Hybrid Workforce Strategies: How Organisations Successfully Blend Permanent and Temporary Staff
In today’s dynamic labour market, many organisations have already adopted some form of hybrid workforce model — combining permanent employees with a range of contingent workers such as temporary agency staff, freelancers, and contractors. While this approach was once seen as innovative, it has now become an established way for businesses to balance agility, cost efficiency, and access to skills.
According to recent research by Gartner, around 32% of organisations are using contingent workers to fill vacancies left by full-time employees, while a 2024 SIA report shows that agency work continues to represent a significant portion of global employment.
Why hybrid workforce models have become standard
Several factors continue to drive widespread adoption of hybrid staffing strategies:
- Economic volatility: Organisations need flexibility to scale their workforce up or down as business conditions shift.
- Talent shortages: For many specialist roles, contingent workers offer faster access to scarce expertise.
- Project-based work: Short-term projects often require temporary staffing alongside core teams.
- Worker preferences: Many professionals actively choose freelance, contract, or part-time arrangements for greater autonomy.
Rather than viewing contingent staffing as simply “filling gaps”, businesses increasingly see it as a strategic tool for meeting evolving workforce demands while optimising operational costs.
RPO, on the other hand, involves outsourcing all or part of a company’s permanent recruitment process. An RPO provider manages talent sourcing, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and employer branding. The goal is to enhance permanent talent acquisition efficiency, quality, and scalability.
The challenges of managing blended workforces
Despite the clear benefits, managing a hybrid workforce presents its own complexities:
- Visibility and reporting: Without unified data, tracking workforce composition, costs, and supplier performance becomes fragmented.
- Compliance: Worker classification, tax rules, and employment law obligations vary widely across regions — particularly in Europe.
- Cost control: Lack of transparency around contingent workforce spend can lead to hidden costs and inefficiencies.
- Supplier management: Coordinating multiple staffing agencies, freelancers and internal teams requires streamlined processes.
For example, regulations like the EU’s Posted Workers Directive, IR35 in the UK, and local agency work laws continue to evolve, making compliance management particularly important. The European Labour Authority regularly monitors cross-border employment practices across the EU.
How technology supports successful hybrid models
Technology plays a central role in helping organisations and staffing agencies manage the complexity of hybrid workforces effectively. Vendor Management Systems (VMS) such as Pixid VMS are specifically designed to simplify the contingent side of this equation.
A VMS helps by:
- Providing real-time visibility into contingent staffing activities, costs, and supplier performance.
- Standardising processes across departments, locations, and legal entities.
- Ensuring compliance through automated rule enforcement, audit trails, and documentation.
- Controlling costs by capturing total spend data and enabling informed negotiation with staffing suppliers.
- Facilitating agency collaboration to streamline requisitions, candidate submissions, timesheets, and invoicing.
For staffing agencies, VMS solutions also strengthen client relationships by delivering data transparency, improved responsiveness, and ongoing performance insights.
Conclusion: A long-term workforce strategy
The hybrid workforce model is no longer a trend — it’s simply how many organisations operate today. But as hybrid models mature, the need for robust processes, clear visibility, and compliance oversight becomes more important than ever.
With the right technology infrastructure — such as Vendor Management Systems — businesses can confidently manage their blended workforces, balancing flexibility with control and positioning themselves for long-term growth.
