In the past five years, team leasing has taken such a strong position in the international labor market that 90% of all companies resorted to hiring employees through leasing agencies in one form or another. And the number of agencies providing such services annually increases by one and a half times. Team leasing may be a useful approach for your company as well.

 

What does your company benefit from hiring employees through team leasing?

The legislation governing labor relations within the framework of team leasing is more flexible than the labor codes of different countries. In essence, such labor agreements are a compromise between the need to protect the rights of employees and, at the same time, to relieve employers of restrictions that are a relic of the era of great union wars. This is especially true when one considers the mafia’s role in setting many of the rules of the day. So, the main positive factors of team leasing are:

• Releasing the HR department of your company from a long and often unreasonably expensive procedure for finding specialists;
• Exclusion of resource-intensive costs for maintaining various forms of accounting and reporting – personnel, financial, and others;
• Moving any claims (including lawsuits) to the leasing agency’s zone of responsibility. And, accordingly, the complete release of the employer from such excesses;
• Providing the employer with a trial period not limited by time and additional obligations for studying the employee, in case he is planned to be further enrolled in the state;
• Withdrawal from the list of company expenses of deductions for temporary disability of an employee and payment for forced downtime.

It is important to note that such contracts also protect the rights of employees, including the right to vacation and, in some cases, the payment of medical insurance. However, since the employee’s contract is concluded with a leasing agency, the employer does not bear any additional responsibility or extra expenditures.

In addition, since this form of labor relations implies high flexibility and mobility, students, specialists with narrow qualifications, and high-level professionals willingly use its advantages. For some, it is easier to change jobs regularly while maintaining a high overall income level than going to the same company daily.

Is everything so smooth? Tell us about the pitfalls!

Of course, speaking about the obvious advantages of team leasing, it would be dishonest not to mention the (possible) negative nuances of this form of hiring employees. As they say: “Our shortcomings are an extension of our virtues.” So, if you use the services of a leasing agency for the selection and hiring of personnel, you should be prepared for the following:

1. Foremost, do not forget that agency’s commission will be included in the salary of such an employee or such employees. This means that, ceteris paribus, you will have to pay an employee of a specific qualification more than the same specialist in your staff. However, take into account that: 

• Firstly, among your full-time employees, there may not be such an expert. 
• Secondly, the salary you pay under team leasing is considered by law as your expenses, since it is drawn up as a payment to the agency for its services. 
• Thirdly, individual employees or entire teams have often been hired this way for a strictly limited period. They either strengthen your own team or carry out a particular project, after which you part with them. 

By the way, in the course of such work, you can take a closer look at their business and communicative qualities and offer a permanent job in your company.

1. The loyalty of external temporary employees is always lower than the corporate solidarity of members of a permanent team. However, non-disclosure of information obtained during work by the body or team leasing contract can be easily guaranteed by signing the appropriate legal document.

In addition to all of the above, it should also be noted that, most likely, you will have to invest certain resources – if not finance, then indeed time – in preparing an employee hired in this way to introduce him as a team member. If we are talking about team leasing, especially if this team is international, you will need some time to familiarize these people with your corporate rules and, as the military says, to get them in line. Ultimately, you invest in the formation of additional experience for such employees and, as a result, an increase in their market value as highly qualified specialists. However, having acquired, so to speak, surplus value, they leave you.

This is neither good nor bad. Just accept it as a fact.

The practice of outsourcing has been around for a very long time. Why has team leasing suddenly appeared?

This question is absolutely natural. And, if all the advantages and risks of team leasing, it is safe to say that for companies that do not have their own experience and trained personnel in the development of specific projects, outsourcing will be the best solution. In this case, the customer clearly formulates his requirements, then, together with the contractor, draws up a technical task and receives the finished product.

However, this approach is unlikely to suit managers who have sufficient qualifications to control the development of the project at each of its stages. Most often, such companies resort to body leasing or team leasing to attract narrow-profile specialists to add them to an already existing group of in-house developers, or to use an external team as a unit integrated into a current team.

Therefore, of course, no one but you, as a leader, can say what form of work will be optimal for you.

Summing up

Needless to say, there are no ideal solutions. An approach that fits seamlessly in one situation may be completely unacceptable in another. With many obvious and unconditional advantages, team leasing has several particularities that, upon closer examination, can make you completely abandon this form of hiring employees. However, in most cases, if you take out purely subjective factors, the points that bother you can be levelled with the help of well-written legal documents signed before granting access to your industrial or corporate secrets.