If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that building a business and maintaining a baseline level of operations during lean times requires a flexible workforce. Many companies shaken by the pandemic, as well as the accompanying government response, have lost both business and employees, prompting widespread restructuring and rethinking of corporate strategies in a still-unsettled economy and job market. The resulting labor shortages are expected to affect businesses across industries, possibly for years to come.

And although that may force a lot of companies to think long and hard about their operating costs, the only way to take advantage of a recovery is to participate in it. The opportunity to capture new business in the coming months and years can only be realized by growing a workforce to account for it.

Yet there’s the rub: Recruiting is one of the most labor-intensive and expensive elements associated with running a business. In this environment, how does a company forge ahead without taking too great a financial risk or falling behind?

The most logical place to start is with a contract workforce. Building a business is all about creating a system, a machine that will activate a specialist or bring a new resource online – even if only temporarily for a specific project. Maybe a company needs only a handful of new employees for a six-month contract. Maybe it’s one for three months to cover a maternity leave. Perhaps it’s a part-timer who can pitch in for a month. Hiring those workers as full-time staff would be grossly inefficient. Outsourcing the work could be expensive and lead to inconsistent results from vendors who lack the experience or understanding of a company’s unique challenges.

In a volatile market where labor shortages pervade, flexibility is one of the most chronically overlooked business assets. A talent cloud offers the flexibility companies need – plus plenty more. At PeopleCaddie, we provide a digital marketplace for professional talent, one that allows a hiring manager to easily and efficiently search for, identify and select proven contract workers.

A talent agency or headhunter may have access to freelancers, but PeopleCaddie maintains a network of contractors, building detailed and informative worker profiles and connecting businesses with the right people for the job – sometimes even contractors who have worked with the company before. Better yet, our platform allows a hiring manager to quickly identify available contractors by experience level, rate, skills and competency, cutting through much of the traditional hiring process in seconds.

During a labor shortage, a business doesn’t have to be defined solely by the availability of its permanent staff. Projecting talent needs into a murky future isn’t just difficult – it amounts to a commitment that can transform into a financial albatross. PeopleCaddie is a partner that can help build a workforce containing the desired percentage of contractors and make connections with other flexible resources for specific and finite projects and tasks. With access to a modern talent cloud, any company can design and adjust a business strategy for growth – even (and perhaps especially) when labor is scarce and at a premium.

Interested in learning how PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud and help your company in this labor market? Click here to see how we can help.