Should a company hire consultants or use contract staffing service?

Using services of consultants
A question before companies while hiring employees is, what should they do if they do not want to hire permanent employees. One option for them is to hire a consultant to do the work. A consultant is not a full-time employee and is assigned certain work to complete. The consultant works with the company until the work or project is complete. Once the work is done, the consultant’s services can be ended.
Usually, companies have a contract with consultants that specify how long they will work and how much they will be paid. The consultant would work as per the contract. The obvious benefit of working with consultants is that work can be taken up only for the duration needed. During other times, there is no need to pay the consultant as his contract period would be over.
Working with contract staffing
On the other hand, contract staffing provided by Staffing companies in India would take care of the manpower requirement of companies. They would recruit and select skilled people in particular areas of work. They would then depute the employees to work at the company’s office. The Staffing solutions company in India would keep the selected employees on their payroll and they would work at the company’s site only when there is work.
Comparison
There are both similarities and differences between consultants and contract staff. Let’s first take a look at the similarities:
•    Both contract staff and consultants will work for a company only there is an assignment/project to be completed.
•    Both would be paid only for the duration when work is done. Unlike full-time employees, they need not be paid every month.
While these are the similarities, there are many differences between consultants and contract staff deputed by a Staffing solutions company in India:
•    Consultants work on their individual capacity while contact staff members are employees of Staffing companies in India.
•    Selecting consultants is a cumbersome process as candidates need to be shortlisted, selected, and then a contract signed. All this has to be done by the organization. In the case of contract staff, the organization need not do anything. The contract staffing firm will take care of everything for them.
•    Records and statutory procedures like deduction of tax and making contracts with individual consultants have to be done by the company. In case of contract staff, the staffing company would take care of everything.
•    Consultants are not employees and hence controlling and managing them may be challenging. Contract staff are employees working for the contract staffing firm and hence managing them is easy.
•    If the company is not happy with a consultant’s service, they have to terminate the contract, which may lead to legal action. They then have to search for another consultant. In contract staffing, the staffing firm will replace an employee if the company is not satisfied.
The comparison makes it evident that contract staffing has more advantages for a company as compared to hiring a consultant to work for them.