But contingent employees are still employees, and their information should be hosted in the same place as everyone else’s. You need a fully functional, integrated qualification management system (QMS) that automatically breaks down the skills across your entire workforce (including temp workers) and allocates the right person for the job.
When schedulers can ensure that they assign the most qualified workers to each position at the click of a button. They can even search and identify the most optimal employees for the shift based on specific skills and certifications. By having all the information centralized, even the temp worker scheduled for the shortest period of time will be easily integrated.
About Indeavor
Indeavor is an automated frontline AI shift scheduling platform built for complex, 24/7 operations across food and beverage, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and government. The platform’s core promise is simple: get the Right Person in the Right Place at the Right Time, every single shift. Indeavor combines a secure, deterministic scheduling engine with pervasive AI across analytics, reporting, and the supervisor experience to auto-generate fully compliant schedules in minutes. Key capabilities include:
- AI-powered schedule generation that accounts for production demand, skills, qualifications, availability, union rules, and fatigue limits
- Real-time absence management and backfill to handle call-offs without disrupting operations
- Skills and compliance management to ensure every worker, including temp workers, is qualified and eligible for each assignment
- A mobile self-service app (Indeavor Engage) that gives frontline employees visibility into their schedules, the ability to request time off, and options to volunteer for open shifts
- Seamless integrations with HCM, ERP, and payroll systems to keep workforce data consistent across platforms
Indeavor’s people operations platform is trusted by some of the world’s most mission-critical enterprises. Schedule a demo with Indeavor today to learn how to integrate your frontline temp workers.
About the Author
Claire Pieper is the Digital Marketing Specialist for Indeavor. In her role, she specializes in crafting strategic and engaging content, ensuring that customers are well-informed. Claire is dedicated to enhancing the customer experience and optimizing the user journey through Indeavor’s solutions. To learn more or get in touch, connect with Claire on LinkedIn.
