The value of leadership and expertise in a highly-specialized, demanding industry is unquestionable. Whether you’re in need of developmental and technical skills or marketing and creative abilities, the quality of hire is paramount. While some continue to hire agencies to tackle the task at hand, an effective but expensive, even controversial option, others are now being made aware of alternative, more affordable ways to hire talent. One emerging alternative, especially when it comes to marketing and creative-based industries, is fractional and project-based hiring. In what follows, we’ll be discussing what fractional, project-based hiring is, how it’s beneficial, and why it just might be just as, if not more effective than the agency route. If this sounds like something your business or brand could benefit from learning more about, continue reading!
What Is Fractional Hiring?
In the face of the growing digital landscape and the persistent rise of the internet, opportunities have emerged that haven’t before been available. With the traditional 9-5 job structure slowly perishing and the emergence of online opportunities, many are shifting their focus to remote, freelance-like job opportunities.
Not only is this beneficial for the contractor, providing them with a flexible, freeing career path that will return them salaries comparable to traditional 9-5s, but this type of hire happens to be quite beneficial for businesses and brands alike. More on this shortly…
With that said, this is what fractional or project-based hiring refers to: By definition, a fractional hire or project-based employee is one who spreads their time across multiple employers and projects. While they share many similarities with freelancers, fractional hires tend to have a longer duration contract and are known to be experts in their respective fields
The Benefits of Fractional Hiring
Fractional hiring is extremely beneficial for startups and large corporations alike, and not just because of its comparatively affordable nature to that of agencies or full-time in-house employees.
Withstanding the notion that it’s all but redundant to invest in full-time, in-house employees in today’s digital age, fractional hires offer the unique advantage of filling specific skill-based gaps, whatever those gaps might be for your business. Think of fractional hiring as a means of having access to an expert without the obligatory investment that we’ve come to expect from a full-time CFO, CMO, or Agency.
Because fractional hires spread their time across departments, projects, and employers, they also come with a unique advantage; broad knowledge of a specific skill/niche/industry. Aside from their evident expertise, they also come with untapped industry knowledge that you and your business/brand might not behold.
Finally, unlike freelancers, fractional hires do have an interest in long-term employment with the opportunity of potentially joining your company full-time in the future. Why is this good news for you as a brand or business looking to hire a fractional contractor?
Simply put, not only does it allow you to take a given talent for a test run before committing to any full-time, long-term contracts, but it also provides reassurance that the person you are hiring is internally motivated to bring the highest value that they can offer; freelancers, on the other hand, are simply motivated enough to complete a given project, with little to no guarantee of quality work.
Agencies are Expensive, Hire Fractionally Instead…
With its origins in the startup world, fractional hires tend to be most suitable, generally speaking, for startups. Why? Because of startups’ lack of long-term capital to hire a full-time leader, but also because of their lack of bandwidth to properly onboard, train, and ultimately pay for a full-time top expert, running the risk of both time, money, and opportunities lost.
With that said, whether you can afford it or not, why spend an arm and a leg for a full-time in-house executive or agency when you can get the same value at a fraction of the cost for a fraction of the time?
While it depends greatly on where your business is in terms of growth trajectory and why your goals are, fractional hiring may or may not be suitable for you. But, as more and more businesses learn about fractional hiring, understanding quickly how efficient and effective it is, there’s no doubt that it will become commonplace. Having an individual who boasts the exact skill that you’re in need of and who has the internal motivation to execute to the best of their ability is invaluable compared to an agency that may or may not market a level of expertise that they don’t actually behold.
Finally, hiring agencies are inevitably expensive, sometimes justified, but, oftentimes not…So, consider hiring fractionally instead; it’s the best of both worlds if you ask us!