Contract Staffing as the name speaks is a method of recruiting required human resource on contract. This contract could take place between one company (mostly staffing firm) and an individual or between two companies. Contract Staffing helps organizations to quickly ramp up project teams with as few or many qualified consultants as are required to fill short-term and long-term needs.

Contract staffing differs from temporary staffing in the sense that the staffing is done for each individual position and not for the function as whole. Contract employees are individually chosen and hence are generally more professional. The association between the organization and the employee lasts for fixed duration and is subject to renewal. Contract staffing helps companies add to the workforce selectively and in specific areas. Although Professional Services (PS) in Human Contracting is a fairly new concept in India, the PS market is fast maturing and catching up with the changing industry trends. Though only at 1%, it is a fairly significant share considering India can also be represented as using contract staffing when being compared with the figures of the US and Europe.

The contingent employment industry is traditionally a leading indicator of post-recession economic conditions and a reliable predictor of future employment trends. Cautious employers hire temps first, hedging their bets on a recovery, recognizing it is easier to scale back if demand does not materialize. This cycle is no different, except that this time employers plan to maintain a larger portion of their workforce as contract employees even after business recovers.
During the recession, employers learned to refocus on their core business, realizing that a smaller core workforce that was well trained and technologically astute was more effective and nimble than their pre-recession staff. As firms emerge from the recession they are, of course, beginning to hire full time workers but they are also seeing a larger role for highly skilled contract workers who are engaged on an as-needed basis.

1. Prior experience offering contract placement services, but unable to sustain the staff to keep it going. Now that things are getting better, would like to restart that business offering.
2. Understanding that companies want to ‘test’ new workers, and they don’t want to pay all the benefits full-time employees are entitled to.
3. Hiring contractors also helps companies reduce legal risk (and legal costs) because most of the liability for complying with employment laws falls on the contracting back-office.