Contingent staffing Meaning

Contingent staff refers to temporary workers in casual employment who supplement a company's workforce.

Contingent staff definition

Contingent staff refers to temporary workers in casual employment who supplement a company's workforce. They are also known as freelancers or temporary contract workers.

Contingent staff may be hired through a staffing firm and they usually work under a contract for a fixed period of time or for a specific project. They are very popular in businesses with fluctuating seasonal staff demand – retail firms, call centres etc.

The Difference between Employee, Contingent Worker, and Independent Contractor

When looking outside the company to hire new employees, you have a number of options. If core team members are fully occupied, and you have new tasks that must be handled on an ongoing basis, it probably makes the most sense to hire additional full-time or part-time employees.

If, however, upcoming projects are of limited duration or you need specialized skills unavailable internally, then a mix of full-time employees and contingent workers may be your best bet.

There’s a wide world of talent out there, and you don’t have to approach tapping into it the same way for every individual or job. There are different ways you can engage workers that depend on your particular needs at the time you’re recruiting. But you have to know what you’re doing when you engage workers who are not employees of your company in the traditional sense.

The relationship of various workers to your company is of key concern to federal and state governments, in particular the agencies responsible for collecting payroll taxes. Confusion around these relationships is driving a growing number of lawsuits, and it’s critical that you understand the differences. Here is a fundamental look at worker classifications.

There are three factors determining how workers will serve a business:

• Their relationship to the company in need of their services (the capacity in which they work)