The Value of Resource Management: Leveraging Contract Employees for IT Staff Augmentation
By leveraging contract labor, businesses can achieve cost efficiency, flexibility, and access to specialized skills, all of which are crucial in times of market volatility and economic uncertainty.
A recent Easy Skill article noted that 83% of companies are now relying on contract roles in their organization. To most observers of the market, this signals a seismic shift in how IT leaders approach talent acquisition. Like most business decision-makers in corporate IT, you’ve faced challenges in finding, recruiting, and retaining qualified talent to execute your strategic projects. Whether it’s upgrading your IT infrastructure, migrating your legacy systems, developing new applications, or securing your data, you need a team of experts who can deliver high-quality work on time and on budget.
However, in times of market volatility and economic uncertainty, the traditional approach of hiring full-time employees (FTEs) may not be the most viable option. Projects get delayed or canceled, budgets are slashed, and priorities realigned overnight. When you’re operating in such an unpredictable environment, you don’t want to be locked into long-term commitments and costs that can strain your limited resources.
This is where Blue Mantis Resource Management can make a significant difference by providing IT staff augmentation through contract employees. Compared to FTEs, contract employees offer several advantages over full-time employees, especially during periods of economic instability:
- Flexibility and Scalability
- Cost Efficiency
- Access to Specialized Skills
How Can Contractors Increase Business Agility and Scalability?
One of the standout benefits of hiring contract employees is the flexibility it affords. Every successful organization runs at “internet speed” today where project demands can spike or plummet with little warning, companies need to scale their workforce swiftly and efficiently. Imagine a scenario where your business must develop a new customer-facing application to seize a sudden market opportunity. With contract hiring, you are empowered to onboard developers, testers, and project managers for the duration of the project and release them once it’s complete—no layoffs or redeployment required. This adaptability is a game-changer in volatile times. Moreover, when economic conditions take a downturn, companies often face tough choices about reducing staff. Laying off full-time employees doesn’t just incur a monetary cost for severance, it also hurts morale for those who remain, and you risk harming your company’s reputation in the market. That layoff might only be for the quarter, but a bad Glassdoor review can linger for years.
Contract hiring sidesteps these pitfalls. When a project wraps up or budgets tighten, contract workers can be phased out without the financial or emotional fallout of cutting permanent staff. This lean, responsive workforce model is perfect for navigating times of economic uncertainty.
What Cost Efficiencies Can IT Contractors Deliver?
Hiring full-time employees often entails significant costs beyond just their salaries, including benefits, onboarding expenses, ongoing training, and severance packages—especially if projects are delayed or terminated prematurely. On top of all that, a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) “State of the Workplace Report” said 73% of HR leaders say inflation is the top concern for organizations. Especially for midsized companies striving to maximize their IT budgets, these financial concerns can detract from critical operational priorities. Contract employees, on the other hand, provide a more streamlined cost structure, as they are compensated solely for the work they perform without long-term financial obligations. Blue Mantis’s Resource Management solution amplifies these cost efficiencies by ensuring rapid access to highly skilled IT contractors without recruitment fees, minimizing administrative overhead, and accelerating onboarding timelines.
A typical customer scenario that Blue Mantis Resource Management would service is a midsized healthcare sector client faced with a database migration from aging on-prem hardware to secure cloud infrastructure. This project would require experts across cloud, cybersecurity, networking, and data enablement at multiple locations. With Blue Mantis Resource Management, the healthcare provider could hire contractors pre-vetted as experts within their respective practices in as little as 72 hours, avoiding prolonged recruitment processes. When you compare the average salary of IT contractors versus FTEs, that midsized healthcare provider could save over $50,000 in annual costs per employee on average. With every dollar allocated to advancing core IT initiatives rather than administrative inefficiencies, the CEO at that midsized company not only achieves their desired business outcome but also enjoys a distinct financial advantage when there are any economic instabilities.
How Do IT Contractors Deliver Specialized Skills On Demand?
Contract hiring solves a difficult issue in the modern workforce by granting you access to a global pool of experts precisely when and where they’re needed. While it’s true that most midsized companies benefit from dedicated IT staff (which can be made even more efficient with Managed Services), there are a number of IT projects that demand niche expertise that isn’t needed year-round. A company might require cybersecurity specialists for a one-time security audit or data scientists to train an AI model for a specific initiative. Hiring FTEs for these roles would be overkill, locking in high costs for specialized skills that just sit idle once the project is done. It’s in these scenarios when hiring an IT contractor makes the most sense.
A Manpower survey found that 77% of employers struggle to fill open roles, especially in IT, where demand for specialized skills outpaces supply. Finding talent with specialization in emerging technologies can be even more difficult to find. Recall that in 2017 every business IT leader was scrambling to find people who could execute on their cloud migration and digital transformation initiatives. We all know that in today’s market, the hottest talent all have AI-related skills on their résumés and by 2030, it will likely be quantum computing. Blue Mantis Resource Management solutions help companies to quickly fill specialized and emerging skills gaps and ensure high-quality execution for your critical IT initiatives. We have a diverse and deep pool of top-tier talent spanning various IT disciplines—whether it’s for upgrading IT infrastructure, database ERP/CRM/HRIS planning, application development, or even interim CIO and CISO positions.
Make Your Strategic Move for Uncertain Times
Augmenting your IT staff with Blue Mantis Resource Management ensures execution on your strategic projects without the burden of long-term employment contracts, giving businesses the agility to tackle specialized challenges without overcommitting resources. I’d like to show you how my team at Blue Mantis can assess your current IT staffing needs (no matter how niche or specialized) and find qualified experts for your organization in as few as three business days:
Let’s meet to discuss how Blue Mantis Resource Management can help you boost your IT strategy and meet your desired business outcomes.
