When your company needs to acquire talent, you have three options: buy, build, or borrow. When you buy talent, you hire an employee. When you build talent, you cross-train an employee to assume different responsibilities. When you borrow talent, you bring a consultant aboard to complete work. Having a blend of these three types of workers helps you reach business goals. Here’s how to decide which of the three types of workers you need and how to create a recruiting strategy that works!
Hiring Employees
When you buy talent, you hire an employee. This means you add skills and experience not currently within the organization. Having a fresh set of eyes brings a new perspective to your business. Be prepared to pay competitive wages and benefits to receive the desired skills and experience, especially if unemployment is low. Also, allow time for new hires to blend with company culture.
Cross-Training Talent
When you build talent, you train employees for new or different roles. Cross-training employees can be less expensive than hiring from outside the company. It also improves employee morale and engagement. Employees need to see that your organization recognizes their contributions and is invested in their success. Since employees who cross-train need time to master new skills and gain the experience you desire, you might need to provide a longer training period. You also must know what your company needs in order to cross-train, which can be challenging. If your industry moves fast, you might not know what you need six months from now, much less two years down the road.
Bringing Aboard Contractors
Borrowing talent means bringing aboard consultants with specialized skills. These workers are essential to your staffing strategy. You receive the required skills and experience when needed, without the expense of hiring full-time employees. This is especially important for big projects or busy seasons when additional labor is needed for a specific timeframe. Since employees may feel uncomfortable working with consultants, ensure they each know their role within the organization, and why their contributions matter. Also, find ways to keep consultants connected with managers when they aren’t engaged in a project. Top consultants can be asked to return for future work.
Weighing Time and Resources
Whether you decide to build, borrow, or buy talent depends on your time and resources. If you lack time to build talent, you should hire outside the company or bring aboard contractors. If you’re short on resources, cross-train employees or bring aboard contractors, which costs less than employees.
Let Us Fill Your Recruiting Needs
Let Barracuda Staffing fill your recruiting needs. We place direct, contract, temp-to-hire, and temporary workers in light industrial/manufacturing, administrative/professional, construction, driver, and warehouse/distribution roles. Find out more today.