With demand for contractors still riding high in most sectors, many recruitment agencies are focusing on retention, as it can be difficult to replace contractors who move on to alternative contracts. In many cases, high demand has coincided with a shift in contractors’ priorities, which can make both recruitment and retention even more of a challenge. So, how can recruiters improve retention rates in this highly competitive environment?
Why has retention become more difficult?
A few factors have come together to create a particular challenge for recruitment agencies in the contracting sector.
High demand for contractors
The first is high demand; in most sectors end clients are simply looking to hire more contractors than are available. This means your contractors are likely to have more choice about which contracts they accept, and you might find yourself competing with attractive offers from elsewhere.
IR35 Reform
The second factor is the “bedding in” of IR35 reform, which came into force in April 2022. Your clients, rather than your contractors, now have responsibility for assessing IR35 status. Most contractors will have a strong preference for contracts where they fall outside the scope of IR35, which can make it difficult to fill roles that are likely to fall inside. If your client is using blanket inside assessments, or refusing to engage contractors through PSCs, this effect can be even more pronounced.
The pandemic
The third factor that could be affecting your retention figures is the aftermath of the pandemic. Many contractors got used to working from home and demonstrated that their work can be completed remotely. Having seen how much time they save by not commuting, many are reluctant to return to working at client sites all the time.
The pandemic also created a shift in priorities for many contractors, who are now much more likely to consider their work-life balance, and wellbeing in general, when making career decisions. In this environment, you can pay competitive rates and still struggle to compete for contractors if your clients are unwilling to be flexible about remote working, or your contractors believe they’ll be treated better elsewhere.
Give your clients the best advice
A number of the factors that might affect your retention rates are in your clients’ control rather than yours so you can achieve a lot by giving your clients the right advice. This could include:
Working with IR35 compliance experts to create an “IR35 friendly” environment, while assessing IR35 correctly
Offering contractors a choice of on site, remote and hybrid working
Being as flexible as possible regarding working patterns, to allow contractors to fit their work around their lives
Prioritise your contractors’ wellbeing
It’s well established that relationships are as important in business as they are in other aspects of life and you can expect your contractors to make business decisions based on how they feel about you, either individually or as a company. It follows that your contractors are much less likely to move on if they feel that they’re well treated and valued, specifically by you as their recruiter.
Where you prioritise their wellbeing and make a visible effort to look after them, they’ll be much more likely to stay with you for their next contract. Improving engagement in this way can improve a number of other metrics as well, including contractor sick days, the time agency staff spend managing queries, and satisfaction among your clients.
How Orange Genie can help
There are two main ways that we can help you retain contractors, and both work by managing the contractor’s experience so they’re less likely to think about moving on. Firstly, we get the basics right – we pay your contractors correctly and on time, every time. We’ve designed our systems and processes specifically so that your contractors know when they’ll be paid, and they don’t have to chase. We also focus on the experience of dealing with us, and we regularly invite honest feedback, so when your contractors do have a query, they feel good about how it was resolved and how they were treated.
The other way we can help is by providing resources to your contractors, to help them to look after their own wellbeing, and to make them feel valued. To this end, our extraordinary contractor benefits program, Orange Genie Edge, contains a wide range of benefits and services designed to help your contractors make their money go further, care for themselves and their families, and get more out of life s a contractor. Since the launch of Orange Genie Edge it has proved to be invaluable in improving engagement and retention for our agency partners.
If you’re not with us yet and have questions about this issue, or if we can help in any way, please contact our expert team on 01296 468 483 or email info@orangegenie.com.