The 5 W's of Building a Flexible Workforce

Even though contractors, freelancers and remote workers are commonplace in today’s workforce, creating a dependable, expert team is still difficult. Various studies continue to highlight this challenge, such as Manpower’s 2024 study indicating 76% of consumer goods & services employers surveyed are struggling to fill open roles, with collaboration/teamwork being the most difficult soft skill to find.  

What could a highly functional team look like? Below, we’ll explore JPG Talent’s 5 W’s of building a flexible workforce.  

What does a flexible workforce look like?  

JPG’s definition of a flexible workforce is a mix of full-time, part-time, and contract or fractional employees.  

Recent research by Owl Labs highlights the trend towards more flexible working arrangements, with Korn Ferry’s study confirming that the percentage of organizations’ full-time, in-office policies has dropped from 89% to 43% in the last five years.  

A flexible workforce can offer the right balance for fast-growing businesses in a few ways. The full-time staff create a dependable foundation and consistent company knowledge. Part-time workers can fill in daily operations that don’t require 40 hours a week to maintain.  

Fractional experts can provide expert, strategic expertise to solve specialized issues. They can also step in quickly to fill resource gaps, allowing your company to continue daily operations while you search for a great replacement.  

JPG Talent receives many questions on fractional expertise, especially who a fractional expert is and what they do.

Who is considered a fractional expert?

A fractional expert joins your company on a part-time or per project basis, providing specialized expertise to fill temporary skill gaps, solve urgent needs, or navigate a project through a tricky phase.  

They can be a cost-effective solution to traditional, full-time hires. Since they aren’t accruing years of a high salary with benefits, a company can still tap into high-quality skills at a fraction of the cost. You simply hire for the time you need. These experts are onboarded quicker than a typical recruitment process and can help achieve specific goals without significant time and resource commitment.  

Fractional experts bring decades of specific, industry knowledge to team collaborations. They help bridge talent gaps and provide key area insights when needed. Their versatility leads to JPG’s next frequently asked question - where exactly can a company benefit from utilizing fractional talent in a flexible workforce?

Where can you use temporary help to boost a team’s productivity?  

Fractional talent can step in any aspect of a project timeline, from ideation to commercialization to M&A. They provide invaluable help when your team needs fresh innovative thinking, additional flexibility, or core competency focus.  

As stated in the “what” section, a flexible workforce can drive innovation. Every project, no matter how well-laid out, will experience roadblocks and unforeseen challenges. Your full-time team can often work towards a solution, but if you find yourself stumbling into new territory you may need someone more removed (think part-time or contract) to bring a fresh perspective, clarity, and direction to cross functional meetings.  

Bringing in short-term support can allow your team to stay focused on their core competencies. Overloading your team can lead to increased mistakes and a culture of firefighting. When part-time support can take daily tasks from managers, managers can focus on strategic long-term planning to support scale up and increased product orders, decreasing the daily fires.

When does your business need to bring in additional help?  

Notable signs that point to the need for additional help include filling in resource gaps, managing tight budgets, and leveling up for growth.  

Touched on in the prior section, when team members become overstretched and have to work outside of their wheelhouse, they can’t focus on what they’re best at. Providing additional team support can keep your business running smoothly which allows the leaders to focus on strategic issues. We’ve seen a lot of success with this in the operations and fulfillment departments.  

When budgets are tight, it’s vital to invest each dollar efficiently and effectively. Cuts tend to be made to areas not seen as mission critical. Bringing in fractional or contract talent still comes at a price, but you’re only paying for the expertise needed to complete a specific initiative and the time it takes to implement.

How exciting to see business growth! Increased orders come with increased workloads, and your business needs adequate staff to fulfill orders and provide an excellent customer experience. Traditional hiring processes can be quite drawn out; by the time you’ve successfully onboarded a new hire, your organization may have outgrown staffing needs once again or pivoted in a new direction. However, fractional talent can immediately fill gaps. This doesn’t mean you stop hiring, but as you grow, they can provide needed support while you onboard your next long-term hire.

Why should your business think about a flexible workforce?

A flexible workforce can offer many benefits, mainly increased speed and responsiveness to challenges, improved cost efficiency and productivity, and access to specialized industry expertise.  

The main challenges we referenced included sudden upticks in orders and bridging gaps while a new employee is found. Having a blend of flexible workers lessens the impact these and other changes have. Ultimately, a flexible workforce assists the ability to scale along with operations and the agility to evolve as supply chain needs fluctuate.

Flexible working arrangements also keep costs manageable while boosting productivity. You balance hiring needs with incoming revenue when you pay a few workers only for a few necessary tasks. You boost productivity by bringing in an expert to solve a specific issue, instead of taking someone from their normal role, pitting them against a learning curve, and then expecting fast, expert results.

Unfortunately, there remains the industry misconception that contract hires are always more expensive than internal resources. Specialist experience does come at a premium, but when you bring in an expert who can execute immediately, you may get a far higher return on investment.  

These experts are highly skilled, mission-oriented, and project-based. They quickly assess the situation based on previous experiences and strategize from day one. They can provide industry expertise because they’ve solved multitudes of issues in different environments in the area you need help with; they have a keen sense of what can and will go wrong, and how to navigate around those pitfalls while developing your full-time team’s knowledge.  

How do I get started hiring fractional talent?

JPG Resources has the best in the business and will match you with the right expert for your specific needs. As an established F&B strategy and execution firm, we have experience at every stage of a company’s growth. We support our talent and our clients until the job is done, and any fractional hire we source is backed up by our entire team.  

Find out more about how JPG Talent can help your business grow with fractional experts.