Top Tips & Benefits to Attract Contractual Employees by Creating a Strong Value Proposition

Gone are the days when companies used to only hire employees on a permanent basis. The employment trends have changed and now companies prefer to hire employees on contractual and project basis.

When we talk about contract-based employment, it means that the company is hiring an employee for a fixed pre-decided period. More often than not, these employees are hired on specific projects or for specific domains of the job. Initially, when this trend started, it was looked down upon by potential job seekers. But now this trend is taking the high route.

Today, it is not only preferred by potential job seekers but also by employers. This brings us to a critical question: how to build a convincing Employee Value Proposition? But for that, we must understand this concept.

What Is Employee Value Proposition?

Employee value proposition is the quality that a company promises to deliver consistently to its stakeholders. In simpler words, it means that as a company, you have something to offer to all your stakeholders at work. These stakeholders include the company, management, clients and, of course, the employees.

So, when we talk about creating a strong employee value proposition for employees, we are looking at how a company can offer value additions to the employees that attract them towards this work.

Let us, therefore, understand how to create a strong value proposition to attract contractors.

Creating a Strong Value Proposition for Employees

1. Think of all the employees on the same line

The status of employment, be it contractual or permanent, matters in terms of the legal and official conditions. But when you are hiring an employee for contractual work, employers need to think of them as “at par” with permanent employees.

Apart from offering compatible salaries as per market trends, the company also needs to offer non-financial benefits to them like equal opportunities for development and the liberty to learn from mistakes. To start with that, they need to treat such employees like they’re permanently employed.

2. Making contractual workers feel welcome at work

The answer to how to build a convincing employee value proposition is as complex as how to develop good interpersonal relationships. But to start with, whenever new members are added to the existing setting, be it a company or a family, the onus of making them feel that they are welcome here falls on the existing members of the workforce.

Companies can hire employees for work but these employees will deliver good quality work only when they feel accepted and like they are a part of the company as well. The first step towards it is making them feel welcome at work. That is how you create a strong value proposition to attract contract workers.

3. Offering more than compatible salaries

We often see that multiple companies hire the same kind of candidates for similar job roles. If you enquire about them, you would notice that they also offer compatible salaries. Then, the company needs to offer more than just a paycheck to its contractual employees. These things could be tangible like leaves, medical and other insurances, perks, etc.

Irrespective of those things though, the company needs to also offer opportunities for growth and development, both personal and professional. That would be one way to create a really strong employee value proposition.

4. Supporting the employees consistently

To attract contract workers, a company must create a strong value proposition. For this, it can provide support to its contractual employees as they do for the permanent employees. This could be done in multiple ways like asking the employees to take up tasks of prime responsibilities, assigning important assignments to them, etc.

That gradually builds trust in them that they may stay here for a limited time but their presence now matters to the company and that they are important. They could also be connected with other departments and persons in the company that they can directly reach out to.

That serves the purpose of providing support to the employees. Additionally, it also saves the trouble for permanent employees as they will not be expected to mediate between contractual employees and other entities.

5. Creating a good socio-cultural environment

One way to provide a strong employee value proposition is to make the workers feel connected with the rest of the company. There could be multiple ways of doing this. One such way is by engaging them in activities that provide them with the opportunity to know their coworkers a little beyond work. This creates a healthy work environment and inspires contractual employees to give the job their best.

Having learned how to create a strong employee value proposition among the contractual workforce, let us now look at the benefits of contract-based work.

Benefits for the Employer

1. Hiring employees for a limited time

Many a time, the companies do not have the same workload all year round. There might be certain projects and some assignments that a company might get for short durations. In such situations, the company needs extra workforce but only for a limited period.

Because of contractual work, the company does not have the pressure of more supply and less demand afterwards.

2. Hiring experienced employees

Since companies hire employees for a limited duration, they can distribute the budget well. This puts employers in a place where they can hire employees with higher experience and get access to better expertise. This also improves the quality of work and the workforce’s efficiency.

3. Creating specialities

Since companies can hire employees with higher experience on contract, they can take up projects that need expertise and special training. Because of this, the company can develop a pool of specialities that they can now add to their portfolio and deliver in the market.

4. Increased revenue

Since the company is able to develop specialities in the goods and services they are providing, there are better projects offered to them, which, in turn, increases their status in the market. At the same time, they also generate higher revenue due to raised standards of work they are providing.

These were some of the benefits of contractual work for a company. Now, let us take a look at how an employee is benefitted from contractual work.

Benefits for the Employees

1. Hands-on training

Some companies train their employees and then hire them for contractual purposes. This gives the employees an opportunity to develop their expertise in a specific domain.

Many times, education provides generalised knowledge about the work area but such opportunities provide hands-on training for employees, which results in them developing specific skills as well as gaining greater insight into the profile and responsibilities too.

2. More liberty and choice

Because of the nature of contractual work, the employees have more liberty to choose the kind of work they want to take up. They also can take a break of a short while after finishing one contract and before joining another one.

3. Better salaries

Since people are ready to pay for a higher quality of work, after gaining hands-on experience in a particular area, the employees can get better packages for their expertise.

Despite such advantages, taking up contractual work can be difficult for employees. In the corporate world, there is no guarantee of the next job. There are no certainties and this can be worrisome.

For this reason, it can be aversive for the employees to lean towards contract based work. Hence, a company needs to go out of its way to create a strong value proposition to attract contract workers.

When companies hire permanent employees, there is a strong value proposition that the company has to offer. Even for the contractual workers, the company needs to offer value addition that makes them overlook whatever risks contractual employment might pose.

When you offer only money for work, you are the boss. But to be a good leader and a good employer, you need to offer more than that. And our world needs more leaders. By creating a strong employee value proposition in the market, you can set an example by doing it.