Increasingly businesses are in need of a wide range of technical skills. Being able to keep ahead of emerging technologies can be a vital part of companies staying in front of their competition. But naturally this comes with a challenge – technical expertise is in demand, and that makes it expensive.
This has created a digital skills gap. In fact, as many as 75% of executives state that they have had challenges in recruiting staff with the right digital skills. However, thankfully there is a solution that many businesses have found to be useful; technical contractors. These are highly skilled experts who can be brought in to your business for a short time or for a single project in order to access their skills.
Here we take a look at how SMEs can leverage the opportunities with technical contractors and make the most of having these experts working for them.
Understand the difference between contractor and employee
It is firstly important to make the distinction between an employee and a contractor. It is well known that the government are looking to implement changes to the current IR35 law, which attempt to ensure that employees are not being ‘disguised’ as contractors, and therefore avoiding having to pay certain taxes.
Companies that don’t want to fall foul of the law must draw a clear distinction between their employees and their contractors. Have a specific written policy in place to help anyone in HR or making hiring decisions understand the difference. This can be hugely valuable to you in the long-term.
Work in harmony with employees
It is essential to make sure that contractors are all to work in harmony with employees – it can be a difficult task for contractors to attempt to come into the business and integrate seamlessly, especially if they aren’t given any help by management.
It is a great idea to provide employees with information and understand why the contractors are being brought in, how long they are going to be around for, and the best ways to work with them. It is not unusual for staff who are left in the dark about contractors to feel that they are impostors.
Pick the right contractor for the job
It is often the case that bringing in a contractor supplies your business with specific skills that you didn’t have before. This can make it possible for you to take on challenging project.s “Depending on your current infrastructure and the in-house resources you have available, something like taking on a Jira migration can be daunting,” says Gerald Tombs, CEO of ClearHub “but with a specialist on hand to make sure your migration is done in the most efficient way, you’ll significantly reduce disruption to your development.”
Of course, it is also important to recognise that you need to select the right contractor for the job that you need doing. Just because you have worked with a skilled web developer in the past, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily right for the next job. Part of the benefits of using a contractor is getting the unique skills that they have for a short period of time.
Set realistic expectations
If you want to get as much out of your contractors as possible you need to have realistic expectations about what they can achieve. It is a great idea to sit down and discuss the project that they are being brought in to work on – they will be able to provide honest feedback about what can be achieved and what will need more time.
Asking too much of a contractor in a short space of time can lead to rushed work that ultimately won’t be the quality that you need.
Don’t micromanage them
It is also important to note that technical contractors generally do not need to be micromanaged. They are there to do a very specific job that they have the expertise for – trying to get involved what they are doing too often can be at best frustrating, and at worst actually slow them down and reduce the quality of their work.
With technical contractors, it is always a better idea to let them do what they are good at.
Final thoughts
SMEs need to ensure that they are getting value for money from their technical contractors – so following the advice above can be important not just from the perspective of productivity and quality of work, but also financially.
