A SIGNIFICANT proportion of employers in SA do not view contingent labour as strategic workforce accelerators.
SANCHIA TEMKIN
Despite the economic downturn, SA has responded negatively to using contingent workers as a workforce strategy.
These are some of the findings of a new study released by recruitment company Manpower SA yesterday.
Manpower regional MD Lars Forseth said: “As SA emerges from the recession, employers’ natural instinct will be to exercise caution around hiring permanent talent, reaching first for contingent workers to fill the gap — and they should.”
However, Forseth said the winners in the post-recovery period would be those companies that leveraged contingent workers as accelerators, having mastered the art of managing a flexible mix of permanent and contingent workers to optimise their performance, increasing their speed of execution, building talent capability, keeping fixed costs low and doing more with less.
The study, which was carried out among 750 South African companies, indicated that only 35,5% of companies viewed contingent workers as a key element in their workforce strategy with the main aim to complete work during seasonal periods.
The study showed that on a global level, South African companies ranked at 35% in employing contingent workers, compared with the average 22%, while Hungary was ranked the highest at 38,1% and Poland ranked the lowest at 10,8%.
“Even though SA has responded negatively to using contingent workers as a workforce strategy, it remains lower than the global average of 74,8%, with Poland holding the greatest record at 87,1%,” said Forseth.
The survey also disclosed that the KwaZulu-Natal region employed the most contingent workers at 37,1%.
The Eastern Cape had the majority of organisations who would not employ contingent staff at 68,2%.
“As employers and employees alike move towards more flexible ways of working to suit flexible lifestyle changes, it is time to start leveraging the contingent workforce strategically to gain access to people with scarce, specialised skill sets: outsource noncore business functions; try out candidates before hiring for full-time positions; and provide longer-term workforce flexibility,” Forseth said.
