Make a temporary contract work for you

Temporary contracts are gaining popularity in Singapore as employers look for flexible staffing solutions to fill short-term roles or assist with special projects without the commitment of a permanent hire. But are temporary contracts a win-win situation for both employers and candidates?

According to a recent survey of 2,600 employers, conducted as part of the 2014 Hays Salary Guide, two thirds of employers in Asia say they use temporary or contract staff, with 20 percent expecting their employment of such staff to increase over the next 12 months.

A total of 43 percent of employers use temporary and contract staff for special projects or workloads, and a further 24 percent employ them on a regular ongoing basis.

For employers, temporary assignments offer flexibility since a temporary worker can fill both long- and short-term needs, and be engaged and released at short notice. Employers can engage temporary staff with particular expertise or to support a permanent workforce during workload peaks.

Temporary assignments reduce an employer’s administrative burden since they are paid by an agency and are fully interviewed and reference checked.

Also, they are no longer seen as simply a quick fix, but a long-term staffing solution that also offers headcount flexibility – at all levels of an organisation.

The range of temporary assignments currently on offer in Singapore is proof of the highly specialised expertise that employers are hiring in on a short-term basis.

For instance, current temporary assignments in Singapore include a Regional Financial Analyst role for a leading global real estate firm. A five-month contract, it pays $8,000 per month and requires a candidate who will be accountable for the successful delivery of a comprehensive range of financial and support services.

Singapore’s IT employers are also utilising temporary assignments. For instance, a global resource company currently has a six-month contract on offer, paying $800 per day, for an IT Security Consultant to review and analyse security strategies, define security principles, reference architectures, develop security policies and standards, and determine appropriate data loss protection policies.

Singapore’s banking sector too is utilising temporary staff. For instance, a leading international bank is looking for a Finance Change Business Analyst at the AVP level for a 12-month contract offering $7,000 per month.

Duties include partnering with the finance team to work on system improvements, such as document process and systems flows, writing functional specifications, managing the UAT process, and project managing the implementation.

And in good news for employers, such assignments are popular from a candidate’s perspective, as they allow people to expand their skills base, increase their exposure to varied workloads, systems, and industries, and make new contacts.

Given this popularity, employers can use temporary assignments to benefit from the expertise of top talent at all levels.