Opportunities, Challenges of Third-Party Labor

More integration companies are looking to subcontractors to fill the gaps on jobs, but managing contractors isn’t always easy.

Third-party labor in the systems integration world is nothing new.

Many companies have been calling in reinforcements for decades, in fact. But, in the years since the recession crippled many integrators’ ability to keep their staffing levels where they’d been in the past, contractors have become critical to the survival of many small- and medium-size integrators — and some of the big boys too.

How do integrators decide when to enlist third-party labor? Where do they find the workers? What are some of the pros and cons of subcontracting?

These and other issues are some key concerns that integrators continue to address as they consider supplementing their own technician force with third-party labor.

“I’ve heard great stories about [companies hiring third-party labor] and I’ve heard horror stories about it too,” says NSCA executive director Chuck Wilson. “Some companies love working with their own crews. Others have always outsourced.”

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