10 Reasons Your Business Should Be Employing Part-time Staff

It pays to hire part-time staff. As well as being a cost-effective way to gain skills for your business, part-time employees are productive, loyal and hardworking.

Here are ten reasons why businesses should consider employing part-time staff now:

1. Achieve your targets

If you want to grow your business but still need vital skills in certain areas, recruiting part-time can help you achieve this. Whether it’s boosting your bottom line, upping your output or alleviating pressure on existing teams so they can perform at a higher level, employing part-time staff can help you to achieve your targets faster.

2. Impress your clients

You can enhance your offering by giving clients access to greater expertise and assistance. For smaller businesses, this can be very attractive as you can reassure potential customers of your ability to do a great job. Some businesses like to look bigger than they are, and part-time workers can help them to achieve this, particularly if clients tend to visit your offices on set days of the week.

3. Get on top of projects

By employing part-time staff, you can tackle side-lined projects you’ve been meaning to focus on for ages but never quite got around to it. A part-time worker can give attention to the jobs that are often overlooked or side-lined because of time pressures elsewhere in the business.

4. Support existing teams

Whether it’s assisting with a marketing plan, managing a new project or improving your IT infrastructure, part-time professionals can bring focus and energy to your workplace. Or if your existing team is feeling pressurised, part-timers can help to support and give them the space to perform at a higher level.

5. Increase productivity

In our experience, part-time workers are intently focused on the task in hand and performing it to the best of their abilities, so productivity levels are high. A survey by BT in 2014 found that the productivity of flexible workers increased by 30%. And in a study of flexible workers undertaken by University2, 97% of managers said the quality of work improved or stayed the same.

6. Recruit cost-effectively

By bringing in part-time workers, you can get additional resource for a smaller price tag than a full-time worker. Even offering a role on four days per week gives a 20% salary saving and 30 hours per week goes a long way.

“We’ve recruited three flexible workers now and our business is thriving as a result. We could never have afforded the level of talent employing full-time workers.”  Alexander Arpino, MD, Veterinary Insights

7. Fill your hard-to-fill role

It’s our experience that part-time work is hard to come by for most employees, and yet it is well known that part-time work is in demand, particularly amongst women and parents. Yet as our Flexible & Proud Report found, part-time and flexible work is a struggle to find.

So if you employ part-time staff, you’ll open up the talent pool and have access to high-quality candidates who are available more readily than if you only recruit full-time employees. And that can be invaluable if your role is hard to fill – perhaps due to location, industry or because you require a niche skillset.

8. Boost diversity in the workplace

Along the same lines as the point before, it should be noted that the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Commission has stated that flexible working for all lies at the heart of addressing the gender pay gap.

Part-time roles that can be done at a senior level are so important in assisting diversity in the workplace – with huge benefits to businesses who encourage it. In fact, McKinsey says that gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to achieve returns above the industry average.

9. Cover a period of absence

A part-time worker can be a good way to bridge the gap when you don’t want to hire a full-time member of staff or commit to a full-time contractor. For example, if someone goes on sabbatical or maternity leave. It can be useful to have an additional member of staff who is on board with team processes just in case further cover is required down the line.

10. Encourage mentoring

A part-time worker can be a breath of fresh air in the workplace. A new person coming in for part of the week can bring all sorts of benefits, motivating staff and providing mentoring opportunities. Many of the part-time staff we know are often very senior, experienced individuals.

But they’re not seeking to steal anyone’s jobs, rather they want to use their skills and are happy to impart knowledge to less experienced members of staff. This can be valuable for keeping your existing team inspired and happy.

Talk to us about employing part-time staff for your business today

If you’d like to discuss your recruitment options with our specialist part-time and flexible recruitment agency, please contact us today. We have lots of great candidates across a wide variety of industries all waiting to find fulfilling and rewarding roles in companies like yours.