Following up from our blog earlier this month on the various types of employment categories there are, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at the advantages of employing full-time staff compared with contractors or casuals. As a business owner, the decision to employ full-time, part-time or casual staff can be a difficult one. When you hire full time employees they will usually have a long-term commitment to you and your business. This, however, is not always the case with casual employees or contractors. Because full-time employees will generally work thirty five or more hours a week, they will feel pride in their position, have a greater sense of job security and also feel the satisfaction of working for a business that they can call ‘home’. Most employees want to feel that they are an important part of a team and if they feel this they will generally ‘go the extra mile’.

With full time employees you don’t have to ‘wear all the hats’ in your business yourself. Instead you can delegate tasks permanently to others. They know you and how you like things done, and can do the work without the need for continual direction. This frees up your time to do the tasks best suited to you, and if you want to take a break from the business you can feel more confident that someone is looking after things in your absence. Full- time staff can also undertake a variety of different tasks, learn new skills and diversify their talents. Casual or part-time workers, on the other hand, may have less experience and be limited or unwilling in the types of tasks they perform. This flexibility in staff resourcing also means you don’t need to scramble to find help when your workload increases and are able to act quickly when opportunities arise or challenges take you in a different direction. If you only rely on independent contractors and need urgent help, your preferred contractor might be unavailable or it might cost you a lot more to hire one last-minute. And because part-time or casual staff may not be as committed to the job as a full-timer, absenteeism may be higher causing you even greater staffing headaches.

With full time employees it’s also easier to establish and maintain your business’s culture such as the way you conduct business, your attitudes, beliefs and values. Ultimately this reflects how people perceive your business and distinguishes your offering from others. But probably the biggest advantage of having full time employees is that the hourly wage is often much less because they have job security and are paid entitlements. If you were to hire a contractor to do the same work you would expect to pay quite a bit more.