Changing Workforce Dynamics and Staffing Trends
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified contract services as one of the 10 fastest growing employment sectors throughout the rest of this decade. The reasons are very simple and probably coincide with similar business dynamics in your Organization:

• The workload of even the most successful companies expands and contracts periodically.
• A typical workforce is comprised of permanent staff, subcontractors, and temporary workers.
• The ratio of subcontractors and temporary workers to core staff is increasing.
• The number of available, technical contract specialists is dramatically increasing.
• The ability to employ temporary specialists is often critical to an organization's success.

According to Charles Handy, the noted industry expert in organizational management, by the year 2000, more than 2000, more than half of the jobs in industrialized countries will be held by professionals who will work as subcontractors or temporary employees within many different organizations.

In his view, an organization that realizes the benefits and actively utilizes temporary professionals flourishes because hiring managers realize that they don't need to permanently hire all of the people required to get the work done, but can rely upon con-tract service agencies who extend their staffing capacity.

For these reasons, many companies are reevaluating and adjusting their human resource strategies to account for changes in the composition of the workforce, the organization of work itself, and the competitive environment. Fueled by global competition and facing a shortage of qualified technical resources, such companies are increasingly turning to contract. New Workplace Staffing Trends service firms to help with their over-all human resource planning and technical staffing. Similar data from the National Technical Services Association suggest that a key component of most successful public and private sector staffing plans will include a thorough understanding and utilization of contractors.

Technical services firms play a key role in an organization's efficiency by minimizing the costs associated with staff increases to handle peak loads or special projects. The use of con-tract personnel reduces recruiting and training costs and also minimizes termination and out-placement costs associated with reduction in force of permanent employees. The successful hiring manager of the 1990s is one who understands equally well how to plan for, hire and manage both permanent and contract employees.