Ensuring you have the right talent for your team as you start, grow and change is vital to your business. For our clients, many of whom are HQ'd in other locations, having someone physically in the market is a top reason for bringing someone else onto the team. Talent, or the human capital working for your company, is not just having the right people but also the right roles and type of working relationship that suits your organizational structure. One way to think of it, is a company can Buy, Build or Borrow talent. Let's delve into the possibilities.
1. Employees
Many people think of the traditional employee-employer relationship (buying or building) when they first recognize they need additional help. Employees can be full or part time and either permanent (no fixed end date) or temporary. If you're doing the work of two or have many missed opportunities and see the need extending indefinitely, an employee may be the right option. Typically employees are a longer term commitment and if hire the right person, can grow with your organization to take on new responsibilities as needed. You can build a team that shares your vision, values and wants to see the company succeed as your interests are aligned.
Throughout Canada there are regulations that put some restrictions on the employment relationship. These include employment standards such minimum rates of pay including overtime, vacation and leave, and termination notice. In addition there are sections of the workers' safety and insurance (illness or injury related to work), privacy act and human rights act that apply specifically to employees. If an employer is unionized, there are additional rules to be followed governing the relationship. While most of the regulations are to protect employees, there are some that are to protect the employer. These include confidentiality, non-solicitation, IP assignment and redress if they suddenly quit and knowingly cost the business. In Canada, no employment contract is required, but it is strongly recommended to ensure clarity for both parties.
2. Dependent contractors and Independent contractors
Contractors are a flexible resource that can be brought on for a specific project or time. They can cover when someone is on extended leave, when have a spike of busyness such as summer or the holidays or just need a specific skill. Within IT and Events, this type of relationship is very common - many individuals going from contract to contract. In some ways they are similar to employees as you can contract with them directly and will want to interview them and ensure they align with your culture. However, in Canada, there are very specific rules about what makes an independent contractor and its not just in how you word the contract. See BrightGo's article on Employee vs. Contractor here.
3. Temps through Agencies
Agency temps provide benefits of contractors in that they are targeted short term help but the relationship is managed by an agency. This type of talent is common with Administration and entry level roles. A growing professional role through agencies are Virtual Assistants that bill by the minute to cover various administration, marketing and operational roles. The agency is the actual employer who then your company pays for the services. The agency manages hiring, performance management, pay and leaves so you just work with the agency for your needs. You will still want to do training and imparting your company culture especially if they have customer facing roles.
4. Outsourced
Outsourcing can take many forms. Off or on-shoring Manufacturing and Logistics is common but many back-end office services can be outsourced too. Processing transactions, answering customer inquires and providing technical support are also commonly done. Rather than one individual who is supporting your company like with contractors and temps, it is a company doing a block of work for you. Your contract for services will be with the company who then has their employees or even sub-contractors complete the actual work.
BrightGo offers this type of service for the implementation of many phases of your business plan and strategy. We work with the various companies and individuals to get the work done so you just have one point of contact who knows your business well rather than coordinating with many different people. We do this commonly with marketing like your website and social media, your systems like payroll and POS and recruitment to find those contractors and employees to join your team.
5. Consultants
The use of consultants varies a lot by country and sector. Legal and Immigration, Accounting, and Strategy are commonly thought of as go-to professions when need external advice. The key advantage to this is targeted, experienced advice, tools and interventions by someone who can focus on a specific issue, resolve and then exit. With BrightGo, we also ensure there is some capacity building so you don't become reliant for every little issue. In recent discussions with one of our colleagues in the Middle East & India they noted that in India the use of consultants is growing so rapidly, as companies look to keep payroll costs down, that the consulting firms are overwhelmed. This creates a challenge as companies are expecting the consultant to be a solution for them but instead they need to expend energy managing the busy junior consultants.
6. Alliances and Partnerships
These are formal or informal agreements to mutually benefit each other. This can take the form of market entry into a new country where you have a distribution partner or an alliance that offers a complimentary service to yours. As BrightGo helps clients from all over the world when they enter their new market of Canada, we often act as an "instant network". One way we do this is through our alliances so have a top-notch law firm, accounting and bookkeeping company, or immigration consultant to help you when it is out of our scope.
7. Secondments
A lesser known way to "borrow" talent is through secondments from various partners, suppliers, vendors and customers. For larger companies, the secondments may come from other departments or offices. You may also be able to arrange secondments through companies and sectors experiencing temporary slow periods or work stoppages due to non-business reasons such as a port disruption or natural disasters. They will want their employees to return but this provides a learning opportunity, a way to strengthen your relationship and it also helps them as they keep their employees employed rather than having to lay off.
As you can see, there are many different ways to have people help your organization thrive. Picking the right type of relationship can be just as important as picking the right person or company to help.
As a management consulting firm, BrightGo Solutions offers several ways to bring talent and resources into your organization. We can help with recruitment and management of employees and contractors, we offer an in-person outsourced HR service where we come to your office 1-5 days a week to support your team as they grow, and the more traditional consulting support for our projects and advisory service. Contact us today to get started on sourcing the best talent for your team.