Jean Laporte. (photo supplied)

Temporary workers may not be as temporary as they seem. A recent survey of 100 senior Canadian executives conducted by administrative placement agency OfficeTeam revealed that 76 per cent of executives said they were incorporating the use of temporary employees into their overall staffing budget.

Companies using temporary workers is not new, of course. What is new for a growing number of organizations is the level of experience and expertise that managers can bring into their organizations on an as-needed basis through contract workers.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the federal government. Jean Laporte, director general of corporate services for the Transportation and Safety Board of Canada and a certified general accountant, told the OBJ how he has even had to hire contract specialists on a contract basis to fill the gaps in his office.

OBJ: What kind of positions do you seek contract workers for?

LAPORTE: It's quite diversified, but in the past two years, the key areas where we have had to hire contract professionals, are in the human resources area, finance officers, auditors and contracting specialists. Contracting specialists are people who actually write contracts for me, do the tendering. It sounds odd, but there is a shortage in that domain, so we have to hire someone on contract to administer other contracts.

The situation we're in is that at the entry level, we have no difficulty recruiting. We hire university graduates or entry-level accountants and HR people. But when we are looking for experienced people with accreditations, that's where we run into problems. For instance, if we are looking for a professional accountant or auditors with significant experience who can handle complex projects or policy work. That is also for HR professionals, like people accredited for classification of positions and staffing. That is where we have the biggest shortages and it is difficult to hire them and retain them because when you find people, you hire them, they work with you for a little while but then there are so many other opportunities, they move on very quickly. You can't keep them.

OBJ: So you are definitely experiencing the labour shortage. How long would you say this has been going on?

LAPORTE: It has been happening in a very problematic manner for the past two years. It probably started a few years before that but it wasn't an acute problem. We now have lots of vacancies that we can't fill on a long-term basis.

OBJ: How long are the contracts that you are seeking to fill? Would you like these people to stay longer?

LAPORTE: Right now I have one in HR that is for a year, one is contracting for five months. It varies from three to four months to a year, a year and a half.

The problem with keeping them longer is in the federal government, we have rules in terms of hiring. I can't hire without doing a competitive process so it takes a number of months to go through that process and it may not be successful the first time around. When we contract for professional people from firms, we can't retain those people on a long-term basis and we have to make sure we don't have an employer-employee relationship because they are contractors. We have to follow particular procurement rules. It is a short-term solution until we are able to staff our position with employees.

OBJ: What are the particular issues when dealing with so many contract workers?

LAPORTE: I am seeing that contract workers know the situation we are facing so they come in with their own particular set of demands. For example, I may hire a contract worker but they only want to work four days a week, or they want to work from home. We are seeing much more of that than we have seen in the past. It's no longer just how much we pay them, it's also their expectations. Back five years ago, we hired a contractor, they did what you wanted them to do, they got paid and went away. Not long ago, I hired someone in HR for six months and she said she wanted a month off for the summer. What choice do I have?

There is also a challenge for the firms who are providing those services because the demand is just so high that they are struggling to meet the capacity of employers. They are being asked to submit proposals very quickly because often these situations arise very quickly.

For example I had someone come into my office and say, "I found another job, here's my two weeks' notice." I had two weeks to find a replacement for someone who is considered a critical service in the organization. So then I turn to employment agencies and private sector firms and say, "I need someone before next Monday."

OBJ: Do you hire people to work on particular contracts as well as stop-gap placement?

LAPORTE: Yes. Audit is one area where we hire people on a project-by-project basis because it is not an effective solution to have people on a permanent basis. We require different skills sets and different specialties and there are also fluctuations in the workload. Systems enhancements and upgrades would be another area where we hire people on a project basis.

OBJ: Do you see the labour shortage as getting better or worse in the next few years?

LAPORTE: Unfortunately, I think it will get worse before it gets better. I don't see any solutions in the short term as to how things are going to turn around because a lot of people will be retiring in the next few years. And those people who are still in the system who aren't retiring, there are so many vacancies and so much demand that we keep stealing employees from one department to another. So people jump to what is more attractive and whoever has the best offer. We also have people being promoted very rapidly to senior level positions because the opportunities are there.

Editor's Note: Why didn't I think of that? For October we will profile four area businesses with new and unique products or services about how they came up with the idea, validated it with a sound business plan, secured startup capital and are courting customers.

THE EXPERTS SAY

Most companies tend to use contract workers when organizations are trying to deal with tight budgets or when they are trying to bring in people with particular expertise to share that with their teams. With an IT contract consultant, they can bring someone in, share that expertise, the person will leave in a few months and the team will have acquired that skill. Also, many organizations today work on IT projects that only last six months to a year, so it helps to bring in talent for that short space of time.

I wouldn't say that there is more of a need for contract workers, but I would say that there has been a slight increase for permanent employees over the past few years because more organizations are looking to bring in employees that they can keep. Particularly as it is becoming more difficult to find talent these days and keep them. What's working against that is that there's a high number of highly qualified IT workers who are opting for contract work rather than permanent roles or full-time roles. In our business, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified talent.

There are a lot of people who do contract IT work and they prefer it for the variety, they prefer it because it is more lucrative and it is the way they want to work. That has been going on for many years, it is just a preference.

Christopher Drummond, vice-president of marketing, CNC Global Ltd.

On a management level, there is no question that temporary workers' value is tremendous. What we are seeing a lot more of these days is that there is an option to do contract to permanent, or contract to handle immediate needs with the intention to move it to permanent, but it's pending the next round of financing, or acceptance of phase two of a product, those kinds of things.

The other times when contracting is important for employers is when they are trying to handle peak loads and times. So to handle corporate infrastructure projects, whether it is a new financial system or product, they are going to have six-month, one-year or two-year peak times where they need specialized skills and resources. In this kind of marketplace that is really getting tight, that kind of contract model is very powerful and cost-effective.

I would say SAP is a very tough area and has been consistently tough to fill for several years and is getting more so. It's the same with (Microsoft) .NET Framework, senior Java resources and on the professional side you see project management and business analysis are also becoming very difficult to tie up top talent.

In the market today, the majority of the workers are contractors by choice. Whereas in 2002, 2003, there were a lot of contractors by necessity.

Brian Brady, managing director, Si Systems Ltd., Ottawa