Define Staffing Contingency Plans in Projects

According to Workforce Management, contingent staff are temporary and contract workers who don't get the same benefits as full-time and permanent employees, but often work alongside these employees. The use of contingent labor has increased since 2009. Staffing contingency plans involve considering many different issues to create a suitable contingency plan for projects.

Staff Experience

Staffing contingency plans involve researching each project team members' experience and how that affects the project. By knowing who has specific educational and work experience, you can make better decisions about the contingency plans and suitable staff replacements. If there's enough time, potential replacements can be trained so that they have the same or similar knowledge as the person who is no longer on the project.

Staff Location

Some contingency plans are affected by the location of project members. For example, in order for staff to run voting stations during an election, contingent staff should be located all over the geographic area. Having a leader travel from place to place to manage staff is also another prudent practice for staffs that are in widely spread out location. Some projects can benefit by keeping staff on-call to work as needed.


Staffing contingency plans should consider maintenance throughout a project. Project managers create maintenance plans to handle further changes in staffing during the project, according to toolbox. Maintenance plans dictate how to recruit more staff, training and redefining skills needed on a project. Staff maintenance helps a project stay on schedule and on budget despite changes to staff.


Contingency staffing is commonly used in special situations like completing a project during a strike by union employees. This allows the company to function during the strike and provide more time to develop an agreement with its permanent employees. Contingency staffing can reduce project costs since these workers don't require as much as permanent employees.