As lockdown eases across the country, the engineering and manufacturing sectors are showing positive signs of the economy improving, with the PMI for manufacturing alone rising from 40.7 in May to 50.1 in June. So, as the industry begins to make its way back to recovery, businesses may be asking themselves these questions: ​How will you bounce back as a business?How as a business will you cope as the market continues to improve in the coming months? Are you nervous about increasing permanent headcount?How will you ensure that you can increase capability whilst there is still uncertainty? How will your recruitment strategy change?​How hiring an engineering contractor can help youHiring contractors is a great strategy to increase skills and grow teams especially when requirements are constantly changing. Contractors can be extremely useful in times like these as businesses try to balance their headcount and changing productivity levels. There are many benefits that contractors can provide to your organisation, and we’ve outlined them all for you here:​1.There is a large pool of skilled engineering contractors availableWe have been supporting the manufacturing industry for decades, which means we have built up an extensive database of contractors for our clients. We have contractors available across all types of roles, so whether its a hands-on manufacturing role or a senior appointment you need, we are able to deliver contractors suited to your exact requirements.​2.You can hire contractors quickly and safely through our Covid-19 safe hiring processOur new innovative hiring technology ATA Connect, allows us to remotely record interviews which are instantly available to you through the ATA Connect portal. This gives you a first look at the contractor prior to your interview with them, dramatically reducing the time to hire while operating safely during the pandemic. ​Here is what one of our clients thinks of ATA Connect: "Our team at Terex found the ATA-Connect extremely helpful towards filling one of our recent vacant roles. The video software gave us the opportunity to be involved right from the beginning and have increased visibility and control of the shortlisting process. The video screening was not only super-fast and efficient but also made the whole experience a lot more personal and interactive. I would definitely recommend it for any business and candidates who want to make the most out of the process.”​3.End to end solutionATA Recruitment has an end to end portal solution to keep all of your contractor information in one place. Whether that be live vacancies, CV submissions from various recruitment agencies, spend analysis, timesheet approvals and invoicing. You can utilise this portal as a neutral vendor or as a managed service provider, making it a flexible and versatile solution. ​4.Reduced time to hireATA Contract has an average time to hire of 4.5 days from vacancy brief to offer acceptance. This shows that you can access those niche-skills quickly, making your business flexible and ready to cope with increases and decreases in demand.​5.Contractors are a flexible resourceThe great benefit of using contractors is that you can engage with them quickly and release them quickly. Usually, contractors have a very short notice period and the process to let them go isn’t complex, you are paying for a service and if you decide you no longer need that service, you can stop using it. Contractors understand the nature of this and know they could one day be engaged on a contract and the next let go.​6.It isn’t as expensive as you thinkIt’s impossible to determine the cost of hiring an engineering contractor – this will completely depend on the experience they have, the work required, and the sector they’ll be operating in. You may panic when you see a daily contract rate, but keep in mind that there are no other costs involved, such as holiday pay or sick pay. The contractor is only paid for the time they work, which is great value for money, considering how sickness pay alone can impact your annual salary bill.​7.Payroll is coveredContractors are typically paid weekly, and we have a fantastic back office team that manages this all for you. All you have to do is, approve the timesheets and we’ll do the rest. We will make sure there are no issues with the contractors pay and any queries will be dealt with by the team directly with the contractor. ​8.Risk mitigated by ATA RecruitmentOur compliance team are excellent at mitigating risk, we have everything covered from making the sure the contractors has the right level of insurance through to IR35. Our consultants are fully trained to offer your business advice on a process to allow you to arrive at the correct SDS (Status Determination Statement) for the contractor.​If you would like to find out more about how a contractor can support your business, whether its now or something you may be considering for the future, please contact us by completing the form below or emailing info@ata-recruitment.co.uk. We would love to hear from you and discuss how we could help you.​​

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