Brentwood Search

Hiring Freezes - Avoiding an Impact on Your Business

This has past year has been a challenging economic times for most companies.  And the end is not yet in sight. Throughout the first quarter of the New Year many businesses will be forced to layoff a significant number of employees.  Many other corporations have instituted hiring freezes while they assess the seriousness of their company’s position.  These are difficult decisions, but companies sometimes have no choice but to take these steps.

Still the end result of workforce downsizing often means that current employees, those that have survived round after round of layoffs, are having to shoulder greater workloads to make up for being shorthanded.  Not only can this result in employee burnout, but also a backlog of work that is not being handled in a timely fashion.   So how does a company deal with these short term overloads before they jeopardize the company’s ongoing business?

At Brentwood Search we have found that often during a hiring freeze, contract consultants are not considered “headcount.”   We are experiencing an increased demand for contracted professionals who can be hired to step in and help out during critical periods.   These professionals are highly qualified, sometimes executives who simply like the flexibility that contract work provides.   Others are between jobs, and contracting provides a stable income while they conduct their job search.

We tailor contract placements to fit a company’s exact need.   A manager will want someone who needs little training, someone who can simply step up and handle the task or project to which they have been assigned.   If the hiring manager is overburdened with work already, they will be reticent to devote a good deal of time to training temporary workers.

In the end, the work gets done in an efficient and cost effective way.   The burden is taken off of full time employees so that they can focus on the quality of work.   And in many instances the contracted consultant proves so valuable that when market conditions do improve, they have built useful relationships and may even have proved their value to the company.   It is not unusual to see contact consultants migrate to full time positions when hiring freezes are lifted.

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