Staffing is a pretty imperative process in all organizations. Appropriate staffing is like a well-oiled machine that can make the business run efficiently and smoothly. Hiring and retaining good resources is a must to ensure the success of running a business. 

With the changing times and businesses, staffing needs to evolve too. The post-pandemic world had workplaces adopting new strategies to ease the various changes that had occurred. Dynamic staffing is one such strategy that is being sought after now.

Considering how employees are now looking for better work-life balance, companies operating remotely across the world, and businesses looking for staff to work around the clock to cover clients from across various time zones, dynamic staffing can offer the panacea for them all. 

Dynamic staffing is a revolutionary model of staffing that can save a business from wasting away its resources while allowing the employees to have some flexibility.

 What is Dynamic Staffing?

Dynamic staffing is the method of hiring resources based on the changing needs and schedules of a business. This method offers flexibility for both the company and its employees. The differences in workload and business flow can be handled efficiently with a dynamic staffing model.

Although dynamic staffing has been around for a while, it has gotten a renewed place in the spotlight now due to the pandemic and the changes that came with it.

Dynamic staffing approaches can be classified into the following:

1. Contract staffing: Opting to hire staff on a contract basis, to temporarily fill up a role that needs to be filled immediately is a type of dynamic staffing. The contract would usually end by the end of the project.

2. Freelance hiring: Freelance platforms have now enabled companies to access a pool of freelancers, who can be hired based on the project timeline and commitment, expertise, and budget. Freelancers almost exclusively work remotely.

3. Seasonal staffing: Businesses can hire staff just for the peak season for additional manpower to handle projects. The timelines can be critical and to meet them additional/seasonal staffing is the solution.

4. Cross-training: Some businesses train a few permanent employees on different tasks and skills, enabling them to lend a hand whenever necessary and work across different departments and projects.

5. Internal Pool: Maintaining a pool of resources, who are ready at the drop of the hat to get reassigned to different projects and taking up crucial ones is a dynamic staffing strategy too. These last two approaches help in efficiently utilizing the permanent employees and not looking for external hiring.

What are the advantages of following a dynamic staffing method?

Dynamic staffing, as opposed to the traditional staffing method, can be beneficial to organizations in various ways. Let us delve further into the advantages it offers.

1. Cost-efficient: Following a dynamic staffing approach can save big bucks for organizations, as the cost of hiring and retaining a full-time employee with no influx of work during long periods can be avoided. Hiring temporary/seasonal/freelance staff or using the internal employees with the cross-training or internal pool method, can prove cost-effective in the long run.

With contract and seasonal employees, they are paid only for their period of work and not for waiting around the clock for the next workload to come in. While freelance workers are hired, the cost necessary to provide the infrastructure is also reduced, as freelancers prefer to work remotely. 

2. Complete Productivity: With staff recruited for peak seasons and the permanent employees engaged in their regular work year-round, productivity is good throughout. When productivity is good and all the project timelines are met on time, the business is on the path to success. 

With the approach of cross-training employees, productivity is even doubled as those employees can work on and guide the other team members on the projects.

3. Employee Flexibility and Productivity: When there are different clients across the world, the organization keeping employees working on different shifts available for their clients 24/7 is also a bonus. For example, employee A is in the early morning shift and employee B takes over at noon. 

Employee C takes over in the night and goes on to work until the early hours. When the company is forthright about the shift timings for work and offers flexibility to the employees later on, they would be willing to take up the shifts initially.

While additional staff are hired, the regular staff can opt for a short break. The season’s productivity will also not go for a toss, as there are resources allocated to the project. 

Offering remote working conditions will also help in satisfying the employees, as some of them may feel more productive and calmer in their home environment. 

This will ensure goodwill amongst employees and good satisfaction levels, leading to better productivity. With people looking for more flexible working conditions, this will be an added advantage during the staffing process as the candidates will prefer a workplace with flexible conditions rather than a rigid system.

Conclusion

Dynamic staffing has certain advantages that we have elaborated upon. However, it is advisable to do your due diligence prior to applying this approach to your organization’s staffing process. If the approach is ill-suited to your line of business, then it is better to avoid implementing any changes to your existing method.