Contingent Workforce: Adapting Management Styles for a Successful Integration

Are full-time employees a thing of the past?

Well, no, but these days, they’re certainly not alone in the labor landscape. More and more employers are incorporating contingent workers for various tasks, giving companies the flexibility to respond to market needs and remain competitive.

However, this approach often creates new challenges for HR and managers. The integration and management of a blended workforce are predicted to become a common challenge in the years to come.

So, how do you build a smooth-running workforce if you’re hiring contingent workers? Let’s dive in.

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Benefits of integrating contingent workers into traditional teams

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Access to talent from around the world

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Companies need help finding people with the right skills in the local market, especially in highly competitive regions or ones with few suitable candidates. In such cases, getting access to talented professionals worldwide can be a godsend. The global market offers not only in-demand skills but rare ones. Need someone to create neural networks for emotion recognition or analyze genomic data for medical research? They’re just a search away.

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Flexible headcount management

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With contingent workers, you can quickly increase or decrease your company’s headcount as market demand fluctuates. This flexibility is critical to maintaining agility in a fast-changing business environment or when a team needs reinforcement for a specific period, such as during an annual high season.

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Saving money and time

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By hiring contingent workers, you can save money on benefits, office space, and training. It’s also generally faster to find a freelancer than to bring someone on staff full-time.

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Probationary periods

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Working with freelancers can also be a way to scout for full-time employees. Hire someone for one project, and you’ll quickly understand whether they’re a good fit for your company.

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Why leaders need to adapt their management styles

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Teams that combine full-time employees and independent contractors are examples of the blended workforce approach. Despite the advantages, this creates new challenges for managers, for whom traditional techniques may not be sufficient. It's important for HR departments to understand what changes are needed to help managers adapt.

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What challenges might there be?

1. Lack of engagement. Freelancers and contractors are often less immersed in the company culture, which can reduce their motivation and efficiency. Managers need to find new ways to keep them engaged.
2. Different schedules. Freelancers may be working from different time zones. This can make scheduling collaboration and keeping track of tasks more difficult, especially if a blended team decides to adopt flexible hours for everyone.
3. Different attitudes. Freelancers and full-time employees can have very different expectations and attitudes to work, which can cause tension in the team. Managers need to adapt their approach to each employee while maintaining fairness.
4. Security issues. When freelancers and contractors work remotely, they need access to corporate data, which creates the risk of information leakage. Clear protocols for protecting data and maintaining corporate security are crucial.
5. Communication difficulties. Having some employees work remotely while others are in the office creates multiple information environments within the team. This can cause misunderstandings and friction. Additionally, full-time employees can become dissatisfied if they sense that freelancers are getting special perks, such as schedule flexibility and permanent remote work.

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These challenges are real, but they’re not insurmountable.

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The AIHR method: 6 techniques to manage a blended workforce

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The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) has put together a few tips for handling blended teams. These are specific techniques for managing full-time employees and freelancers simultaneously, creating an environment where everyone feels connected, valued, and productive.

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1. Provide effective onboarding and integration. Proper onboarding helps workers get up to speed quickly, learn about corporate values, and see how things work at the company.Write clear instructions and organize your documentation carefully using a service like Notion, Confluence, or Evernote. It’s good to get feedback from current employees who have gone through the onboarding process and know first-hand what issues newcomers might have.Another way to facilitate integration is to assign the new employee a mentor who can answer their questions.

2. Establish clear communication channels. Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Trello, Google Workspace, Miro, and Asana—find the right tools, establish clear guidelines (e.g., this channel is for work questions, and that one is for fun), and encourage communication among all team members.

3. Promote an inclusive culture. Create an environment where everyone's contribution is valued equally. Involve freelancers so they feel like an integral part of the team—for instance, you might ask them to give short presentations on their work.

4. Offer flexible arrangements. Take into account the needs of all employee groups. Flexible schedules and telecommuting can do a lot to encourage productivity and job satisfaction, but managers need to think through how their teams will stay on the same page. For instance, midweek standups might be replaced by text updates in Slack or Notion.

5. Adapt your performance evaluation system. Set transparent goals and evaluate employees fairly. Timely evaluations help managers adjust their processes, defuse tension, and motivate their teams.

6. Train leaders. Managers will need support adjusting to the blended model. HR should provide training and check in to see if there are any issues.

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More recommendations from Mellow

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1. Clearly define roles in the team. Assign roles at the very outset so that every team member understands precisely what tasks are their responsibility.

2. Look after your team’s well-being. Make sure they have what they need to stay happy and maintain a good work-life balance. For full-time employees, this means things like paid days off and flexibility from their manager; for freelancers, it can mean co-working spaces and discounts on meal delivery.One component of happiness at work is a trusting atmosphere where everyone can share ideas. Informal activities like games, quizzes, and book clubs can help — all of which can be organized remotely.

3. Manage conflicts. Experts say it’s important to have a safe space to discuss conflicts. A leader's job is to control their intensity: raising the temperature to engage team members in acknowledging problems and looking for solutions but lowering it to avoid crises.

4. Give feedback regularly. Having remote employees in different time zones can make group calls difficult. Nevertheless, regular meetings where you share news, discuss results, and solve problems are very important.Find slots to hold team meetings, perhaps once a week, and don’t skip face-to-face calls. It's usually easier for employees to confide in their managers in this format.It’s crucial to respect your team's time by getting through meetings efficiently. Always prepare a written agenda and watch the clock.

5. Keep your full-time employees motivated. Full-time employees may feel left out if they see freelancers getting more freedom and flexibility than they do. To keep them motivated, set aside interesting tasks for them, build individual career development plans, and offer reward programs (bonuses, bonuses, bonuses).

6. Trust your team. Give freelancers and full-time employees alike the freedom to find their own solutions to problems. Trusting in a team’s competence allows a manager to free up resources for more complex tasks, such as strategic planning and setting priorities in times of change.

7. Make sure you aren’t breaking the law. Navigating labor and tax laws for employees from different countries is a huge task. Requirements are constantly changing and need to be monitored. Research legal risks and set up a legal management system to avoid violations. This will help protect your employees and the interests of the company.With Mellow, you spend less money and comply with international laws while working with a contingent workforce. Book your demo today. 

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With Mellow, you spend less money and comply with international laws while working with a contingent workforce. Book your demo today.